I’m keeping an eye on this man.
Italo Calvino is the true, bona fide intellectual author of 4th-wall-breaking mindfuckery. I’ve been rereading If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler — an intellectual variation of The Neverending Story for grown-ups, if you will.
“If it be your will…”
A historical look at the classic novel, maybe? Sure. A look at love and literature, spinning and dancing around one another? Yup. Ten narratives with infinite connections and an author that constantly keeps an eye on the reader, page after page, checking in with you but never making you feel too safe.
“From this broken hill/All your praises they shall ring…”
Can a reader make another author’s novel her own? Do we have that kind of power? I can’t explain quite yet how I’m growing from this novel, but the growth is likely to be exponential at this rate, and I plan to read all of his work in the years to come. Next, I’m planning on reading The Baron in the Trees, as it has sold me already on its charming, whimsical title.
Calvino, thank you for taking me under your arm. Or rather, thanks for promoting my own journey, if you will. If it be your will.
“If there is a choice/Let the rivers fill/Let the hills rejoice…”
(Lyrics taken from If it Be Your Will by one, Leonard Cohen.)