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The Castle of Crossed Destinies
 
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The Castle of Crossed Destinies (Paperback)

by Italo Calvino (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 18.95
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The Castle of Crossed Destinies + Cosmicomics + The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount
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Product Details

Product Description

Review

Semiotic fantasy novel by Italo Calvino, published in Italian in 1973 as Il castello dei destini incrociati. It consists of a series of short tales gathered into two sections, The Castle of Crossed Destinies and The Tavern of Crossed Destinies. The novel concerns two groups of travelers through a forest, both of which have lost the power to speak as the result of traumatic events. One group is spending the night in a tavern, the other in a castle. In each place, the travelers tell the stories of their lives, using tarot cards instead of words. A narrator at each place interprets the cards for the reader, but since the tarot cards are subject to multiple interpretations, the stories the narrators offer are not necessarily the stories intended by the mute storytellers. (The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature )


Product Description

A series of short, fantastic narratives inspired by fifteenth-century tarot cards and their archetypical images. Full-color and black-and-white reproductions of tarot cards. Translated by William Weaver.A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3.0 out of 5 stars Crossing castle, Mar 29 2007
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Italo Calvino was a master of surreal storytelling -- he was, for example, one of only two authors I've seen who could manage a second-person narrative. But his gimmick falls flat in "The Castle of Crossed Destinies," a book that is intriguingly laid out, but never manages to be more than a curiosity.

In the first section, a traveler comes to a castle full of other guests, but for some reason no one there is able to speak. To tell each other about their histories, they use a pack of tarot cards to communicate their stories -- tales about love affairs, ancient cities, and Faustian pacts.

The second is pretty much the same, except that it takes place in a tavern, where mute people are still using tarot cards to describe their pasts. The stories -- evil queens, fallen warriors, even an Arthurian tale -- get darker and stranger, especially when the narrator himself began to describe his own past to the people who are watching him and the cards.

As an idea, tarot cards being used to tell a story is brilliant. Especially since the stories that Calvino spins out are not necessarily the only interpretation -- each card used to tell the story can be interpreted differently. The problem is, in the first half of the book, Calvino tries to apply this to some very boring, straightforward little stories. They tend to stop suddenly, without much of a finale.

The second half of the book uses this gimmick more skilfully, with Calvino writing in greater detail, and using more ornate, atmospheric writing. It feels less like stories wrapped around some cards, and more like stories with cards as illustrations of what might have been. He also adds a more eerie, macabre tale to this half, making it even more engaging.

The first half sags in a big way; it's almost tiring to read. But the second half of "Castle of Crossed Destinies" is where Calvino's tarot gimmick starts to pay off. Interesting, but not all that it could have been.
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5.0 out of 5 stars cult novel that is a literary masterpiece, Mar 17 2004
By Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Just as the tarot card reading unfolds in the story, this book has innumerable levels that beg for thought and interpretation: it is part historical novel, part fortune-telling, and part a history of the great classics of western civilization. It is also a fascinating experiment in expanding the literary vehicle, adding the dimension of the cards - functioning as kind of symbolic building blocks as well as a springboard for association - that creates a parallel narrative to the gorgeous descriptive power of the work. Calvino, I feel, has created a work as complex and rich as the best of Nabokov. As with all truly great novels, there is a great deal left unsaid, that the reader can mull over if she so chooses. While the vocabulary was very difficult for my primitive Italian, it was as beautifully written as Calvino's other work.

Warmly recommended.

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3.0 out of 5 stars I find the writing a bit dry..., Mar 23 2003
By Maia Pearl "Blue" (Denver, Co USA) - See all my reviews
... but I'm such an avid Tarot fan that I still recommend this to others who want to see his treatment of the subject.
Naturally, the Tarot is interpretated differently by almost everyone who indulges. But, hey!... that's the point of studying it as far as I'm concerned.

Definitely check this one out!

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Amusing for more than a few reasons...
I'm a beginner at reading Italian literature, but there's a few amusing things Calvino did here...he took pivotal scenes from classic literature that includes the poetic epic... Read more
Published on Nov 21 2002 by Cerulean

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent example of story telling using tarot cards
As a tarot cards reader, I really loved this book.

The book contain two similar stories - a group of people meet in an isolated place, and having lost the ability to speak, tell... Read more

Published on Oct 21 2002 by Uri Raz

2.0 out of 5 stars clever, but not engaging
Italo Calvino's an author I've enjoyed for years, devouring his strange narratives. Reading The Castle of Crossed Destinies for the first time I feel like someone's torn the... Read more
Published on Aug 10 2001 by Jill Walker Rettberg

4.0 out of 5 stars Response to criticisms
One of the above mentioned reviewers thought the execution to be vague in its style and not the work of indepth thought, perhaps though it takes a certain degree of ingenious to... Read more
Published on April 21 2001 by Ralph Kelly

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but vaguely executed
The Castle of Crossed destinies uses tarot cards as a medium of communication to imaginatively narrate several stories. Read more
Published on Nov 30 1999 by David Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars Shifting identities
Of the four books I have read by Calvino(all to be highly recommended for anyone who does not wish to be allowed to read passively, and who also is looking for something that will... Read more
Published on Mar 5 1998 by mcap@sprintmail.com

4.0 out of 5 stars A medieval fairy tale
In a fairy-tale setting--a castle and a tavern in the heart of a dense wood--a company of men and women are brought together by chance. Read more
Published on Dec 4 1996

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