Review -- If on a winter's night a traveler (Italo Calvino)

Out of an awkward feeling of altruism, I'm suggesting, though vaguely reluctant, to take what I'm about to suggest about this particular novel with, as they say, "a grain of salt," (though I am distinctly unsure of the original meaning of the previously utilized phrase).

Italo Calvino was a Cuban-born Italian author who just rocked my world. Rocked it, like, hard. I've never had the pleasure (O, what a pleasure!) to read a novel by the author before this one, but, I assure you, I shall be indulging in the whole library of his work at the next earliest convenience (or inconvenience, for that matter). This novel, which is written in a very particular style (it alternates between chapters of second person and chapters of first person) is the story of a Reader attempting to finish a book, which is, ironically, Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, despite the numerous obstacles. (As he reads the Reader discovers an error in the book and attempts to replace it, but finds, shortly thereafter, that he has been given a different book, which in turn is lost or destroyed or missing pages. He jumps from book to book in this manner.)

The novel is laced, quite miraculously, with the segments from the book the Reader is working on, and leaves the real reader -- you, me, whomever -- moments before a climax again and again and again. The connection between the reader and the Reader is so strong that I was desperate for him to succeed, desperate, devising ways to aid him in finding the end to a book. There is also such a strong connection between the author, Calvino, and the Author Calvino -- for the voice of the novel is that of an author doing an impression of himself -- that I constantly felt his breath of my shoulders, his eyes scanning me scanning the page, and repeatedly had to stop to investigate his presence. Breathtaking, or some other, better word.

There's is so little I can say without ruining the numerous small and large joys of the novel. The last little point I'll suggest is the incredible skill of the author in utilizing foreshadowing, capitalizing (with huge gains) on previously referenced material and successfully linking together, thematically, shards of prose with the greater story.

Whereas I warned you reader, Reader, to avoid taking my high praise too seriously, now I suggest something altogether different. Read it for yourself. I do not recommend this novel lightly or in passing. I suggest to you -- though it may be too soon to tell -- that it may have changed my way of thinking entirely and forever. I hope, though do not imply, that it will have the same affect on you.