Björn recenserade Il visconte dimezzato av Italo Calvino (Opere di Italo Calvino)
None
3 stjärnor
A short fairy-tale-like story about a nobleman who comes back from the war with the Turks horribly disfigured; his entire left-hand side has been shot to pieces (or has it?) and the one-eyed, one-legged, one-armed, half-gutted, half-brained (but not half-witted) nobleman seems to have gone through a personality change; it soon turns out that he's, well, evil. He treats his subjects horribly, and he's also become obsessed with cutting things in half.
Of course, after a while it turns out his left-hand-side wasn't obliterated at all, but only took longer to get back from the war since it had to stop and help people every step of the way. Yes, his other side is so completely good it's sickening, and even though his subjects are happy at first to have a counter-agent to the right-hand viscount, it soon turns out that the left-hand viscount is barely any use at all, …
A short fairy-tale-like story about a nobleman who comes back from the war with the Turks horribly disfigured; his entire left-hand side has been shot to pieces (or has it?) and the one-eyed, one-legged, one-armed, half-gutted, half-brained (but not half-witted) nobleman seems to have gone through a personality change; it soon turns out that he's, well, evil. He treats his subjects horribly, and he's also become obsessed with cutting things in half.
Of course, after a while it turns out his left-hand-side wasn't obliterated at all, but only took longer to get back from the war since it had to stop and help people every step of the way. Yes, his other side is so completely good it's sickening, and even though his subjects are happy at first to have a counter-agent to the right-hand viscount, it soon turns out that the left-hand viscount is barely any use at all, since he absolutely refuses to do anything about the world he lives in or even judge his evil half.
The Cloven Viscount is fun, a light read, playing around with the ideas of good and evil but ultimately not really saying much that hasn't been said in just about every fairytale ever written. I did find some details interesting - for instance, that the first sign that the first half-viscount is evil comes in his completely unforgiving view of justice and his need to separate everything into good and evil halves.
It's a likable enough story, it doesn't take itself too seriously and you'll breeze through it in two hours, but it's by far the most lightweight Calvino I've read.
