If on a winter’s night, a traveler Response

This novel was definitely subversive to the traditional novel. Eventually, after the shock and confusion on the set up of the novel wears off, I found myself actually understanding the flow. While it hopped around from one story to another, they all connected in that one always mentioned the previous or the next story. And eventually, the narrative of “you” and your search for these stories and Ludmilla returns and progresses further.

I didn’t feel that it was limiting, I’m not sure exactly what I felt, I can only think of a few analogies. The first is like driving down an interstate that has multiple lanes. You’re currently driving in one, but you can still look out and see the others, see the fellow drivers going along down those other lanes. When the next chapter came and it switched stories, it was like switching lanes, and when it switched again back to the “you” story, it was like coming back to that original lane you started in.

With the “you” story as I’m calling it, it’s hard not to see yourself in the story. I mean, the reader is being directly addressed. The main subversive aspect of the novel is it’s breaking of the fourth wall, and further, pulling readers in to have a hand in the stories progression. I thought it was very meta, but fascinating.

Another analogy/comparison that I thought of while reading the novel is the current mini series I’m watching on Disney + from Marvel called WandaVision. In short, it takes place some time after the events of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, and features the characters/Avengers Wanda Maximoff and Vision. While on the surface, at first, it’s appearing as a stereotypical sitcom that goes through the decades of television (starting in the 50’s and moving up, we currently just finished the 80's), you also clearly start to see that something is very wrong behind the scenes. I won’t spoil anything, but these two separate but connected narratives reminded me of the novel because they’re going back and forth as their events progress, responding to each other.