Book Review
Author :Italo calvino
Book: If on a winter's night a traveler
You are about to read அரவிந்தாக்க்ஷன் review of calvino's work. Ask your people not to call you for any reason whatsoever for next few minutes.
You are reading this because Calvino's work interest you. You have read all his other works except this. You have read about it Somewhere vaguely, so you ought to find what I have to say about it or rather I have been pestering you to read it by sending u a link of my review for past few days.
At this point, you get bored that I have not said anything about the work. Somewhere down your mind there is a thought that i may say something about this work at the 118th word of this post.
But you are mistaken to find and let down that i have still not said anything anything worthwhile.
Just when u think I am going to say something about calvino's work you are called by someone in your house and you throw your mobile which refreshes the facebook page in a rare instance or in a fit of alarm you close your PC's window.
You return to your device and continue reading this review,but you find you are reading some other book's review by someone else.
You read first few sentences and have formed a liking for this new book not connected to அரவிந்தாக்க்ஷன் review.
Before this happens you have informed your friend ( who takes interest in indian languages ) about finding my tamil name in fb and sending my profile link.
The person to whom this has been assigned is a person who considers himself a polyglot, but he is a more of a novelty seeker than a serious learner of languages. He Learns a bit in one language and switches to some other language, after the initial high recedes.So goes his routine of language seeking.
So the person tries to find the keys in his google keyboard and mistakenly believes his strength in knowledge of Tamil rather than using Google's English translator to Tamil equivalent. So the person comes up with ரவி கிரண் in place of அரவிந்தாக்க்ஷன், sends the same to you.
You, when the message pops, stop reading the current review and checks the profile and confirms by the photo that it's the same person and returns to the review of which you have been reading and finds the review to be quite different suddenly. Actually the writer of the review at this point discusses about the subplot of the work he is reviewing. It takes a while for you to understand this and finally you find this is a book by the same author calvino which you haven't read already, called "Outside the Town of Malbrok".
You are sad, but comes back to this ரவி கிரண் review to read the rest of the review, that you think அரவிந்தாக்க்ஷன் has written and find it completely a new book, but again by calvino, called "learning from the steep slope".
This has made you sad , you thought you have read everything by calvino except his "If on a winter's night traveler".
Just while this goes in your head you notice that this is not aravindakshan's profile, his profile photo was different and also, a simple common sense strikes you. How could he write a review other than if on a winter night's a traveller? .
You confirm that this is not Aravindakshan's profile by scrolling further in Ravi kiran's profile and not finding Calvino's "if on a winter night's a traveler" review. May be a double(?), you think, since the face resembles Aravindakshan.
Now, you try to reorder your thoughts and your memory for a minute slowly and understands it all started when u read அரவிந்தாக்க்ஷன் review of Italo calvino's "if on a winter's night a traveler".
Actually , the truth was, your liking for the second review, is in a way as a connection to the review of the first which you have not yet sensed , both which in turn is connected to ravi kiran's review.
Since it was all started by the first reviewer you scroll to find his review again to see whether he has finally said anything about the book at the "god knows what word by now".
You couldn't find it. The post is lost amidst sea of posts churned out in fb.
You ask your friend to check whether he as turned up with the right profile. Even though it has hurt his ego he checks and realises his mistake but while clarifying to you he points the mistake to the linguistic peculiarity of Tamil rather than accept his own mistake.
With the new exact tamil words for aravindakshan, you search
Facebook, but it says the profile cannot be found.
Aravindakshan meanwhile, after clicking the share button lost his interest in virtual life and once for all decided to do away with all this virtual imagery.
You try to check Ravi kiran's review which couldn't be found either since the owner of both profile is created by a person called srivatsan and he has deactivated both the accounts.
You feel lost. He has set the wheel in motion and now he has vanished. You return to the other reviewer's post(the unnamed reviewer) to find the connection between the two reviews to his. You stretch your memory to think of the earlier reviews and place this other review to form a whole but you cannot do, since this reviwer at the end of his review points to another review, which he says the book's plot is mainly centred on.
It reads a review of calvino's "without fear of wind or vertigo" by Gullu.
You are tired but still follow the trail of reviews centred on calvino. You are half way at Gullu's review, by then you are sure that all the reviews are of a different story, separate books, but from the same author.
You feel salty by all this and also thirsty. You feel it whenever you read something for too long without any proper direction.
You feel betrayed by the Author, because you were thinking he was the only author you have read extensively.
Now it's all a dream, he has been writing in private and holding all the books from public but to his own favorite readers and you are not one in that favoured readers.
You sleep dejected and cry the whole night.
Now, Aravindakshan having started this act of knotting this textual thread has been lost in the maze of his own and struggles to get out and finish this. In effect, understands the greatness and difficulty in writing a piece such as this. Comes out appreciating Calvino's Magnum opus further, even though he did feel boring in the middle of the book.
But the story doesn't end here. Aravindakshan or ravi kiran or Srivatsan reactivates his fb again in some days as is always the case and sends you, being a dear friend of his, this review, with a line saying it's a classic by Calvino.
I leave it to you how you might have reacted.
Post factum :
You decide to buy "if on a winter's night a traveler" to prove Aravindakshan how better admirer you are of calvino's work and find these separate titles are all from the same book to your surprise, relief. You feel it's more dizzying and original than many post-modern lit.
Post scriptum :
It was later found that the unnamed reviewer above is a profile named preethy sweety chicy which is one of Aravindakshan's hidden profile to befriend female profiles.Rather sheepish act you say, I concur with you.
why he didn't deactivate all of his profiles including Gullu's is a question that is still unanswered and whether this hints at something about the calvino's book is matter of serious discussion among this review readers.
Photo Source: https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/july-re-reads-2-if-on-a-winters-night-a-traveler-by-italo-calvino-7/