Currently writing this blog on the skytrain back after spending 70 dollars on legos💔😿
I lowkey got clickbaited by the title, it sounded really beautiful. After finishing this reading I can say that this book by far has been my least favourite ever and I wish I could go back and pick the other option. Calvino has a very unique writing style and I fear it is just not for me. The beginning of the book already sort of ticked me off for no good reason, sit down get comfortable whatever💀. Maybe it felt like I was being told what to do, the entire thing was just super quirky in a bad way. In the first chapter it forced the reader into the perspective of the main character which was fine. I still struggled to think of it as myself though, I do not know what exactly made it so I was unable to connect with the narrator but there was a large distance between us. The narrator also constantly did things that I probably would not have done, this perspective was being forced onto me 😭😭🙏🙏. Like I think sometimes when they told me how to feel it was actually kinda cool, it felt like a warning as to what’s to come because I’m an absent-minded person.
Although I did like that the stories that the narrator, or rather we, read had no endings! It kept me on my toes, but near the end it did get a bit frustrating. It was interesting to see, I don’t know how much this happens in publishing or like “formal literature” but sort of made me think of fanfiction and how often it goes uncompleted even though a lot of the ones I've read were quite enjoyable. Or even shows on streaming websites that get cancelled before they can reach a conclusion, but that’s a different concern. I think you can still enjoy things that are incomplete, honestly it leaves a lot of room for imagination and creativity, but I do understand the frustration. I don’t know why time after time I let myself get into the different stories only for it to end abruptly.
I think the book overall was way too meta for me 😔, at times it was confusing and I just hated the way he wrote, I’m sorry Italo Calvino. I also think due to that I wasn’t able to understand this book like at all or at least enough to give interesting commentary💀.
Question: Were you guys able to fully immerse yourselves into the role of “you”? And if so drop your tips and comments down below cause god knows I need it💀
