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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
One of the most stunning books I've read in a long time. Invisible Cities was not only the exact book I needed at this point in my life, but it's also one I know I'll be coming back to for a while.
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I will come back, at some later date, to give perhaps a more detailed review of this frankly unbelievable piece of writing. Maybe I won't. In my preliminary research I saw a quote from some notable literary critic - so notable that I can remember neither the name or the quote exactly. In any case, it was something along the lines of: to describe a book like this is to ruin the magic within it. Something like that. It might have been attached to Invisible Cities. It might not have been.
Regardless, that sentiment stuck in my head the entire time I was reading this, thinking about how much I would love to recommend this to so many people, and to discuss it with even more. I do not know how I would recommend this book in any way other than the vague dancing-around-the-point I am doing currently.
That's why I say maybe I will come back and write something more detailed. But, this seems to be a work that evades any precise description, at least from my inexperienced mind.
Unreal imagination. I would have read the entire thing in a day had I not suffered a massive headache/nausea combination in the evening. I almost feel compelled to immediately read this again - but I shall not. I will let the magic rest within me, so that a return will be so much sweeter.
~
"And Polo said: 'The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together.'"
Regardless, that sentiment stuck in my head the entire time I was reading this, thinking about how much I would love to recommend this to so many people, and to discuss it with even more. I do not know how I would recommend this book in any way other than the vague dancing-around-the-point I am doing currently.
That's why I say maybe I will come back and write something more detailed. But, this seems to be a work that evades any precise description, at least from my inexperienced mind.
Unreal imagination. I would have read the entire thing in a day had I not suffered a massive headache/nausea combination in the evening. I almost feel compelled to immediately read this again - but I shall not. I will let the magic rest within me, so that a return will be so much sweeter.
~
"And Polo said: 'The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together.'"
fast-paced
This is only the second novel I've read of Calvino's, the first being If on a winter's night a traveler. Something about Calvino's prose cuts to my core. His work is not the most digestible, and I oft find myself re-reading a section, dissecting the combination of words I have never seen before. How Calvino writes is how I'd hope to one day be able to find the balance between focal points and floweriness in my writing. He etches his thoughts in novel ways, always observing. It may be tempting to categorize his work as pretentious truisms if it weren't for the fact that his writing is not declarative. It is conversational. It's like each point is not a point but a prompt, inviting the reader to reflect on their own experiences. This short novel is a mosaic of takes on cities, cities that are imagined and yet perhaps not too far off from reality (if one cares to indulge in surrealism). It's at this point in my reviews that I tend to like to insert quotes, but I have too many tabs and annotations to pick ones that are representative of the work, since each micro-chapter is but a window in a building entirely made up of windows, and what you see through one is not exactly what you'd see through another, though they are very much part of the same structure. Still, I'll humbly try:
Desires are already memories. (8)
"'Elsewhere is a negative mirror. The traveler recognizes the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and never will have.'" (29)
"'Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased,' Polo said. 'Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it. Or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.'" (87)
"...'It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.'" (135)
"'Also in Raissa, city of sadness, there runs an invisible thread that binds one living being to another for a moment, then unravels, then is stretched again between moving points as it draws new and rapid patterns so that at every second the unhappy city contains a happy city unaware of its own existence.'" (149)
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I believe myself to be a fairly intelligent reader. I like to challenge myself and work through a book, picking it apart and coming away with some sort of new perspective or brain cell to show for my work. Having read through the reviews of this novel, I really felt I'd come away from it feeling awed.
While the prose was beautiful, and Calvino's descriptions of cities fascinating, I just didn't take much away from this in the end. I just finished If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, and found that novel to be much more engaging than this one. Maybe I'm just not as smart as I'd like to think.
While the prose was beautiful, and Calvino's descriptions of cities fascinating, I just didn't take much away from this in the end. I just finished If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, and found that novel to be much more engaging than this one. Maybe I'm just not as smart as I'd like to think.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
Poetic reflections on city after city that are all cities. SO GOOD.