The Castle of Crossed Destinies
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
A group of travellers chance to meet, first in a castle, then a tavern. Their powers of speech are magically taken from them and instead they have only tarot cards with which to tell their stories. What follows is an exquisite interlinking of narratives, and a fantastic, surreal and chaotic history of all human consciousness.
Reviews with the most likes.
Calvino's writing is magical. Labyrinthine. I haven't stopped thinking about this book since I finished it.
I've always said that a pack of tarot cards can be used for more things than just fortunes. Calvino's book proves this theory. In it, he descibes a Castle and an Inn, where things aren't always what they seem. People who stay at these places... lose their voices and cannot speak. Instead, after meals...they spend their time crafting their stories using only a pack of tarot cards and wild gestures. The narrator of these two entertwined, yet separate tales, helps us decipher the meanings of each person's story as it unfolds out on the table. The book even uses the images from two Marcelles decks to help tell the tales. I found this book oddly intriguing and as each story was told, I found myself trying to follow along with the pictures of the tarot. This particular edition of the book, included Notes about how these stories and a pack of tarot cards haunted his writing life for years. He was constantly trying to refine stories and the patterns utilizing all 78 cards. All in all, I'm glad I discovered this writer and will definitely try and read more Calvino in the future. This fits into my goals by giving me another work of fiction under my belt.
