If on a fall's afternoon a reader

Just finished Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller (1981). Wow. I have been curious about Calvino since I read an excerpt of a new translation of Cosmicomics in a magazine. At the time, I thought, "who is this guy?" the writing was so out there. I then did a half-hearted search for his works in a Renaud-Bray but could only find him translated into French and figured if I was going to read a translation, since my Italian isn't what it should be, I would rather read it in English.

It was in London, J- rummaging through her book collection, looking for something to give me for the return trip to Canada, that I saw his name again. If on a winter's night a traveller was my distraction during the long haul across the Atlantic, having found its way into my hands in a most circuitous way. I love books that come to me by way of accident, serendipity, coincidence. One of my most beloved finds was The Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski, that I found in a tiny, second hand bookshop in Havana on a sunny evening while L- and I searched for a reasonable restaurant. Anyone who has been to Cuba will know that a reasonable restaurant is hard to find.

Back to Calvino. If on a winter's.. is a reader's book. It is full of winks and nudges to the reader. In fact the main character, if he can be called so as he is addressed as 'you', is called 'the Reader'. His/your love interest is 'the Other Reader'. It is all twisted inside out. Stories within stories. Murders and plots and a grand scheme to put 'fakes' inside of books. I laughed out loud.

There is one fantastic scene where the 'you' is distracted from his mission of finding the conclusions to books by a young woman, who he starts to seduce. This is how Calvino describes the scene:

"With this, Sheila-Alfonsina-Gertrude has thrown herself on you, torn off your prisoner's trousers; your naked limbs mingle under the closets of electronic memories.

Reader, what are you doing? Aren't you going to resist? Aren't you going to escape? Ah, you are participating... Ah, you fling yourself into it, too... You're the absolute protagonist of this book, very well; but do you believe that gives you the right to have carnal relations with all the female characters?" (p. 219)

Pure, hysterical brilliance. Now I just have to get my hands on Cosmicomics.