Invisible Cities (A Harvest/Hbj Book)

Rating:
Summary: A book.
Review: Calvino ranks up there with Boccaccio, Dante, and Eco as one of Italy's finest literary exports. Read this book and any other written by the man I wish to name my first child (boy or girl) after. You will not regret it, for even if one were not to enjoy his work one must at the very least admire it, and if not, well stick to Anne Rice you philistines.

Rating:
Summary: the crystal
Review: As I was reading the book, somehow I found myself searching for the crystals; their shapes and the infinite slope of the crystal..After reading the overview of Calvino in the end of the book about the formation of a crystal with each city being a different face of the crystal, everything was in its place in my mind..with all the thoughts and feelings bursting out in your mind, scattered all over the place; as if you could in no way get hold of anything, but still the very funny thing you come up in the very end becomes "the crystal" and how in fact everything had been so clear right from the beginning..Flowing through the clouds in a dream with divine pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: simply irrisistable
Review: if you havent read this book, be sure to get a hold of it. if you dont have an imagination that allows you to dream of beauty and of desires, then look up this book and you will be grateful. i came about the bok because of a school project....in architecture and now i wish i had studied it in literature because it just has so much to offer. let your imagination run wild, let the book take over your emotions nad your dreams and see what you make of it. its brilliant, something you can read in your leisure time and feel great about it! youll wanna keep going back to the book. the discovery is yours, the cities are yours to create....imagine them and live with your thoughts....no one can take that away from you@

Rating:
Summary: Intense travelogue of all points between heaven and hell
Review: Like the cities imagined here (most based on real-life counterparts), the plot isn't a standard A-to-B-to-C kind of thing. I read this book in university and admired the richness of detail, the broad sweep of the panoramas explored, the simple beauty of Polo's "racontage" to the great Kubla Kahn. Reading this book envelopes you in other worlds effortlessly, beautifully, majestically. So much so, your immediate surroundings melt into anonimity. Passionate writing, exquisite imagery. Weaver's translation is sumptuous! 'Nuff said!

Rating:
Summary: Invigorating
Review: Whoever has a problem with Calvino's 'Insivible Cities' obviously has little imagination. Calvino, on the other hand, is preoccupied with the human mind's ability to imagine. Some people see his cities in their mind's eye, adding texture, colour, hues and shapes and forms as they attempt to follow his visual descriptions. Other people create his cities through auditory means - they disect his descriptions and re-create it in song. For them, symphonies are Calvino's cities. Other people approach it with more kinethsetic means. They gain a sense of the city, without forming a picture, or constructing it through sounds and music. They feel what it would be to exist in Calvino's city. They connect with the cities nature. (see your local NLP for details. To be more precise, read "NLP explained") My point is, Calvino explores imagination the way no author has ever done. He frees himself of the here and now, the pieces of reality with which humans live with because they have been taught to do so. He perhaps understands the wonder that is the human imagination. Or, at least, he raises it as a conversational topic. Genius? Perhaps not, but has any other author achieved the same effect?

Rating:
Summary: SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!
Review: I have never read anything quite so beautiful and enchaunting. Calvino is a very talanted writter, his cities are something Salvador Dali would paint. I was also happy to notice that his writting is based on pure philosophy of logic, and it's free of any religeous or conservative ties.

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Summary: Best Travellers Companion
Review: This is the book I give all my friends who love the experience of travel. It is easy to read on subway, between meals on a long flight, and when you simply want a quick story to carry you to the next station. Also, a good book for the reader who thinks they are not a true book reader. I suggest it highly to parents to give their children when heading on a summer trip. Very thoughtful ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the time
Review: After reading numerous reviews of this book, i decided to read it for my self and was not in the least disapointed. The beauty of the italian language shines through the translation. I found the fragmented plot dreamlike and fascinating. An excellent read, especialy out-loud!

Rating:
Summary: It's Bad
Review: Gave it a try. Usually I like daring books and brave writers. Unfourently writers who are pretentious bother me greatly.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece Schmasterpiece!
Review: I beg to differ with those who consider this some sort of masterwork. Boring and pretentious are just two words that come springing to mind to describe this book. Now if you are itching for a book about NOTHING, then you will love this book. If this is Calvino's "masterpiece," I shudder to think of the poor trees that have been axed to archive Calvino's lesser oeuvre. I give this book a big ol' ZZZZzzzzzz....