Rating: 
Summary: intelligent
Review: the central conceit (someone who chooses to live in trees) is a good one, and is intelligently followed through. here we have the conflict between custom (nomos) and the natural law (physis), played out in a literal sense as the man-made house is abandoned for a life in the trees. what we are offered is a patchwork of stories that make up an unconventional life.i progressed through the book slowly and found there to be little dramatic tension in it, the result, perhaps, of the author preferring the 'anecdotal' style of narrating; Calvino tells us how most of the episodes will end at the beginning of each episode. intensity is only really achieved in the complicated relationship between Cosimo and Viola, which is handled with great perceptiveness and literary skill. that said, there is plenty to enjoy in this book; tales of piracy, bandits, wars and philosophers. the book contains some useful general insights too; Calvino is surely a prescient environmentalist when he tells us that the forests Cosimo inhabited throughout his life have been destroyed by "men who loved nothing, not even themselves". overall, i thought that the ideas in this book were very modern, and that the author was extremely competent at evoking places, scenes, characters, etc. but the force of the work was slightly reduced for me by the anecdotal manner in which it was delivered.
Rating:
Summary: An arboreal existence
Review: This novel, told from the perspective of the main character's younger brother, is the story of Cosimo, a young baron-to-be in 18th-century Italy who climbs a tree to defy his parents and never comes down. The magical nature of the story is compelling, and Calvino is a marvelous craftsman of fantasy. The book does have some flaws: I had fundamental problems with Cosimo's reasons for going into the tree in the first place and deciding to remain there; it seemed to me that he spent his life in the trees out of sheer stubbornness. This explanation, in the midst of a book that seemed to be trying to say something through Cosimo's wisdom, was unsatisfying for me. But the scenes which deal with human relationships are stunning in their truth (if not their objective reality), and the arboreal world Calvino creates is one that I'd like to see. One of my students recommended this book to me, and I am grateful to him for doing so. I'm somewhat at a loss to compare this book with anything else I've ever read--but I do recommend it.
| 
