Word: calvino
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...NONEXISTENT KNIGHT & THE CLOVEN VISCOUNT (246 pp.)−Italo Calvino−Random House...
Knights have been a favorite target of parodists ever since they first stepped into their armor. But not even Don Quixote is quite so grotesque as the heroes of these two short novels. One has only half a body; the other has none at all. It is Italian Novelist Calvino's way of saying how empty are the ideals of chivalry, whether medieval or modern...
...Calvino's macabre heroes have the potential of powerful allegory, but Calvino weakens his stories by cluttering them with too many other symbolic characters, e.g., the good half of the viscount eventually shows up, and a pat ending is achieved when the two halves are rejoined. Still, there are passages almost worthy of Cervantes. A nun bemoans her sheltered life: "Apart from religious ceremonies, triduums, novenas, gardening, harvesting, vintaging, whippings, slavery, incest, fires, hangings, invasion, sacking, rape and pestilence, we have had no experience. What can a poor nun know of the world?" When two feudal armies clash...
...short-order trials that pass for justice in Castro's Cuba, five members of the defeated invasion force that landed last April were sentenced to death and quickly executed; nine others got 30-year sentences. Technically, the 14 were tried for crimes they committed before the invasion. Ramon Calvino, a police corporal during the regime of Dictator Fulgencio Batista, was accused of killing and torturing prisoners: George King Yun, was accused of killing a port guard last year while he was stealing a boat. Nine hours after the trials began, verdicts were in, sentences pronounced, and appeals denied...