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What are readers saying about The Castle of Crossed Destinies?
| Reviews of The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Page 1 of 1 | «1»
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-13 05:25:39.
(Language: English)
  
Disappointed. A bit self-indulgent, like an exercise to see if he could do it. Wanted him to fold in the actual tarot meanings into the story.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-29 11:50:51.
(Language: English)
How about this for a plot: narrator rides up to a castle and enters; Inside a feast is set and the guests met, but there is eerie silence - nobody is allowed to tell their story aloud. Instead the stories are revealed through cunning use of Tarot cards. As each turn is taken more is revealed of the intriguing stories that led the people here. Fascinating concept making a really unusual and interesting book - recommend this as a good intro to this rewarding writer.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-23 08:21:34.
(Language: English)
This is easily one of my most dog-eared books. Calvino takes an innovative approach to writing. As a result of their myriad journeys, his characters become magically muted and must tell their tales with the use of a worn deck of Tarot cards.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-06 04:17:42.
(Language: English)
..da rileggere e ricominciare sempre..
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-19 09:21:49.
(Language: English)
A really interesting concept that, for me, never really managed to get off the ground enough to truly enjoy.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-07 05:51:19.
(Language: English)
The Castle of Crossed Destinies is split into two sections; in the first, a group of travelers meet in a castle that welcomes the lost, (in the second, a tavern). They are all mysteriously struck mute over dinner, and in an attempt to explain to each other how they came to be there, produce a pack of tarot cards and begin communicating their stories. The tales in the Castle half of the book are based loosely from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (a fact I would have been completely ignorant of were it not mentioned in the Afterword). In any case, they are Renaissance stories, with characters like the alchemist, the page, the knight, etc. They are more poetic and enjoyable than the stories that come in the second (Tavern) half of the book. This time the mute travelers seem more frenzied - they all want to tell their stories at once, and this time they are interesting interpretations of some of Shakespeare's tragics (Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear), Faust, Oedipus, and a few others. The stories intersect and overlap more than in the first, and are shorter and more abstract. By the end of the book I was completely confused, hardly able to follow the storyline of one character at all. However, I have a feeling Calvino wrote it this way on purpose - the whole point of the tarot cards is ambiguity: one card has so many meanings that in one pack of tarots you could find hundreds and hundreds of stories. There are even multiple stories in one sequence, and the book illustrates many realities existing at once on top of each other. You are never really certain that the way the narrator is interpreting the stories is how the teller really means them. Thus the beauty of the tarot cards. I forgot to mention this too - but the book is printed so that alongside these narratives, in the margins, there are pictures of the cards mentioned. Calvino's afterword reiterates that this is a book told primarily with pictures; he sort of 'filled in' the words as a secondary. He talks about the experiment and how it almost drove him crazy, lining up the cards in orders that worked, so that narrative flowed, arranging and rearranging them time after time. All in all I found the idea incredibly interesting, and my understanding of tarot grew. But I have to say my mind was wandering like crazy by the end - the concept tired me out and I was losing interest fast. The saving grace was that it was not a very long book and therefore finished before I got too numbed. I guess if you like that sort of thing, I would go for it... but it won't keep you entertained or leave you feeling good, just to warn.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-21 05:04:43.
(Language: English)
A lot of little stories created out of the arrangement of Tarot cards. It is a bit difficult to comprehend and personally I found it at times to be quite boring.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-20 07:15:08.
(Language: Italian)
Un Calvino imperdibile, per me secondo solo a "se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore". La costruzione sulla base delle carte da gioco è una trovata "alla Calvino"
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-20 11:56:53.
(Language: English)
This book is an experiment in turning an arrangement of tarot cards into a collection of linked stories. Told by travellers in an inn who have been struck dumb and can only tell their stories through tarot. In the second part of the book it is taken to a new level, the cards arranged in a grid with stories pulled from history and legend re-expressed through tarot (i.e. Hamlet and the story of Percival) where stories run horizontally or vertically through the grid. It works for the most part, and Calvino's afterword describes the difficulties he had in getting the literary experiment to work, but as you might expect the end result can be slightly variable though some of it is quite remarkable.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-26 12:53:08.
(Language: English)
It's weird, bizarre and strangely captivating.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-30 06:45:19.
(Language: English)
Reminds me of the Canterbury Tales...
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Lorenzo posted a review at 2009-12-30 09:04:39.
(Language: Italian)
Mmmmm, bello. Geniale la storia e la fantasia di Calvino nel costruire i racconti e il libro. Sinceramente però verso la fine mi ha iniziato a stancare...
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-23 03:54:49.
(Language: English)
“Yes, that is I, all right, and these thick clubs are the forest where I was raised by a father who, having given up all hope of anything good from the civilized world, became a Hermit in these woods, to keep me far from the bad influences of human society. I developed my Strength, playing with boars and wolves, and I learned that the forest, though it lives on the constant clawing and devouring of animals and vegetables, is governed by a law: strength unable to control itself in time, whether of bison or man or condor, creates a desert around it where you kick the bucket and then serve as pasture for ants and flies….” Telling stories through the tarots cards is an interesting idea when you are speechless and this how Italo Calvino probably felt when he was writing this book. “There is no better place to keep a secret than in an unfinished novel.”
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-03 02:17:19.
(Language: English)
****
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