Italo Calvino (1923–1985)

If I was going to continue using my themed reading list, The Castle of Crossed Destinies would force me to ignore Italo Calvino novels when picking A Book From An Author You Love That You Haven't Read Yet. It is the second straight disappointing book of his I've read, after loving If on a winter's night a traveler.

As described in his Note at the end of the book, Calvino created the tales in this book from his own hand-selections from two historically significant decks of Tarot cards, organizing them into two sections. The first section, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, consists of seven tales told by a group of travelers who find themselves unexplainably mute in an ancient castle and can only communicate with each other through gestures and their own hand-selections of Tarot cards. The cards are described and interpreted as they are placed on the table the travelers share (e.g. the King of Coins, the Eight of Cups, Temperance), accompanied by drawings of the actual cards.

The second section, The Tavern of Crossed Destinies, mirrors the first in most respects—unexplainably mute travelers who find themselves thrown together in a strange setting—except that the references to the cards are more generic; for example, the denomination of a card is not provided, only its suit. This section also contains Calvino's metafictional insertion of himself into the book, attempting to tell his own tale through the cards. The titles in the Castle section read like morals to fables or Edgar Allan Poe stories (e.g. "The Tale of the Ingrate and His Punishment" and "The Tale of the Doomed Bride,"), while those in the Tavern section are more cryptic, merely describing what will occur within each (e.g. "The Waverer's Tale").

Perhaps Calvino is just too intellectual for me. He includes a plethora of historical references within the work without elaboration, expecting the reader to be familiar with the workings of Tarot and mythology, amongst other subjects. In the days before the internet, this seems like an unrealistic expectation of all but a select few. In his own tale, he spends an inordinate number of sentences referring to works of art by both well-known and obscure painters, comparing their treatments of various saints (particularly Saint George and Saint Jerome), and provides the galleries in which the paintings hang and occasionally the year of the painting.

As with his novel Invisible Cities, none of Calvino's details motivated me to research his historical references. Even the tales themselves are generally uninteresting. The tale tellers fight over specific cards each needs to relate his or her experience. Calvino seems to have found the infinite interpretations of the cards and their sequencing intriguing; to me, it merely adds to the self-amusing nature of a book I would not recommend.… (more)

"Ludmilla, herself reader of several books at once, to avoid being caught by the disappointment that any story might cause her, tends to carry forward, at the same time, other stories also...."

I love when a book has quotes that perfectly describe how I feel about something, but it's a rarity when a quote perfectly describes my feelings about the very book it's from.

Because unfortunately, I ended up skimming the last half of this book "to avoid being caught by the disappointment" this story was causing me. How meta - like the book itself.

Maybe it's not very ✨art student✨ of me, but this was a reminder that post-modernism is just not for me.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a book about books and reading. It starts out in second person, and describes the experience of reading, getting excited about a new book, but only to be interrupted multiple times in many ways. Very relatable and charming - at least to begin with. The "main character" gets into this new book, only to find there's something wrong with the binding and the story is left at a cliffhanger. But along his journey to find the rest of the book, he encounters many other unfinished books that are just as interesting but don't have endings. Oh, and we get to read the beginnings of all these books as well.

This process began to just get tedious, and I wasn't very invested after about the 6th or 7th iteration of this occurring. I'm glad to see so many people love this book, but kinda like how I feel about Hirst, Koons or Warhol - I can appreciate it but I don't necessarily seek it out.… (more)

Reread from a long time ago. He is a less learned version of Borges but really has more true psychological depth to his works. Both are equally fascinating.

Have to wonder if Wm Weaver did the best job in the translation though have not checked for alternatives.

Chapter 7 midway through has a delightful segway? about ways books are arranged in one's home and different categories of books.

Easy to see why some readers are offended by overt sexuality of later chapters, though I think it is so exotically/ esoterically descibed.

"Around an empty grave" parallels several Borges stories set in South America.… (more)