Volume 28, Number 11 · June 25, 1981
Acts of Love
By Mary McCarthy
If on a winter's night a traveler
by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book, 260 pp., $12.95
Calvino is a wizard. His last work of fiction, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, was inspired by two packs of tarot cards. The hero of the latest work is 'the new Calvino'—in other words, itself. The novel the reader has opened is the same novel a Reader inside the cover has gone to a bookstore to procure, having seen an item in a news-paper announcing that a book by this author, the first in several years, has appeared. Everything fairly normal so far. Calvino's Reader—the one inside the story—is a reasonable updating of the 'dear reader' of the old fictioneers. As one might expect, relations have become more informal, to the point of getting familiar: right away the author is calling him 'You' ('tu,' 'ti,' 'te,' in the original). which is like getting on a firstname basis at the first handshake. 'Calvino,' a hospitable figure, is concerned that the new owner of his book should have optimum conditions for the enjoyment of it: good light, a comfortable position, no distractions ('No, I don't want to watch TV!'), cigarettes and an ashtray if he smokes.
Review, 4124 words
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