Book Review: If On a Winters Night a Traveler

I finally finished this terrible book.

The book tells of a reader (referred to as you) who cannot get his hands on a complete copy of any novel. Half of the book was in second person, which is really annoying to read. I don't like to be told what I did or didn't do or what I do or don't feel(mostly don't as I'm heartless and cold). The book's other half was beginnings of novels that cut off abruptly. These came in the form of interspersed ten page chapters. The first few pages of each was a struggle. I had to get used to new characters and an emerging plot. By the eighth page I would gain interest. Then the story ended.

Italo Calvino is the author. He's Italian. With no prior information one could predict he was European by the unnecessary amount of sex in the novel. As an American I was offended. He grew up in Cuba too, so he was probably a communist.

I'm not sure what the point of this book was. It was an exercise in frustration. I only finished it to prove I'm literate to this blog. After all, my only previous book review has been Hitchhiker, and that was based off a radio serial. I have developed a theory. I think Calvino had writer's block and so he stitched together the beginnings of several unfinished stories and passed them off as one complete and innovative new form of literature (the same as I will one day do with the unrelated postings in this blog).

A student recommended this book to me. I want to tell him I read it so he will think I'm cool. Maybe then he'll write a glowing letter to Professor Norton about me. How else can I win one of the Chemistry Department's yearly teaching awards. After all, they only give out eight. But since I hated the book, I guess I'll keep quiet.