Easily one of if not the most playful books I've ever read. Absolutely charming and delightful the whole way through. The novel feels like a great literary game which Calvino is inviting you to play with him. A game of cat and mouse, of adventure, of puzzles and hidden meanings, the rules and the objectives themselves shifting as you read (a game of "Calvinoball" if you will). Yet, at least for me, it was never tiring.

The simple plot becomes somewhat chaotic and untethered some way through the novel, and threatens to go off the rails. I could see some people finding it too outlandish, or being frustrated by the constant denial of gratification built into the structure of the novel. I was satisfied to treat it as an extension of the game, and pleased with the (somewhat tongue in cheek) way that Calvino closed the loop in the end.

Thematically, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, is more focused. It covers a lot, but Calvino returns to and toys with all of his themes with a kind of dogged persistence. It also helps that the themes each contain one another, like a set of matryoshka dolls. The novel is about reading, and by extension stories, storytelling, and communication. By extension, it is about translations and mistranslations, confusion and deliberate obfuscation, hidden meanings and apophenia. The plot is full of fakes, forgeries, miscommunications, doubles, mirrors, and opposites. Each story-within-the-story returns to these through different lenses with the result that the novel is a thematic kaleidoscope.

An absolute highlight of my year, and a book I'll definitely return to.