Aaron Schmid’s Reviews > Our Ancestors > Status Update
Aaron Schmid
is on page 287
The Cloven Viscount was great. Like The Baron in the Trees, it has a fairly simple premise, but it's written with beautiful simplicity and lightness, as is totally characteristic of Calvino. I'd say it's nearly flawless. It's only 122 pages if you buy the standalone paperback, but in this edition it was even fewer: only 68 pages! What a fantastic novelette. On to The Nonexistent Knight now, for more absurd wonder :)
— Nov 07, 2025 11:51PM
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Aaron’s Previous Updates
Aaron Schmid
is on page 382
I finished it. The Nonexistent Knight was a fantastic companion to the Once and Future King, which I also finished earlier this year. It's hard to say why I appreciated this one so much, but it's partly the dialectical structure of existence and humanity, past and future. The frame is great. I love the idea of writing to a book, haha. That empty suit of armor, perfectly preserved. Agilulf lives! It was amazing. 5/5
— Nov 09, 2025 10:18PM
Aaron Schmid
is on page 35
Brilliant as ever. The Cloven Viscount has a great opening. It made me recoil, and then laugh. But his little genuflection with the octopus halves... Calvino dishes up some rare treats. Both stories I have left in this collection are sub-100-pages. Should make for some fun, fast, and light reading. Been doing that a lot lately, with Metamorphosis and The Stranger. This seems a fitting continuation of that trend.
— Nov 07, 2025 01:14AM
