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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
medium-paced
After reading others reviews here I'm certain that if Calvino walked into a room, dropped a massive shit, then just walked out mumbling something mildly witty, it'd be rated 5 stars and everyone would talk about the genius behind it while I'd just be standing in the corner screaming,"BUT WHERE'S THE FUCKING PLOT?!?"
This was the book which did not want to be found. For nearly a year I kept my eyes peeled for it, casually at first, vigorously for the last five months of that time. I went to used bookshops looking only for this novel, I tried new bookstores and was ready to pay those extra pennies for it, in cities and small towns in British Columbia and Ontario, but I could never find it. When I got an e-reader for travelling (and thought how I'd better travel with this one) I searched online but could not find anywhere to buy a digital copy. It was such an infuriating thing, and I will still buy a physical version of this book if it ever comes into existence again because I had to get it onto my e-reader using alternate means.
I first heard about this book back when I was in that Medieval Spatial Theory class where I was reading that dry and heavy tome, [b:The Production of Space|328403|The Production of Space|Henri Lefebvre|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347614979s/328403.jpg|1093553], interspersed with Middle English poetry. Marco Polo's [b:The Travels|574929|The Travels|Marco Polo|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1175924299s/574929.jpg|2369172] was a text for the class and Italo Calvino's name came up quite naturally as it bridged the theory and the literary. What are cities and what do they mean? Is a city the same from one moment to the next because it maintains a name and a mostly-fixed geographical location, or does it constantly change to become a different city? How do each of us know cities differently, and can we call it the same place when there are such differences in what it means to us? All those kinds of questions are raised in this book and made it constantly interesting. Calvino writes beautifully and the way his ideas take shape really pulls at me.
The faults I found were two: that I had a digital copy which diminished the aesthetic of the book and did, I think, affect how it is meant to be read (for which I do not fault Calvino, of course), and that I'm not very fond of the cities-as-women/women-as-utopias that pervades it. Calvino really Gazes at women, and I found the same thing in [b:If on a Winter's Night a Traveler|374233|If on a Winter's Night a Traveler|Italo Calvino|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355316130s/374233.jpg|1116802]. He is constantly reading women but it doesn't seem like he ever listens to them. He is always the authority/author who can interpret them better than they could themselves or even enhance them by the poetry of his evaluations. They seem so aesthetic in his novels and I can't see eye-to-eye with him on that. Whenever he writes about women I wish he'd just stop, really. So while he's got women that are characters and frustrating, there's also the fact that all these cities have female names and I would have liked the book better if it were possible to ignore the fact.
I first heard about this book back when I was in that Medieval Spatial Theory class where I was reading that dry and heavy tome, [b:The Production of Space|328403|The Production of Space|Henri Lefebvre|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347614979s/328403.jpg|1093553], interspersed with Middle English poetry. Marco Polo's [b:The Travels|574929|The Travels|Marco Polo|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1175924299s/574929.jpg|2369172] was a text for the class and Italo Calvino's name came up quite naturally as it bridged the theory and the literary. What are cities and what do they mean? Is a city the same from one moment to the next because it maintains a name and a mostly-fixed geographical location, or does it constantly change to become a different city? How do each of us know cities differently, and can we call it the same place when there are such differences in what it means to us? All those kinds of questions are raised in this book and made it constantly interesting. Calvino writes beautifully and the way his ideas take shape really pulls at me.
The faults I found were two: that I had a digital copy which diminished the aesthetic of the book and did, I think, affect how it is meant to be read (for which I do not fault Calvino, of course), and that I'm not very fond of the cities-as-women/women-as-utopias that pervades it. Calvino really Gazes at women, and I found the same thing in [b:If on a Winter's Night a Traveler|374233|If on a Winter's Night a Traveler|Italo Calvino|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355316130s/374233.jpg|1116802]. He is constantly reading women but it doesn't seem like he ever listens to them. He is always the authority/author who can interpret them better than they could themselves or even enhance them by the poetry of his evaluations. They seem so aesthetic in his novels and I can't see eye-to-eye with him on that. Whenever he writes about women I wish he'd just stop, really. So while he's got women that are characters and frustrating, there's also the fact that all these cities have female names and I would have liked the book better if it were possible to ignore the fact.
This inspired the biggest unrequited mind-crush I've ever had.
if i had any artistic ability at all i would've drawn all over this, because calvino makes it hard not to with his consistently lovely descriptions of these cities. i think my favorite city described as the one where people have strings attached to represent various relationships, but they're all really great. a new favorite book.
a beautiful experiment in setting that spins small vignettes of dozens of invented cities, and in doing so discovers the relationship between a visionary traveler who misses home and the recumbant emperor who does not really have one. unfortunately, the fatphobia, transphobia, and anti-semitism wear down the allure a fair bit.
challenging
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
reflective