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.Invisible Cities (Vintage classics)

by: Italo Calvino

October 02, 1997
My eyelids feel heavy and sleep overcomes me whenever I open this book.

It is extremely dull to read this book, though I suspect you're considered a total Philistine for saying so in polite company.
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.If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (Vintage Classics)

by: Italo Calvino

November 01, 2007
What on earth are all these reviewers who've given this book five stars DOING with their lives?! Do they really believe this stream of self-absorbed intellectual showboating is worth the considerable effort that's required to finish it?

I read If On A Winter's Night...because it was prescribed by my book club (!) and I only struggled to the end because I wanted to see if Calvino's mental doodlings would eventually pinpoint some universal truth - surely the purpose of all serious literature?

Instead, it left me completely cold. There is nothing here for anyone who spends their time engaging in the real world, with real people. The book says nothing of any significance about love, courage, dignity, humility or any of the ... Read More:
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.Our Ancestors (Vintage classics)

by: Italo Calvino

February 20, 1992
Every single one of Calvino's works are radically different from one another, and this is made no more aparent here. The three stories, The Cloven Viscount, Baron in The Trees and The Invisible Knight, all differ massively. The Baron in the trees is a tale of a boy who lived upon tree branches for his whole life, The Cloven Viscount relates how a man is cut in two yet his two halves survive, one evil the other good, and The Invisible Knight tells the story of a knight who is non-existant, and defined only by an empty suit of armour. Of course, each story is told in its own way: The Baron in The Trees is narrated by the protagonist's brother, The Invisible Knight is a third person narration, and The Cloven Viscount is told in a style reminiscent of a ... Read More:
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.The Baron in the Trees (Harbrace Paperbound Library, 72)

by: Italo Calvino

March 31, 1977
Recently I have read a lot of disappointing books so it was great to read this one. I thought it was brilliant. A little surreal and yet totally believable. Italo is a wonderful author and describes everything so well. I found it hard to put this book down. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read something a little different to the usual 'modern' day novels churned out on a daily basis.
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.Difficult Loves (Vintage Classics)

by: Italo Calvino

September 27, 1993
This collection of short stories inspires the imagination with highly original ways of focussing on the minute details of peoples lives within the space of a few pages. the collection starts with a selection of, 'The adventure of...' stories and each revolve around a person in a situation that if anyone else wrote it would seem mundane but Calvino seems to ease out beauty and sincerity within.

Within each story there is a familiarity you feel whether it is the awkwardness of the soldier or the hightened presense of people around you, when you try to sleep, as in the traveller.

The adventures of a photographer is so original that even if it was written in the postmodern today- of which with his later metafictions Calvino was a pioneer- it ... Read More:
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.The Path to the Spiders' Nests (Vintage classics)

by: Italo Calvino

February 04, 1999
This collection of short stories inspires the imagination with highly original ways of focussing on the minute details of peoples lives within the space of a few pages. the collection starts with a selection of, 'The adventure of...' stories and each revolve around a person in a situation that if anyone else wrote it would seem mundane but Calvino seems to ease out beauty and sincerity within.

Within each story there is a familiarity you feel whether it is the awkwardness of the soldier or the hightened presense of people around you, when you try to sleep, as in the traveller.

The adventures of a photographer is so original that even if it was written in the postmodern today- of which with his later metafictions Calvino was a pioneer- it ... Read More:
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.Six Memos for the Next Millennium (Vintage classics)

by: Italo Calvino

September 05, 1996
It isn't often that you find a writer whose literature you enjoy and whose non-fiction writing is even more enjoyable. Calvino is one such writer for me. His Memos for the next millenium are his collection of musings on what makes great literature great and the skills that he aspired to holding as a writer, as well as those skills that he admired in other writers. For the student of literature and for would be writers everywhere this is an intelligent, witty, compelling and persuasive collection of lectures. Would be that all criticism were so balanced, informative and instructive as Calvino's.
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.The Castle of Crossed Destinies (Vintage Classics)

by: Italo Calvino

October 02, 1997
Nice idea. Must have seemed clever and original at the time, but in all honesty just a bit of a bore. OK he tries to cover all the big stories of medieval literature in a novel way, and gets marks for being intellectual, but he whole thing is so smug and self-knowing that it gets dull very quickly. And he does it twice! -- Once in a castle and again in a tavern! I enjoyed the chapter on himself and the chapter merging King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth into one tangled story, but it took along time to get to them. This book won't take long to read, but it'll feel a lot longer. In the end notes he talks about how he wanted to write a third part but moved on to new projects before he got round to doing it. I like some Calvino a lot... if on a winter's night an traveller ... Read More:
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.If on a Winter's Night a Traveller

by: Italo Calvino

February 20, 1992
this is one of calvino's greatest works, and, therefore, one of the worlds greatest works. a masterful, crystaline, structure houses a perfect narrative. and even in translation it reads well on a line by line basis.
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.Cosmicomics

by: Italo Calvino

March 04, 1994
In the beginning, there was... Qfwfq? Italo Calvino apparently thought so -- his magical-realist fantasy "Cosmicomics" is one of the two best novels he ever wrote. Enchanting, surreal and whimsical, this is a look at the history of the cosmos that you will never find in any astronomy books.

Qfwfq is an ancient being -- he was a child playing with his family when the matterless void began to produce.... "things." Along with others of his kind, he has lived an immeasurably long lifetime, watching the Big Bang itself -- uniquely described in this case -- and the galaxy form, the earth cool and start to produce life.

And so Qfwfq goes through the ages, with all the rivalries, crushes, lost loves and exciting discoveries that a person experiences ... Read More:
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