Natalya Gornopolskaya

Blog by Natalya Gornopolskaya
“If on a winter’s night a traveler” by Italo Calvino: 5-In a network of lines that enlace

At this point I have given up on making sense of the multiple novels presented throughout the book and concerning how they are interrelated. The reason being is that based on previous experiences with this particular novel, we are constantly being bombarded with new novels, and if the reader cannot piece together this puzzle, it is impossible for all of us as well. In the meantime, I have decided to focus on the main plot involving the reader and Ludmilla. Ludmilla is a fascinating person to the reader because she shares the same struggles in terms of reading these interspersed novels. It seems that she is in no way willing to be involved with the reader, anywhere outside of their literary prospects. The reader is driven towards this mystery in order to get closer to Ludmilla. He goes on his own to a publishing house where he discovers some sort of a conspiracy led by a man named Ermes Marana who has been mistranslating a series of novels while printing only sections of full manuscripts. The reader then looks around at the sections of manuscripts and reads through a couple, only to find they never piece together. He does however succeed in uncovering a single reoccurring pattern in these sections; the theme of a woman reader. He reads through these fragments only to feel the sensation of a woman’s presence. He then comes to the conclusion that any connection can be felt with a female reader reading the same book at the same time, only to doubt his feelings for Ludmilla. He resolves that he and Ludmilla have a deeper connection other than both of them being book junkies and rushes off to meet her at the café.