Interactive Exploration – If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

I did not expect going into this novel, for it to be an interactive book, involving us as readers in the story. Also going into the book, I didn’t know what role we would play in the story as the writer of the book would continuously tell us what kind of reader we should be, for example, “you are the sort of reader who is sensitive to such refinements; you are quick to catch the author’s intentions and nothing escapes you.” It’s breaking the fourth wall which is not typically common in novels.

It’s also interesting a little later on when it’s almost like the author of the book is coaching “you” on what to say to the other lady, Ludmilla, who is trying to choose a book. The author says “Go on, don’t let the conversation die. Say something; just keep talking.” I’ve definitely never read any book like this before, when the author is almost criticizing “you” and judging “you” in a mockery and humorous kind of way, and I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it It is then again later on when we find out that “you” actually is a character of the novel, not entirely being the literal reader, us, of the book. It is a man who is consumed by his intense passion for reading. I also feel like perhaps if I read this book as a paper-copy, one that I chose from a bookstore, I’d probably find this whole interactive second person narrative experience a lot more relatable and emotional as we are actually going through what the author is writing the reader is going through. 

Coming back to the idea of the protagonist and the narrator, at times it often felt like this book had at least 11 different narrators. Each of these short stories that were unfinished had a different narrator character. The narrators came from all over the world like Gritzvi in Outside the town of Malbork, Alex Zinnober in Without fear of wind or vertigo, and Nacho in Around an Empty Grave. Overall these characters tend to be men who go after women and their stories end right before they face danger or some sort of conflict. I thought this was very captivating and kept the book moving in a fast paced manner, even though at times I was quite confused. 

The novel’s structure is something out of the ordinary, and very intriguing. It’s clear that Calvino wants to convey the idea that novels don’t typically need endings and to challenge the conventionality of books themselves. He even mentions a switching of pages (going from page 32 to page 12) but only because of a printing error.  Further, with the character of the narrator, Calvino asks questions regarding the way people read novels, especially calling attention to how some aspects of reading are just conventions. 

Question: Are there other literary or cinematic works that bring to mind similar themes? If so, which ones? I’ve particularly seen a lot of plays in my lifetime so these are what I would find most similar to the themes and narratives of this book.