Rating: 
Summary: A cotton-candy distraction, not a novel.
Review: I'm open to new forms of writing, but this book simply failed to hold my interest. Without any claim to reality or even well-defined characters, it dissolves into a series of poetic tableaux. Keep it in the bathroom, maybe.
Rating: 
Summary: Visualize
Review: Can I tell you how much I love Italo Calvino? When you come to Calvino you are probably lost, tired, or under duress from an overzealous English professor. You think, what is the style of this man? About what does he write? And why are the chapters so short? And could he not choose more hideous type in which to set the names of those chapters? Ah, now you are beginning to truly love Calvino. For it is only when you recognize that the man maddens you no end, that his "style which is no style" (as he says of himself in IOAWNAT) is gentle and beautiful and feels like an old friend-but an old friend that you never met-that you can truly begin to live inside one of his novels. And you will never want to leave. Savor this book. Read it slowly, one magic city at a time. Exist in it for weeks, turning the lessons like foreign coins over in your mind. And get the book in paperback so it won't damage the walls. Bon voyage.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece from a master
Review: Calvino does here what only the best writers at their peak do: he creates a work that is absolutely transcendent, one so rich in imagery and imagination that the reader becomes co-creator with the author. He spins poetical prose that is evocative, meaningful, and delightful without ever slipping into pretense or letting the seams show. That this stunning display of language is *translated* is astonishing - but then, you could say that of "If On A Winter's Night," "Cosmicomics," or just about any other Calvino classic. This bests the others, though, in sheer beauty and brilliance. Perfect for rereading, since you'll never come away from any page with the same impression twice.
Rating:
Summary: Not to be missed
Review: My only regret is that I didn't read it sooner! It has changed the way I will think about cities forever (including my own). Calvino writes with such imagination you can't help but be inspired. A beautiful journey for a rainy day...
Rating:
Summary: I travel with this book, figuratively and literally.
Review: Invisible Cities changed my perception of the city in which I live and the cities to which I travel
Rating:
Summary: No one writes about cities like Calvino dooes.
Review: For one reasone or another, a large proportion of the earth's population now dwell in cities. Hence, cities reflect collected humanity. As Calvino takes cities apart and analyze them right down to every minute and fabulous detail, he is really writing about human beings, about all of us. This book is undoubtedly one of the most exciting inventions of 20th century literature
Rating:
Summary: intoxicating
Review: very beautifully written
Rating:
Summary: Opening the slim book, you notice the table of contents.
Review: Although unusual it seems very orderly. There are 12 categories of cities and exactly 5 cities of each type. The first and last chapters each contain 10 cities; the middle chapters contain 5 each. However, the categories seem haphazard: "Thin Cities", "Cities and the Dead", "Cities and Eyes". Each short description of each city is self contained, and can be read in any order. However, reading the book from cover to cover a "narrative" emerges; a narrative without characters, without recurring locations, without events. There is also a framing story with Marco Polo and Kublai Khan at the Khan's palace, but they later admit they do not exist
Rating:
Summary: A journey from which you may not want to return
Review: Ways of looking a places and people that will gently stretch your imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Erratic, fantastic, beautiful
Review: You will never again see cities in quite the same way
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