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Summary: Italo Calvino's Absolute Masterpiece
Review: He wrote so many books, and most of them are good, some of the very good. But probably this is his real masterpiece, and the number of enthusiastic comments here should be proof of this. It is highly ironic that Calvino was busy writing his Citta' invisibili, that is, his invisible cities while Italians were busy spoiling their towns and cities--but that's the way history goes. This is the great modernist book for all those who have been scared by Ulysses; readable, crystal-clear and endlessly rich, witty, tender sometime. And with a great ending (it HAS and ending, after all)--which sounds terribly bitter to Italian ears. But English-reading people will be fascinated by its mythical echoes and hints. Besides, this is the best book to start with if you never read anything written by this great Italian writer. You can read the rest later (and you won't be disappointed), but this is THE Introduction to Calvino's multiple narrative worlds. Enjoy!
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Summary: Calvino is amazing
Review: Having read this book in both Italian and in English (and not being disappointed by the English translation) I have to Say the Italo Calvino is a truly masterful analytic writer. His gift of imagination works like a labryinth - intriguing , thought provoking and mysterious. "Invisible Cities" is a wonderful book.
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Summary: see review
Review: this text is an inspiring reminder that somthing beautiful and intriguing remains within the fabric of the city.calvino weaves a network of poetry and images that reveal the relationships between time, matter, memory, and people.what is left of an infinitely complex organism when it is compressed into a paragraph?calvino can locate the densest image without needing to enumerate all those that gravitate around it.
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Summary: Philosophy, Poetry, and Life distilled
Review: If this books does not make you yearn to learn Italian just to hear the flow of the text in its native tongue, nothing will. Some complain of lack of characters and lack of plot. "Pfaw!" I say to them. This is a book beyond such petty measurements. This is a short book, yet it will take you days to read it as each chapter, often no more than 2-3 pages, some as short as 1, takes you to a different experience of the human soul. Have you even felt constrained by your past, your relationships, your desires? All of this is here. This is not a "novel" in the classical sense, but rather a mode of exploration of what it means to be human, often disappointed, occaisionally enlightened, always questioning. This is a work of crystal, delicate, crafted, light. Come back to it again and again to learn!
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Summary: Poetic Descriptions of Cities are Fantastic
Review: I have never read a book like Invisible Cities. Each story is 1 - 3 pages in length and describes a different city. However, the descriptions are not so much the physicial characteristics of the cities, but the way the traveler feels upon entering or passing through each city. The book is more like poetry than a usual novel. Calvino's imagination is wonderful. I wish I knew Italian so that I could read this work in its original language.
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Summary: beyond perfect
Review: where should i begin? calvino takes us with this book to a new kind of writing, a new kind of being. if u want a proof to the uniqeness of books in the movie era you shoud read this one! no plot and hardly developed charcters, but the tension is in the words and the ideas, who take lives of their own, and we embark with them on a juorney to our innerselves upon calvino's amazing wings of imagination. i am astonished to discover time after time how calvino puts in a few pages, as if it's not such a hard effort, what i didnt find in complete fantasy novels who proclaym themselves "imagentive" but are actualy a recycling of the same ideas. after a few readings u would start to find new levels of ideas, new and infinate connections inside this never-ending book of mystery. read it.read again and again...
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Summary: calvino at his best
Review: i've read a few of calvino's other works, but always come back to this one as a favorite. these lovely little stories work on many levels, all of them filled with wonder, pleasure and a certain dark playfullness.
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Summary: Yes, I am a Calvino fan.
Review: Invisible cities, invisible cultures, invisible constructs of places I've been but have never seen, and places I've seen but have never been to. Calvino takes you on a journey of many levels and, yes, takes us to cities we've never seen or perhaps cities we've lived in all our lives. This is not a book for those who like beginnings, middles, and ends, but rather a book for those who are in the midst of their own journey. As with many of Calvino's works, I'm not at all sure this is a novel, but rather a commentary on the nature of the monuments we have built to contain who we are. I just finished reading this book yet again, and it continues to shed light on who we are.
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Summary: Cities contain life
Review: On the surface, of course it's a book about fantastic cities. Going deeper into it, you realize Calvino wanted to write, in fact, about desires, about the deads, about signs... I suggest, alternatively, not to follow the "right" order and read themes separatedly (all "Thin Cities" together, then all "Cities and Signs", for example).
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Summary: A cotton-candy confection, not a novel
Review: I didn't like it much, and never finished it. The writing style is pleasant, but without "real" characters or a plot, this book is hardly worth your time. Perhaps if you left it in the bathroom? Then all of those vacant little tableaux would be of just the right length...
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