August 8 - "The Lost Regiment"

“The Lost Regiment”
by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)

* * * * (Great) Fable

An army regiment becomes uneasy and eventually lost while parading through a city.

There is a lot of beautiful imagery in this story of a lost regiment on parade. Calvino does a brilliant job describing the regiment’s unease as they begin marching through the town. He does this by describing how one soldier’s tentative steps are picked up by another and then another until the whole regiment is cautiously tiptoeing through the streets. Later when the villagers attempt to lead the regiment back to their base by way of climbing over the roofs of the buildings I could easily picture this parade gone awry, and it is a truly marvelous thing to behold. This being a fable I know there is deeper meaning here, but I’m happy with just the images now. Maybe upon rereading or further reflection I’ll take something more away from the story, but for now I’m content.

[This story was read on August 8. The review was not posted until later due to falling asleep in the Chair of Unexpected Sleep.]