[Review Reaction] If on a winter's night a traveller - Italo Calvino

4 Questions about If on a winter's night a traveller

Colin and I have decided that the review reactions we've been doing have mostly been some strains of "I agree with the other person" and nothing super substantive. As a result, we've decided to instead ask each other a few questions about our views on the book. It should be more interesting. Here are my responses to Colin's questions for me. You can read Colin's reactions to my questions here.

1) What was the most enjoyable "novel" and the least? Why?

I'm going to cheat and pick two for my most enjoyable because there were two that I honestly would have loved to have kept reading. The first was In a network of lines that enlace, the story of the college professor that breaks into a house to answer the telephone. I think I liked that one because it felt like the kind of book I would read anyway, the book I would pick up at the library because it looked intriguing. My other favorite was Around an empty grave, the story of the cowboy that goes to find his mother. I really enjoyed that one because it wasn't the kind of book I would pick up randomly but by the end, I really wanted to know what was going on. I thought it had created a really interesting premise and I wanted to keep reading.

As for least favorite, I'm also going to have to go with In a network of lines that intersect. The main reason I have is that I honestly had no idea what was happening in most of it. It was one of those experiences where you're reading words and you think you're following along but you put it down after a paragraph and realize you have no idea what happened. I think this story had kaleidoscopes in it. Maybe.

2) As a female reader, how did you feel about the second person narrative when The Reader was clearly male?

To be honest, it really didn't faze me. When you pick second person narration in a fictional narrative, you're going to have to pick a gender at some point and as the author is male, it makes more sense for him to go with male. I understand how second person of a different gender seems odd but it never really mattered to me. I mean, this was a book written in 1979 in Italy. Clearly, even if it had a female narrator, it was going to be a foreign perspective. Sure, some things happen that wouldn't have happened had the narrator been female but The Reader was always a character, even if it was in second person, so I never really felt bothered by it.

3) What makes this book a classic?

I think what makes this book "a classic" is that it tackled difficult ideas in fiction in an original way. It dealt with ideas of reading and writing in highly metaphysical ways which was something that was just coming into vogue at the time of publication and he wrote it for a mass market audience. I bet this was the first time a lot of people actually sat down to think about the process of reading and what it could mean. Nowadays, the whole meta aspect of media is explored all the time and so I think some of the ideas in Winter's Night aren't as groundbreaking as they were when the story had just come out. However, it marked the beginning of a trend that still continues and that's why I think it's a book to be read by anyone who considers themselves "a reader" or "a writer."

4) Sum up this book in six words.

Man reads, explores meaning of reading.

Review Reaction - The Long Earth

This is a reaction to Colin's review of The Long Earth. He will be posting his reaction to my review soon.

I'm kind of glad that Colin and I had slightly differing opinions about this novel because otherwise this would be a very hard reaction to write. Well, no, I think overall we had pretty much the same opinion; it's just the little things. 

The problem with The Long Earth is definitely the dissonance between the long reaching and pretty epic possibilities allowed by the idea of the novel and the seemingly narrow main plot that goes along with it. I think we both pretty much agreed that the main plot dragged a bit. I thought Joshua and Lobsang were likable, if a bit boring at times but Colin pretty much didn't like them. I can see that, though. The characters are hard to relate to and I think I was only won over by a few dialogue exchanges that made me chuckle. If that hadn't of happened, I would be as stone faced as the rest of them.

I think the biggest difference Colin and I had about Long Earth is the inclusion of small chapters about other people. Colin felt that they were never "fully developed" and he would like to see them as "an actual addition to the main story." I see where he's coming from but I disagree. Because, in a way, they do add to the main story. Characters that have their own chapters are mentioned in passing in other chapters and add to the world creation of the novel. Beyond that, they allow the authors to explore aspects of the Long Earth that Joshua and Lobsang, by their natures, would never have encountered. I thought these bits were some of the best parts of the novel but also, that's probably the sci fi geek in me coming out. 

Colin doesn't think he'll read the sequels but I think I probably will. I think we both kind of felt lukewarm on this novel and that's understandable. It was a good book with a ton of flaws. I think what I'm discovering doing this duel review thing is less about the books and more that Colin and I have remarkably similar taste. :)

Generation A Reaction Post

Along with posting duel reviews, Colin and I will be posting reactions to each other's reviews a few days later. Here is my reaction to Colin's review, which you can read here. His reaction to my review is here.

I feel like I don't have all that much to say in my reaction to Colin's review, mainly because we agreed on a lot of things. One thing that he loved (and I don't think I proclaimed my love of in my review) was short chapters. Short chapters are the best! They keep the plot going and make you read faster because it's a lot easier to go "well, just a little more" when the chapters are only a few pages long. This was definitely helpful to this book as well, keeping the plot moving and allowing for each character to have a voice (and getting you quickly to another one if you were sick of one). 

Colin had a problem with the story section, as did I. However, he mentions that it isn't very scientific, saying "Now I’m no scientist, but is that how science really works? I don’t think we landed a rover on Mars via telling stories," which I will admit, made me giggle. I guess that's true but most of the science we'd been treated to at this point didn't seem very scientific, either. The fact that it didn't seem believable wasn't really the problem for me so much as just how long it went on for. 

He didn't think the end lived up to the beginning, saying "It started out strong, but faltered near the end and ended weakly." I completely agree with that. I think I just liked the bit with Serge at the end and that let me appreciate the ending more. 

I think Colin enjoyed this book more than I did but it's not like I disliked it. It was more that I read the entire book eager to see what would happen and then was left with a "well, huh" moment at the end. I wanted more than that and it didn't deliver. Was it interesting? Yes. Did I love it? Eh, it was okay.