Percolations

Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore

I believe I must be a glutton for literary punishment or in the alternative, my reading passion is so great that I would even dare to think of reading Calvino!!

Imagine, if you can, an agonizing reading fever that can only be quenched by reading a book in one swallow. Thus will be the FEAST that awaits me.

If on a winter's night a traveler is a quintessentially postmodern piece of literature that is breathlessly inventive and at the same time, a reader’s nightmare. But, you may ask, what is this book about? It is about a reader trying to read a book. It is about the writer (Italo Calvino) who enters the mind of the reader and uses the text as a medium of making the reader think what he (the writer) wants him (the reader) to think.

When Calvino’s 260 pages arrives, I will savor each bite slowly and methodically, as you see, in these 260 pages there is no plot, literally. His chapters end abruptly, and no matter what you do there is no way to reach redemption.

Calvino is an acquired taste and not for the literary squeamish.

Trust that this book will not lose sight of you, the reader, as the first few sentences warn:

"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade.”