As I read this book I’m repeatedly struck by how self conscious the narrative is of its medium. The identification of the main characters as “Readers” is an obvious example of this, but I’m much more interested in how the act of reading is integral to the narrative. It often serves as a means to drive the plot. Each of the titled chapters have been read within the narrative, either by the protagonist or out loud by another. I was quick to notice these instances, but with chapter six I started to notice the use of reading as vehicle for exposition in the larger narrative. For example, the protagonist and the reader learn of Marana’s “Exploits” by literally reading his letters addressed to Cavedagna.
Another thing that intrigued me was the character of the narrator. After Outside the Town of Malbork it seemed to me that the narrator is the character in the stories that the protagonist and Ludmila are reading. I base this primarily in the passages in these stories where Calvino draws attention to the fact what we and the protagonist are reading are in fact written fictional works. In the chapter If on a winter night a traveler for instance the narrator/protagonist spends several paragraphs critiquing the author’s intent in his writing style, seemingly breaking the fourth wall to do so. This happens again in Outside the Town of Malbork and Without Fear of Wind or Vertigo, though in these examples such occurrences are far more subtle and sporadic. In the latter for example, the narrator describes how “Several paragraphs ensue…” following his separation from Irina and his visiting Valerian.
For me these themes help shape the novel, which up until where I have read, is intently focused on the writing, reading, and the novelization. Even though the various “novels” are told from the 1st person perspective (that of single character? his voice seems to linger in the numbered chapters following the conclusion of each “novel”, there is still a great variety in the stylistics and subject matter of each novel. Furthermore the settings in the greater narrative are all tied to an involvement in literature; a bookstore, a university literature department, a book publisher, etc.
Great final point—that so many of the locations in the novel have to do with books. It’s one of what we might think of as a quilting point, a common theme that helps to hold together the more disparate and centrifugal pieces of the novel.