Well Done to Italo Calvino's Great Idea

 Hi, Everyone. I hope you are all doing well. 

When I started this novel, I thought it would be just an ordinary story. As I started reading it, I thought it might be about this man who gets on a train on a winter's night and stops at places where he may have some adventures as he is a traveller and stops at a bar at his first stop. That's how much titles have significance on how we view and think about the novel, as discussed in the last class with Jon Beasley Murray when reviewing The Time of the Doves. However, as I read, I needed clarification on this book because I was confused when I got to chapter two. The story had stopped. I enjoyed the beginning and how it referred to us as the reader. I appreciated that instead of moving right into the story. It makes us more drawn to the story, and we learn how it is structured.

As I got to chapter two, I realized that the narrator told me that the book the reader is reading (not the book we are reading) repeats every 30 pages, not allowing the story to move on into a new chapter, helping the story progress. The following story starts Outside the town of Malbork. It is a narrative about violence and retribution in a small village in Poland. However, while the reader is reading, the book has two blank pages after every page, which needs to be clarified. Therefore, the reader goes to the bookstore and meets Ludmilla. Ludmilla has the same problem with her book, and Ludmilla accompanies the reader to the University, where they meet Professor Uzzi-Tuzii, who specializes in dead languages. The reader meets Ludmilla's sister, Lortaria, who I find is a remarkable character. Lortaria has a machine that analyzes and reads books. So cool! In one of the stories, the reader meets a woman called Karina after he has just gotten his book confiscated by the Police, and he suspects that Lortaria is Karina. I find that fascinating. However, the pages in the book that Karina gives the reader blows away. There is a pattern; after every book the reader receives or buys, the book can't be finished, as the author committed suicide or something randomly odd happens to the book that is out of the reader's control. All the books were either ripped apart, or there were missing pages or other circumstances, and the reader and even Ludmilla were getting frustrated. I would be, too, if this happened to all the books I found and tried to read. From what Professor Uzzi-Tuzii told the reader and Ludmilla, it was Morana doing this to these books to create chaos. Each chapter is a different book. And each book's title leads to another beginning of a book: On a Winter's Night Traveler. Once I figured that out, I was shocked. I loved how the book ended as the reader marries Ludmilla and they are in bed, and the reader says, "Just a moment, I've almost finished If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino." The book's writing could have been more straightforward, although the stories and plot was well done. Thanks to Italo Calvino for writing this novel. 

Discussion Question #1- What did you think about the changing stories but how certain parts of this book stayed the same such as the main characters and the plot them finding out the reason why Morana wanted to create chaos? 

Discussion Question #2- What do you think of how it all came together in the end for the book "If on a winter's night a traveler"? Did you find that captivating?