Hello everyone and happy Tuesday! this week I have decided to do something different than usual and structure my weekly blog post as a read-along with me. Here are my thoughts as I read If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino:
Check-in #1:
I am on page 75 and going strong. So far, the premise of this novel has me hooked. I love novels that play with the traditional structuring of books and that take you on journeys. I am sensing a theme where each book is introduced and then we get to just before the good part, or the climax before the section ends and “You” are on a hunt for the next part, which inevitably ends up as the next book. I am enjoying the plot behind the plot: the plot of the novels, then the aim to find a complete version of the novel, and finally the storyline between Ludmilla and “You”, or the protagonist. The book reminds me of Democracy by Joan Didion, one of my favourite books, as Calvino has also written himself into the book as the author of the first book the protagonist reads. Didion inserts herself into Democracy as both a character and the author, similar to what Calvino has done here, inserting himself into the book as The Author. I am excited to see where the plot goes!
Check-in #2:
I am officially at the halfway point and I am more confused than ever. The novel has taken a mysterious turn, although it has been a mystery since the beginning. Now Ermes Marana is introduced, along with the manuscript stealing sect he founded? It is quite confusing but very gripping. The novel has continued the search for the full, original version of any of the novels that are started and never finished in this book. All of them are honestly very intriguing and I am sharing the protagonist’s frustration and need to find a full version of any of these stories, even if the plot is the act of finding these stories. I do not know why but I am getting The DaVinci Code vibes from this novel, probably due to the literary scavenger hunt going on. Anyways, onto the next half!
Check-in #3:
The more I read the more confused I get. There is a beautiful passage written after I last gave my thoughts about how readers read each other’s bodies that I thoroughly enjoyed. Just as reading is learning new information, lovers read each other’s bodies to understand them and to enjoy their company. It was such an intimate section that I thought was lovely. As per the plot, things keep getting revealed in a way that brings the plot together. There is a chapter from a new perspective, that of Silas Flannery which calls back to the letters from Ermes Marana, watching a girl read on a hill (Ludmilla). It is rewarding to see things start to tie themselves up even if I am only 75% of the way through. Flannery also speaks of the importance of writing and the different ways of reading. There are so many different aspects of reading and writing and everyone has different expectations and reasons to read which was thought-provoking. In that same chapter, he mentions wanting to write a novel that consists only of the beginnings of novels, with an overarching plot, furthering the “bookception” idea. It really is meta.
Check-in #4:
I’ve finished it! Where do I even start? The book is probably one of my favourites I have read this semester even if I understood barely any of it. The whole notion of whether or not a book should have an ending is so intriguing, as one of the readers in chapter 11 points out, stories used to end only in death which is a reflection of life. The overarching plot was hard to follow because you jump back and forth so often but I appreciate the abstraction of the novel itself. I love that all of the titles of the books create a singular sentence, it was so satisfy and after a very confusing novel, it was wonderful to have it all tie in together. Overall I enjoyed this book and I hope you did too if you read it this week! There is so much about each section to break down and I will probably have to reread for it to make total sense to me. For this week’s question I’m going to ask you about the main theme of the novel: why do you read? what do you think is important about reading?
Thank you for reading!
– Len ❤
Len's Library 
Leave a comment