The Watcher and Other Stories

"The Watcher and Other Stories" is a good introduction to the works of Italo Calvino, the writer that has been labeled a "neorealist" and "postmodernist," likely because, as in life, Calvino's stories always end without an ending as though there is a pending sequel or some other denouement in the wings that the reader is left to ponder. Critics called him a "master of allegorical fantasy," and his later works were quite filled with fantasy and fantastical imagery, though the collection in "The Watcher and Other Stories" are pretty straightforward tales that will not stretch your credulity too far... maybe."The Watcher" is about a young man that volunteers to work as a "poll watcher" to monitor voting - a plain enough beginning, but he is about to serve his time as a poll watcher inside "Cottolengo," a sprawling compound that's an institution for the incurably insane, so everything has the potential to go awry. Calvino treats his descriptions of the inmates in the asylum with a good deal of kindness and courtesy, though it is an insane asylum after all so plenty does go awry."Smog" is a story about industrial pollution, and about a man hired to become the editor of "Smog" magazine, a periodical devoted to the eradication of industrial air pollutants. A subtle composition, there are plots within plots occurring in this story, a tale that becomes a lesson in the functioning of "controlled opposition," as well as how a beautiful and wealthy girlfriend can change people's perceptions.The "Argentine Ant" is the story of a young couple with a small child that move to a small town where there appears to be an unending bounty of ants that invade everything everywhere, but the townspeople insist there are no ants. When the young man tries to investigate further he is told there is no ant problem, and he must be imagining it. His frustration reaches the point where he eventually goes looking for the exterminator that the town hired to keep the community ant free. An amusing story, the allegorical context of the "Argentine Ant" could be applied, with a bit of imagination, to any social situations facing a modern society today. (One quick note: the title, "The Argentine Ant" is not describing a place, it is describing a species of ant, and your current reviewer mentions this with a good deal of embarrassment as for twenty odd years it was thought that Calvino's story took place in the country of Argentina in South America - Ha!!)Italo Calvino's earlier works, like these three stories, were grounded in standard plots and standard character development. His later writing takes on flights of imagination and creativity that fit the label "allegorical fantasy," but "The Watcher and Other Stories" lets Calvino's writing genius shine through without gimmickry.

The Watcher and Other Stories by Italo CalvinoThree (long) short stories or novellas from a master. In each of these, Calvino’s style shines through. The style is not so much fantasy or magical realism as it is one of detailed realism, almost scientifically examined until it becomes absurd.In the title story, The Watcher, a communist party member volunteers to serve as a poll watcher. (From 1943 to 1993 Italy had compulsory voting, although there were no penalties enforced for not voting.) But such a system creates a whole new array of issues. The main character is assigned to a voting precinct in a giant Church-run urban institution that is a combination of convent, school, sanitarium and psychiatric asylum. As the author catalogs the great variety of voters and all their mental and physical needs (paraplegics; blind, deaf, immobile, insane, unresponsive), the story becomes a parody of what is the act of voting about. Even “normal” people run the gamut from anger, suspicions and complaints about spots on their ballot, to those who are gleeful about the process. Calvino makes parallels of the voting act with a religious rite and leaves us with the feeling of “….the certainty of what they were doing, but also a hint of absurdity” and why these elections “…were mistaken for an expression of the will of the people.”In Smog a young man moves to a large, dirty Italian city to become editor of “Purification,” a journal about air pollution. Of course he becomes obsessive about his dirty apartment, washes his hands constantly, and worries about visits from his upper-class girlfriend.In Ants, a young couple rents a house in an area overrun with ants. Again, we have the scientific cataloging of how the ants invade the home, insecticides, the learning from neighbors about ways to kill and trap the ants.Great absurdist stories!

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