April 13 - "Body-without-Soul"

“Body-without-Soul”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

Clever Jack is told by the king to rescue his kidnapped daughter from the evil sorcerer, Body-without-Soul. With gifts gained from helping four animals along the way, Jack fights for the princess’s freedom.

There is nothing wrong, or terribly exciting, about this story. It tells a simple tale in a rather straightforward – and predictable – way. The elaborate manner in which Jack must defeat Body-without-Soul is unique. It would have been more interesting if Jack’s defeat of the sorcerer hadn’t been so obvious, but the time constraint – a folktale is typically a short, short story – necessitates this compressed telling. I did find it amusing in the beginning of the tale that Jack’s mom told him he’d be old enough to venture out alone once he was able to kick over the tree in their yard. The image of the young boy dropkicking a tree each morning until it was finally felled was priceless.

[This review was posted to the blog a day late. The story was read on April 13th, but illness and an unexpected nap stole the day away from me.]