Baron in the Trees

"Italo Calvino has tackled a quixotic theme in the novel at hand, and I am happy to say that he has the narrative leisure and the style to do it at least initial justice. He also realizes that psychology can be a wet blanket in comedy. This is the reason, I think, why he sets his scene in an era long before the present one where nasty Dr. Freud compels writers to make their people so unbearably lifelike...Mr. Calvino seems to have intended nothing less than the deliberate transmutation of fantastic notion into universal allegory. Since he is not Cervantes he does not succeed--yet we are frequently entertained and even incidentally instructed...Mr. Calvino's well-translated novel takes us on a diverting journey through an outre age. It never quite lives up to the exquisite potential of its premise."Calvino, Italo is the author of 'Baron in the Trees', published 1977 under ISBN 9780156106801 and ISBN 0156106809.