Natalya Gornopolskaya

Blog by Natalya Gornopolskaya
“If on a winter’s night a traveler” by Italo Calvino: 1- Outside the town of Malbork

This story starts off with a particularly unique style of literature. The author refers to the sequences and steps taken by a “Reader” as they delve into reading a new book. The author talks about the grueling process of choosing this book, purchasing this book, and finding a comfortable position in which to read this book. The story finally opens, with a stranger called “I”, standing at a train station with an empty leather suitcase on wheels. We don’t know much about this character; only that he is part of some top secret organization which obligates him to meet another stranger with the same suitcase, so that they could communicate using a code. It seems that “I” has failed to meet this other stranger, so he retreats to the local bar where he meets a very lovely and wealthy owner of a leather goods store. They talk for a little while and agree to meet again soon. Just then a police officer comes by, speaking in a familiar code. He commands “I” to go to track number six. “I” gets on the train, and disappears. We never do find out what ends up happening to this man because the novel that the “Reader” has purchased contains a misprint. It turns out the story we thought to be “If on a winter’s night a traveler” by Italo Calvino, was actually a Polish novel called “Outside the town of Malbork” by Tazio Bazakbal. Because the Reader was just getting to the climactic part of the novel he chooses to exchange his faulty copy for a solid copy of the Polish novel. While at the bookstore the Reader encounters an attractive female Reader, who has coincidentally had the same experience. He gets the nerve to strike up conversation with her and it goes fairly well. They discuss books and exchange phone numbers, which adds an interesting side plot to this already twisted story. The next chapter involves various names and events which I found quite unfamiliar and irrelevant to what has happened thus far.
Overall this book feels like a very interactive type of work in which the characters and small details interspersed throughout the entire novel never seem to have any connection to one another, which leaves me extremely puzzled.

Questions:

1. Why are none of the main characters given a first name?

2. Does this book continuously shift into a brand new story?

3. Are we expected to follow this dispersal of un-relatedness?

4. Will these stories ever form a bridge and merge together?

5. Are the details of each story significant?