Thursday, March 26, 2009

March 26 - "The Man Wreathed in Seaweed"

A Week of Italo Calvino
“The Man Wreathed in Seaweed”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A king offers a reward to the person who finds his kidnapped daughter. The search for the princess moves from land to sea where a drunkard is abandoned on a small island and finds a surprise.

A fine story, if not overly predictable. The innocent are double-crossed, the wicked are punished, and the ending is happy – the same old story, told in a different way, and at times rather awkwardly translated from its original Italian. I did enjoy the imagery, from the shape-shifting creature to drunken, seaweed-clad Samphire Starboard emerging from the sea; there were many pretty pictures floating around. It is also nice to find the occasional happy ending to a story. Most of our fictions today aim to be realistic, strive for that accuracy of life, and end up reflecting back bleak but honest reality.

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