Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino

It is difficult to describe this book. Nearly every word and line contains something profound, beautiful, or otherwise memorable. Invisible Cities consists of a series of carefully constructed descriptions of cities, which are divided into various categories, including - but not limited to - Thin Cities, Continuous cities, and Cities and Desire. Each is related by the famous Venetian merchant/explorer Marco Polo for the entertainment of the great Kublai Khan. Through their conversation and Polo's accounts, the Khan expects to gain a greater understanding of his kingdom, but he soon discovers that his guest is not necessarily describing real cities, or different cities. Calvino has created a complex and layered examination of human society, perception, symbols, architecture, and the many manifestations of fear and desire which generate the cities of the world.

Totally Awesome Must Read!
5 out of 5
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The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino

This slim piece of Calvino is something to chew on, a new lens, new direction. It contains a collection of intertwined stories told through the interpretation of Tarot cards by mute travelers at a mysterious crossroads. As each individual story is laid down, it is discovered that common cards are needed to accommodate them all. Calvino gives us the first stories, those that are universal; each crosses and meshes, compliments and mirrors. But the interconnectedness of the tales is more than the surface crossing of the recent trend of showing multiple tangential plots in popular books and films (e.g. Pulp Fiction, Babel, etc.), which only meet on a one-dimensional plane. The sharing of Tarots highlights the interpretive nature of storytelling, and of experience itself. Even the well-known stories that emerge (Faust, Macbeth, and others) are not rigid, but are shifting, open entities. Calvino leaves us with the sense that there is no limit to the gradient of interpretation, or complication, of life.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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