Calvino, Italo

Average customer rating:

one of the great modern experiments with the novel
Lightning quick and smooth
Strange but beautifuly strange
'Literature' vs. 'Fiction', the smack-down
A fabulous fabulist for the patient traveler

If on a winter's night a traveler
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Invisible Cities (A Harvest/Hbj Book)
Cosmicomics
The Baron in the Trees
Difficult Loves
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings (New Directions Paperbook)

ASIN: 0156439611

Amazon.com

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration--"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.

The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches--stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition--with explorations of how and why we read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."

Book Description

Calvino shows that the novel, far from being a dead form, is capable of endless mutations. If on a winter’s night a traveler turns out to be not one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

one of the great modern experiments with the novel.......2007-06-19

Italo calvino's fascinating study of the novel which confronts the reader in a very direct fashion is one of the best books of the last 50 years.. It is right up in the same category as marquez' 'one hundred years of solitude', in my humble opinion.. Despite the constant shifting and shuffling of stories the book somehow maintains a whole, a brilliant structure.. I would highly recommend this book for anyone willing to delve into the form of the novel and how different stories can be told simultaneously and actually increase your love of reading..

Lightning quick and smooth.......2007-04-22

Great collection of short apocrypha, told parallel to a love story between two readers; Calvinos self-referential style and the breadth of the vignettes makes this a quick read with memorable results.

Strange but beautifuly strange.......2007-04-22

WOW what a strange book!
I mean, have you ever thought about how huge your reading passion is? To be honest I didn't. Of course I love to read and on question "Without what you can imagine your life?" my answer always includes books but what would you do (not in literally of course) to find your missing book and to heal your reading fever? I'm not sure I ever felt that agonizing reading fever - until now. I know sounds silly but let me explain:

Of course when you enjoy enormously in book you're reading you'll finish it in one swallow and maybe (probably) reread some of its parts or entire book; maybe you'll copy some quote in your special notebook and memorize them etc. and that is I guess normal destiny after meeting right book with right reader. But imagine this situation: You're reading one of the best books you've ever read and you're aware of that fact so you're eating, drinking, breathing pages, one after another; film is rolling in your mind, you thinking about surprise on the next page and you're running to see what is behind the corner and then ... nothing... blank wall, no streets, no cars, no people, no nothing ... blank page.... OK maybe this is printing error, maybe after that blank page the story will continue ... imagine that state of mind: no rereading, no quotes, no following of your new friends destiny. You're feeling cheated. Isn't that horrible? Oh it is, it is...
And this book is about that sudden emptiness you're feeling and that desperate search to find next page. And yes, the main character is "You" (dear reader), and yes precisely you are feeling tachycardia and yes your blood pressure is rising in that dark, surreal chase ... for a book (imagine this!)

This postmodern novel is some sort of reader's nightmare, always in search for your book or women (or both), or feeling writer's agony. This book is from time to time dark, totally surrealistic, and breathtakingly inventive. Did I mention that "You" are the main protagonist?

With its 260 pages some might think it's easy, light read but no, not easy read at all; sometimes you just need to rest a little bit to digest all what you eat so far (and it's a quite menu), this book is for savoring, for letting each sentence to melt slowly on your tongue. Or that is case with me who doesn't read several novels in the same time. However for some of you who practice that, reading this book will be, most likely, different experience.

Here I'd like to include one quote I like very much:

"Reading is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid, material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present, something else that belongs to the immaterial, invisible world, because it can only be thought, imagined, or because it was once and is no longer, past, lost, unattainable, in the land of the dead...
... Or that is not present because it does not yet exist, something desired, feared, possible or impossible. Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be"

'Literature' vs. 'Fiction', the smack-down.......2007-04-11

This is a tough book to review. In part because I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's one part interesting, one part dull, and one part vexing. Sadly, the first chapter was the absolute best, and the humor and fun found there is not carried throughout the rest of the book. It's not that I mind the starting and stopping of numerous story snippets. The fact that those tales were not complete does not really bother me, though that may be because I only found one or two even remotely engaging, and several of them downright dull or just plain weird. Throughout the book you're told about how these stories end at climactic moments, leaving you wanting more - but for the most part, I felt relief when those bits were over, because I felt they were but a brief interruption into the `main' story. And I felt that the `main' story was working towards something, until I got about 2/3 or the way through and it took a detour through Weirdsville from which it never returned. The `falsehoods' and `lies' bits and secret police upon secret police and the spy who might be her, but maybe not, but what does it matter... Oh, for god's sake just tell a story! Get. To. The. Point. Oh, that's right, there wasn't one. In the end, I have to say that the very last bit (about the only two ways a story could end, and `your' abrupt decision) was cute, but certainly not the culmination I had hoped for. It never really tied itself up, or came to a coherent point. It just... ends.

If blogging had been around in Calvino's time I would have said that this book was nothing more than a way he strung together a bunch of snippets written, perhaps, in response to writing group prompts that he was proud of, but didn't really see how to develop. Then he gave all the bits titles that would work (that was, I admit, clever) and threw them into the middle of a story - a weird story - that waxed poetic about readers, writers, and counterfeiters.

Now, it wasn't all bad. Very few books get that distinction, though I have read a few. The translator deserves a huge round of applause for making the text flow so very well. Unless, of course, the original story in Italian is about Zombie Armadillos that decimate the human species. Then I'd say he didn't stay faithful in his translating (though I can't say I might not have found Zombie Armadillos a touch more interesting). But the words were very... smooth and creamy; flowing very masterfully. And if that is what you like in a book, then by all means, this is a great book. If you love language more than the actual stories it tells, this is a book for you.

In reading this book, and reading about readers, I did realize a bit about myself. When I read (at least, when I read a good book), I am almost transported into the story. I like books I can really get into. While I'm reading, the text is flowing around me, creating a picture and a setting in my mind. In that sense, I'm not so much concentrating on the language as much as the meaning. My head transforms the words into my own little movie, and I become engrossed in it. So you can just tell me, "You're in a meadow" and my mind creates a meadow. You do not need to go into beautiful flowing detail about all the flowers in the meadow. My mind puts them there, and I can `see' them, when you say "meadow." Move on to the point! This is a novel, a story, so tell it to me!

This is not to say I can't appreciate beautiful prose. In a paragraph, a good turn of phrase, or something short and pretty, yes, I love it as much as the next person. But to create a novel of it... no, that doesn't work for me. I need plot. If I don't get plot, my mind wanders into a plot of my own and I lose interest in the book. Then I'm just daydreaming.

This book was not for me, but it was well written, in terms of the language used. The plot was sadly lacking, and because of the odd 2nd person POV used throughout a lot of the book, you don't really get much of a sense of the characters. I would only recommend it to people who either 1) love language and the use of it more than the story or 2) think saying you read a book by Calvino would elevate you in literary status and make you look all smart-like. I hesitate to say I'm sorry I read it, but I would never ever-ever read anything by him again, even though this is not supposed to be representative of his work...

A fabulous fabulist for the patient traveler.......2007-03-31

My first impressions of this novel almost misled me into putting the book away for another, which I almost never do. It seemed that the writer was working too hard to be coy, cute, precious and intrusive with his readers and I resented it. When the artifice is overpowering, as I find is sometimes the case in reading Pynchon, then the literary value of the work seems somehow diminished. Fortunately, I was able to see Calvino as a fabulist for which more patience in the willing suspension of disbelief should be granted, much like Jose Saramago, for example, and my patience with Calvino was rewarded. After all, fables by their nature work within a structure where the artifice is simply inherent in the literary medium. Calvino turns upside-down the conventions of plot design and pushes its bounds until the reader understands that his apparently absurd story line unfolds much like life reveals itself. When he manages to pull off this effect and the artifice-laden fable assumes an astonishing versimilitude, then one has to give him credit for great invention in his narrative style and I do. "Myths and mysteries consist of impalpable little granules, like the pollen that sticks to the butterfly's legs; only those who have realized this can expect revelations and illuminations." (p. 254) If you believe that every novel must have a beginning, middle and end, then read Calvino patiently and enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

Average customer rating:

Polo Ties Khan in Filosofical Final
I bet I know the reason all the cities have women's names.
This book is a masterpiece for me.
Calvino's Mantra
An Atlas of the Imaginary World

Invisible Cities (A Harvest/Hbj Book)
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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If on a winter's night a traveler
Cosmicomics
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ASIN: 0156453800

Amazon.com

"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla, which "has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be," the spider-web city of Octavia, and other marvelous burgs, it may be that he is creating them all out of his imagination, or perhaps he is recreating details of his native Venice over and over again, or perhaps he is simply recounting some of the myriad possible forms a city might take.

Book Description

Imaginary conversations between Marco Polo and his host, the Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, conjure up cities of magical times. “Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvelous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant” (Gore Vidal). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

Polo Ties Khan in Filosofical Final.......2007-05-27

Back in the days of my wasted youth I was really into ZAP COMIX. For those readers unfamiliar with that august publication, the content was "highly varied" but almost always politically incorrect. One kind of page aimed at readers who did not flinch from inhaling certain controlled substances. There would be, for example, a house and garden in a cartoon box. In each successive box, a little bit more would disappear. In the next to last box, there would be a tiny circle, made into a `yang and yin' design and in the last box it would go "plink" or "poing !" and there would be nothing at all left. INVISIBLE CITIES brought these stoner cartoons to mind, because what you get out of the book (or the cartoons) is mainly what is already inside you. Marco Polo regales Kublai Khan with endless tales of the different cities he has visited while travelling round the great Mongol Empire. Each city bears a woman's name and some possess modern features never seen in the Venetian's lifetime. The description of each city gives some kind of philosophical essence, so that what we are really reading is a kind of compound of Calvino's imagination and deep thoughts melded together into a kind of literary pill. It's up to you if you want to swallow it. "Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches." he intones. "The unhappy city contains a happy city unaware of its own existence." There's hundreds of mantras like this, kind of literary Chinese fortune cookies written by Khalil Gibran. In the end, Marco admits that he's made up these descriptions, but says that if the two of them did not "think the cities and their inhabitants", they would not exist. The Khan agrees. If such sentiments and literary directions are your bag, then this could be a very interesting book. I note that the majority of reviewers were people who liked the book. This is not always the best guide for surfers with questions. For my part, I grew tired of the repetitive format, the somewhat shopworn philosophy. To each his own.

I bet I know the reason all the cities have women's names........2006-12-01

He's describing women he's known, in a kind of code, describing them intimately without giving away details. Why cities? Because when you fall in love, you are immersed in a whole new geography of mind and heart and place. Khan is the part of him that just tallies his conquests, Marco is the part of him that encounters them as real individuals. Ultimately they both admit they're not real, which means that the "cities" are the only reality.

This book is a masterpiece for me........2006-10-21

This book is a masterpiece for me. It accompanied me throughout a long journey that I took in Europe in the past. It is written in a poetic way that makes you think, reflect and enter into the fantastic world of the invisible cities of Kublai Khan's empire, created by Calvino. Marco Polo works for the Khan. He has to visit many towns of the Mongolian empire so that later he can share his impressions with the great Khan. This is mainly because the empire is so big that Kublai Khan would never be able to visit all towns of his empire.

Each chapter has the name of a town, which is described by Marco Polo. In addition, there are many dialogs between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo that are, in my point of view, the most exciting part of the book. The dialogs are so intelligent and stimulating that I read some of them many times. They can trigger our natural curiosity about the way we see things around us, the future, the past, the present, etc. It is a book to be read in a slow pace so we can reflect upon each part. It helped me to slow down my frequently rushed rhythm of life. How conscious are we while we write the pages of our lives?

Calvino's Mantra.......2006-09-07

_Invisible Cities_ is presented as a dialogue between explorer Marco Polo and the great Kublai Khan, in which the former is allegedly describing cities he has visited in the Khan's empire. In his story telling, Marco Polo characterizes these cities in every which way possible: by their inner structures, their denizens, from above, below, within, through their mirror images, and even utilizing modern day urban settings. We come to realize, through Kublai Khan's eyes, that Marco Polo is not speaking at all of various cities in Khan's Tartar empire, but of Marco Polo's native Venice.

I refer to _Invisible Cities_ as "Calvino's Mantra" because Mr. Calvino continually repeats, almost like a mantra, the birth, death, and rebirth of a city throughout history. Calvino's images of his city are death-ridden: deterioration, vermin, rot, and a sense of a perpetual pessimism as the old city is dying just as a new city is beginning to germinate. This is echoed throughout the book ad infinitum.

Italo Calvino's book is a puzzler, much as the circumstances seem to Kublai Khan, who is forced to face the facts of his crumbling empire during Marco Polo's talk. It took me at least half the book to figure out the point of Calvino's cleverly written and imaginative, if greatly frustrating novel. I cannot say that I am entirely satisfied with the results. For all its fancifulness, _Invisible Cities_ is not a particularly fun read.

An Atlas of the Imaginary World.......2006-08-23

Consisting entirely of descriptions of fantastical cities supposedly reported by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan, Calvino's fiction is sui generis, a completely original mixture of fable and philosophy that is even more imaginative than his more critical theory-oriented "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler." This is the kind of novel Borges might have written. A celebration of the unbridled imagination, "Invisible Cities" is also, I am convinced, a secret love letter to a single city: the imaginary dream-city of Venice, a place that exists partly as its own reflection in the sea.

Average customer rating:

Of fairy dust and cosmic equations
kid lit
Scientific Musings, Delightful Comedy, and Pure Fantasy - Imaginative Tales by a Master
ingenuous creativity, but bland at times
Another Reason Why Fiction Won't Ever Be Killed by Movies

Cosmicomics
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156226006

Amazon.com

An enchanting series of stories about the evolution of the universe. Calvino makes characters out of mathematical formulae and simple cellular structures. They disport themselves amongst galaxies, experience the solidification of planets, move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms -- and have time for a love life.

Book Description

Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. “Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?” Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

Of fairy dust and cosmic equations.......2006-11-02

Amazing, and though it's hard to write a cliche like this after reading something so incredibly original, it truly is unlike anything else you'll ever read. Calvino uses higher math elements as his characters and the construction of the universe and probably the destruction of time as his story line. Like the best of carnival rides, who knows what the heck's going on? But the ride is fantastic and just exists in its own space. Have fun with this-- but be careful: you might get lost at the outer/inner rim of creation.

kid lit.......2006-04-23

I really liked this book, not because it only took 2 days to read such a short collection of pages, but because it was like reading a child's book about the creation of the universe. Calvino is so very creative, I can't help but wonder if he was stoned when he thought of this idea...Non, non, ce n'est pas possible. Read it if you yourself are creative and looking for something fun to read. If you are overly serious and melancholic, then do not bother.

Scientific Musings, Delightful Comedy, and Pure Fantasy - Imaginative Tales by a Master.......2006-02-09

How does one describe Italo Calvino? A superb, imaginative story teller? A startlingly creative writer? Author of provocative, compelling, fantastical fiction?

Cosmicomics is a superb introduction to a uniquely remarkable author, a storyteller in a class by himself. These twelve tales begin with cosmological observations such as "At one time, according to Sir George H. Darwin, the moon was very close to the earth". What follows is a first person (or perhaps, first entity would be more precise), imaginative account, loosely tied to the introductory scientific premise.

The protagonists are decidedly strange, perhaps atomic scale particles, mathematical expressions, cellular structures, simple biological forms, or extinct creatures. Calvino never quite describes the story teller, leaving us to exercise our imagination. What is clear, however, is that these entities, rather remarkably, exhibit behaviors like jealousy, arrogance, self-delusions, rivalries, and ambition. Similarly, relationships between particles, or force fields, cells, or whatever, are described not by complicated equations, but are cast in familiar terms: we find uncles, spouses, lovers, and enemies.

The plots defy easy categorization. One involves a blind mollusk (no visual organ) contemplating the invisible beauty of his/her (gender is somewhat non-specific) colorful, spiral, carbonate shell. Another is a poignant account of two lovers separated by evolutionary divergence. A third involves two rivals falling endlessly along some gravitationally curved path. I was especially intrigued with a rather sensitive (and long-lived) character, becoming the subject of observations from distant galaxies, is deeply disturbed by his inability to alter his past actions, now forever fixed in light waves propagating across the universe.

Some reviewers have argued that not all stories are entirely successful. I agree. Some accounts are less structured and wandered around, becoming lost in Calvino's fantasy world. Nonetheless, I find myself returning to these stories for a second and third reading. I am compelled to award five stars to Cosmicomics: one star for superb story telling, one for exotic characters, one for scientific muddling, one for provocative observations, and one for delightful comedy.

ingenuous creativity, but bland at times.......2006-01-24

This is a collection of science-fiction short stories about the infinity of our universe, through the experience of Qfwfq, the main character. The infinity of space in our universe is also transposed into the infinity of time, and consequently Qfwfq is immortal and often shapeless. The beauty of the book emanates from the radical originality of Calvino's creative thought process. In these stories, he applies a scientific process to his humor, describing the vagaries of his characters, situations and the space of the universe in general, with scientific reasoning.

The first story, "Distance to the Moon", is my personal favorite. It starts with an era when the moon is so close to the earth that it is reachable with a ladder! The earth inhabitants harness this condition by raking in the cheese that is a natural resource on moon! The core of the story describes how this era comes to pass and blends into our current cosmo-geographic co-ordinates. The ending is most satisfying as it ties together many of our earthy myths, for example, cheese on the moon, and a maiden playing the harp on the moon, into this story, thus describing how these legends came into existence.

However, I cannot say the same of all the other stories. Calvino often dwells too much in his pseudo-scientific humor, which becomes a drag to even a scientist like me. The greater part of many of the stories are dedicated just to the concepts, characters and situations that are the creative genius of Calvino. As a consequence, the story itself goes nowhere, and is essentially a scientific meditation on these zany concepts. This is my opinion on stories like "A Sign in Space", "All at One Point" and "Game without end". Having said that there is still a lot of life and dynamism in many other stories like "The Dinosaurs", and "The Aquatic Uncle". All in all, a refreshingly original creation, although some stories are just that and not too much more.

Another Reason Why Fiction Won't Ever Be Killed by Movies.......2005-04-11

I forget how much writing can do sometimes until I come across a brilliant piece of experimental work. Even the category experimental falters under the brilliance of writers like Ondaatje (see the Collected Works of Billy the Kid) or, especially, the grand-Master himself, Calvino. This little book about the creation of the universe has it all. It's strange to find yourself relating to the moment that some fish took from sea to earth, sympathizing with the conservative elders and their praise for the old country (or sea I should say), yet wanting to run on the new land-generation's new legs and leave the elders behind; the story explores (although only metaphorically) the levels of immigration, emigration, natives versus foreigners back in the--what was it?--protozoan era. These stories function on a multitude of levels all at once. There are stories about the moon being just a jump from a boat at sea, and how the craters were filled with yogurt you could scoop out with your foot. The plots aren't the focus though, nothing is, and that's what's so spectacular about these stories: they work literally, metaphorically, primordially, biblically, mathematically, scientifically, philosophically, sociologically, linguistically, and any other -ally you can think of. This book has it all and does it all. Keep in mind it's told from the perspective of a character that existed before language did. Besides Calvino I can't imagine another author penning this work. This is a must for all fans of literature and those who like experimental work if you haven't read this stop everything and get your eyes on those pages.

Average customer rating:

one of calvino's best
Up in the trees
Fully Wonderful
Calvino at his best
A kingdom among the foliage

The Baron in the Trees
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount
Cosmicomics
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ASIN: 0156106809

Book Description

Cosimo, a young eighteenth-century Italian nobleman, rebels by climbing into the trees to remain there for the rest of his life. He adapts efficiently to an arboreal existence and even has love affairs. Translated by Archibald Colquhoun.

Customer Reviews:

one of calvino's best.......2006-07-24

One of Calvino's more accessible works, too. If you were put off by If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, try this more traditional novel. A great deal of fun. Goes great with coffee.

Up in the trees.......2006-07-01

Italo Calvino was one of the most underrated maestros of magical realism, where atoms fall in love and empty suits of armor walk and talk. And one of his most polished, reader-friendly stories was "Baron in the Trees," a fable about a nobleman who lives his whole life in a tree. Yes, it sounds weird -- but the result is sweet, uplifting and full of childlike wonder.

A young nobleman, Cosimo, was enraged when his eccentric sister made dinner out of his pet snails. So when his father ordered him to eat, he ran up a tree and swore to stay there forever. And he did, from his adolescence up to old age, becoming famous as the Baron in the Trees. Even at the death of his parents, he remained in the trees nearby, watching and helping -- but not coming down. Even when the Baron dies, he finds a way to ascend even higher...

Without leaving the trees, he manages to hunt animals, educate himself with great philosophers, adopts an abandoned dog, lends bestselling books to a local bandito, battles pirates who are conspiring with his uncle, has an affair with a promiscuous Marchesa, and even lives with a band of tree-dwelling Spanish exiles.

"Baron in the Trees" is a whimsical little story on the surface, until you look deeper at the message of "living in trees." Cosimo removes himself from the ground, and also removes himself from the worries of ordinary people -- social position, power, material goods. He's happy just to have friends, books, and his own private kingdom.

But even if you take it at face value, "Baron in the Trees" is an enchanting little story. Calvino's lush, detailed writing is always full of a child's wonder, and he sounds like he's living his own fantasies as he describes how Cosimo manages to sleep (a sort of fur cocoon), store his possessions and fall in live... while never stepping out of the tree. But Calvino manages to convey the bittersweetness of Cosimo's life: While he loves his odd life, he also knows that it alienates him from the rest of the world and leaves him alone.

Cosimo himself is a relatively distant character, since the whole book is through the eyes of his otherwise-unimportant brother. But he is surrounded by equally quirky characters -- his Jesuit-phobic father, "general" mother, creepy disgraced sister, and an array of book-loving bandits, odd priests, and peasants who get used to the tree-dwelling Baron.

A sweet, quirky fable about a young man who just won't come down to earth, "The Baron in the Trees" is a truly enchanting read.

Fully Wonderful.......2005-11-23

A beautiful fairy tale of a book. It never devolves into heavy-handed allegory. It's original, without stinking of Cleverness. Don't know what else to say. If you're into John Crowley, Borges, Ray Bradbury, or the Brothers Grimm, then you'll love this book. You'll probably love it anyway. Have fun.

Calvino at his best.......2004-08-10

The Baron in the Trees is one of the most enchanting novels ever written. When the Baron decides to take up his arboreal existence, one cannot help but believe he is making the right decision. Calvino fleshes out the Baron into one of the most believable characters in literature. This is an amazing feat considering the farcical lifestyle the Baron decides to adopt. Calvino takes the opportunity to create a world at once steeped in history, philosophy and politics while at the same time illustrating the everyday existence and lives of those around him. The cat skin hat, the exiles in the trees, the Napoleonic troops all brought to life with amazing detail. Memory, love and history all combine and swirl throughout the story. While there is nothing exactly magical or out of this world about this book, it is one of the best examples of magical realism I have read. I could not put this book down. Stop reading this review and buy the book.

A kingdom among the foliage.......2004-08-01

Like most of Italo Calvino's fiction, "The Baron in the Trees" is pure enchantment that charms the reader into an alternate reality with the warmth of subtle humor and the pioneering spirit, similar to Borges's, that desires to explore fascinating new literary territory within the context of world history. In this novel, set in Italy in the late eighteenth century, Calvino tells the story of a young baron named Cosimo Piovasco di Rondo who lives with his eccentric family in a villa on the edge of the town of Ombrosa. One day when he is twelve years old, after an argument with his parents (about having to eat snails), he runs out to the garden and climbs an oak, declaring that he will spend the rest of his life in the trees and vowing never to set foot on the earth again.

Like an arboreal Robinson Crusoe who has chosen his fate, Cosimo determines to make his living in the contiguous group of trees that link his family's garden with those of his neighbors and the forests beyond the town. He travels between trees by climbing and jumping from branch to branch, becoming as nimble and elusive as a squirrel, while he trains himself to survive by hunting wild animals for food and clothing and building a flume to draw drinking water from a waterfall. Even in the trees he engages in activities normally reserved for people on the ground: He continues his formal education, befriends a dachshund that helps him hunt, supports a bumbling brigand's reading habit, and even has an adventure on a pirate ship without touching the deck.

Through his life in the trees, Cosimo becomes notorious throughout Europe and attains a reputation for madness that gradually turns into a strange sort of esteem. He converses with strangers, meets a group of Spanish exiles who also happen to be tree-dwellers, becomes a writer and natural scientist, and wins the hearts of many ladies who provide him with sexual gratification--in the branches, of course. Far from becoming a Rousseauian savage or a hermit, however, he remains quite civilized and gregarious; his palpable wisdom and curious residence ironically earn him more respect than he would get from the people if he were just a normal land-dwelling baron.

Calvino presents the story as a biography narrated by Cosimo's younger brother Biagio, who with affectionate patience describes in vivid detail every aspect of Cosimo's life and is quite hilarious in his explanations of their beleaguered father, militaristic mother, and gruesome, mischievous sister Battista, a "kind of stay-at-home nun." His efforts to explain Cosimo require him to delve into the mind of a political philosopher who aspires to be as influential as Machiavelli: When his father admonishes him that living in trees does not befit a nobleman, Cosimo replies that a true leader is someone who has ideas and communicates them to the people, not a man with an inherited title.

"The Baron in the Trees" may be read as a parable about withdrawing from reality and creating an isolated fantasy world in which to live free from the constraints of society as the ultimate expression of individuality, or as just a wonderful fable about a boy becoming a man on his own terms. One thing is sure: you'll never look at a tree the same way again.

That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (New York Review Books Classics)

Average customer rating:

a philosophical whodunit
Promising but not really satisfactory
beautiful descriptions, less interesting as a book
A wonderfully baroque novel.
A Feast of Languages, but also the Ultimate Whodunit

That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (New York Review Books Classics)
Carlo Emilio Gadda
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1590172221
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are committed within a matter of days: a burglary, in which a good deal of money and precious jewels are taken, and a murder, as a young woman whose husband is out of town is found with her throat cut. Called in to investigate, melancholy Detective Ciccio, a secret admirer of the murdered woman and a friend of her husband’s, discovers that almost everyone in the apartment building is somehow involved in the case, and with each new development the mystery only deepens and broadens. Gadda’s sublimely different detective story presents a scathing picture of fascist Italy while tracking the elusiveness of the truth, the impossibility of proof, and the infinite complexity of the workings of fate, showing how they come into conflict with the demands of justice and love.

Italo Calvino, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Alberto Moravia all considered That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana to be the great modern Italian novel. Unquestionably, it is a work of universal significance and protean genius: a rich social novel, a comic opera, an act of political resistance, a blazing feat of baroque wordplay, and a haunting story of life and death.

Customer Reviews:

a philosophical whodunit.......2005-12-09

Obviously Gadda's novel is not the usual crime novel. Basically it's a literary masteripiece which happens to be *also* a crime novel. In it you have everything you usually find in a "classical" whodunit: a victim, a detective, some suspects, police inquiry, and the culprit. But these things are no more than a pretext for such an immense writer like Gadda to talk about Fascist Italy and the city of Rome (Gadda was born in Milan, but he chose to move to Rome and knew the city and the surrounding area incredibly well). Then you have his gift for language, his corrosive irony, his restless intelligence, his deep understanding of the human mind (also with a lot of psychoanalytical insight). Plus a wealth of references to Italian and Latin literature (such as the Retalli family, whose names echo those of Aeneas' family in Virgil' Aeneid). Plus a wide knowledge of Italian geography and anthropology. Not bad for a man who had graduated in engineering!
Somebody complained about descriptions. Well, actually those descriptions, which seem pointless at a first reading, are the plot itself. In the novel, if you read it carefully, you are even told who really killed the rich signora of Via Merulana (btw, a street which really exists in Rome, though at n. 219 there is a shop, not a block of flats). But everything is shown obliquely, indirectly, through allusions and hints that you may easily miss on a hurried reading. I'd say that this is a novel that unfolds reading after reading--just like all real masterpiece.

And I am not surprised Calvino extolled Gadda. Gadda is a slightly greater novelist than Calvino. Ehm, did I say "slightly"? I should have said "decidedly"! Obviously Calvino is one of the greats... but good ol' uncle Carlo Emilio is one of the "greatests". I am afraid, though, that some of his greatness may get lost in translation, though he has been "rewritten" by such a fine translator as William Weaver.

It's a pity Gadda's other masterpiece, his essay Eros and Priapo, a bewildering but absolutely brilliant psychonalysis of Fascism (told in a baroque mix of styles), hasn't been translated into English. Heh, this ain't a perfect world, folks...

Promising but not really satisfactory.......2001-08-23

I read the book in a new and good Dutch translation, that tries to render Gadda's use of dialects. The book has an interesting beginning and seems to be a detective work, but then Gadda looses himself in endless descriptions and the crimes are not solved at all. In the end the reader is left with a unsatisfactory feeling.

beautiful descriptions, less interesting as a book.......2001-08-20

The beginning is promising: one day a rich lady in the Via Merulana, Rome 1927, is robbed and a few days later the throat of another lady living in the same building is cut. Are these crimes related? Who did it? It is up to don Ciccio to solve this.

This looks like the start of a detective, but the book is not a detective. The investigations by the inspector and his colleagues are used by the author to give (beautiful) descriptions of anyone and anything the investigators meet on their way, be it a fellow inhabitant of the Via Merulana or a bunch of chicken running in front of a train. The book also contains a lot of non too flattering references to Mussolini, for whom Gadda has created a whole bunch of inventive nicknames.

My biggest problem was that after about half the book all descriptions start to be more of the same: they are beautiful, clear, inventive and therefore suprising, but there is not really a storyline.

So all in all: beautiful descriptions, less interesting as a book.

A wonderfully baroque novel........1999-04-08

A philosophical novel...murder mystery, this baroque, caustic, and ultimately poignant work has been lauded by no less than Italo Calvino, whose introduction alone is worth the cover price. Carlo Emilio Gadda--in this and in his only other published novel, _Acquainted With Grief_--concerned himself with the exploration of the interrelatedness of things, the never-ending, kaleidoscopic complexities of life, the myriad, frequently interrelated causes that converge to produce every effect. He was also vehemently anti-fascist, as his outraged--and hilariously scatological--rants against the Mussolini regime attest (Gadda started the novel soon after the close of WWII). More delightful still is Gadda's playful love of language, captured brilliantly in William Weaver's translation. (Why do so few translators, of any language, produce work as stylistically and linguistically rich as Weaver's? His work is consistently brilliant.) This is a fantastic novel. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy. Then thank whichever god you believe in that George Brazilier has for so many years kept this masterpiece in print, to the enrichment of us all.

A Feast of Languages, but also the Ultimate Whodunit.......1998-08-07

It is a great, original, learned, creative, enthralling novel; yes, sure. But it is also a masterpiece of the detective-story genre it its own right. A bold experiment with languages, but also a grandiose fresco of what life in the capital of Italy was like in the early years of Fascism. And a deformed picture of what Italy has been until a few years ago--and probably still is. Maybe detective Ingravallo, the police official who tries to disentangle the awful mess, is not as cynical as his colleagues Marlowe and Spade (not to mention their legitimate heir, Mr. Rick Deckard); but surely he's as clever as his American counterparts, and has the same uncanny ability to read the destinies of his country in the stories of the people he meets during his inquiries. Some of the linguistic wealth of this novel can get lost in translation (e.g. Gadda's wonderful use of Italian dialects, even more baroque than Chandler's usage of slang), but the beauty of the plot and the i! nsights into common history and individual stories are still there. Highly recommended to all those who think that Kafka, Proust, and Joyce are the only avantgarde classics around.

Average customer rating:

Laudable observations of life
These Stories Stay With You
Glimpses of exceptional ordinary lives...
Most of us can identify with at least one of these stories
Delightful

Difficult Loves
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156260557

Amazon.com

One of the warmest and gentlest collections of stories by Calvino, and one of the most grounded in the real world. Lovely and elegant prose that lolls in your imagination like a story whispered into your ear on late spring day.

Book Description

Tales of love and loneliness in which the author blends reality and illusion. “The quirkiness and grace of the writing, the originality of the imagination at work,...and a certain lovable nuttiness make this collection well worth reading” (Margaret Atwood). Translated by William Weaver, Peggy Wright, and Archibald Colquhoun. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

Laudable observations of life.......2006-08-20

"Difficult Loves" is a collection of four sets of stories, each set revolving around a particular theme or setting. Calvino's perspective and style remain constant, however, as he navigates effortlessly between a disparate set of characters and situations. The hallmark of Calvino's perspective is his ability to take small "slices of life", understand them in great detail, and convert them into fascinating and gripping tales. The attraction to his stories is heightened by the occasional recognition of, and correlation to, the plethora of complex feelings aroused by these small and innocuous happenings. The fact that these feelings are so often buried in our subconscious and never played out recognizably indicate how acute an observer and analyst Calvino really is.

"The Adventure of a Soldier", a part of the last set of stories ("Stories of Love and Loneliness"), is a beautiful example of Calvino's keen observational faculties. In this story, a man embarks on a complex and courageous mental (and somewhat physical) journey, on the basis of a perceived physical contact with a fellow passenger on a train. Such is the honesty of Calvino's account of the soldier's emotions, that the reader can almost palpably feel the various contacts with the co-passenger, while sympathizing, if not empathizing, with the soldier's state of mind. This story is also a great illustration of the use of dramatic arc as a story-writing tool, especially to connect seemingly disjointed ideas or states.

The one serious drawback of this book is that while it manages to avert becoming platitudinal, it nonetheless becomes increasingly monotonous with the passage of each story. Calvino's disposition to simplicity and lucidity become his greatest failing as the novelty of his perspective wears off. Thus, overall, this is a book definitely worth reading, but best read in a piecemeal fashion to avoid weariness.

These Stories Stay With You.......2005-12-16

I read Difficult Loves a month ago and found that the stories in this book have staying power. Italo Calvino conjures up vivid imagery to accompany magical and unsettling stories. His story telling abilities are such that he reminds readers of long forgotten sensations. We feel the marvel and anxiety of two children who happen upon a property that is both enchanting and disturbing. We experience the elation of a man who is new to glasses and his disappointment upon realizing he found only a temporary reprieve from his same old life. Another story that opens with a leathery old man warning a weary traveler against crossing a mountain pass is one of the most powerfully written tales in the book. Difficult Loves is worth rereading.

Glimpses of exceptional ordinary lives..........2005-11-13

Difficult Loves provides a comprehensive look at the art of storytelling, and its ability to expose the subtle emotions and personalities of everyday life. Calvino is particularly adept at honing in on a definitive moment, or succession of moments in the lives of his characters, and capturing the surprising shifts of relation and consciousness that occur suprisingly and spontaneously. The last section in the book, Stories of Love and Loneliness, shows Calvino at his most artful, examining the ways that certain types of people experience life and love. An earlier reviewer pointed out that everyone can find something to connect with in these stories. This is true in an even deeper sense, namely, that within the narration, sparkling moments of truth are revealed about the workings of the human mind, and they can only be read with a consistently deepening respect for the author and his art. There is a confessional quality to the work as well, and Calvino hints at his own obsessions and deviancies and shortcomings as a thinker. This authorial honesty conforms well with the subjects of the stories, all of which are betrayed in a state of almost disconcertingly fallible humanity. These are the anti-heros, the heros of everyday life and love. With Difficult Loves, Calvino maps out another essential area of human experience, and does it with a simple beauty that belies the complexity of his grand project.

Most of us can identify with at least one of these stories.......2005-04-29

This collection of stories represents some of Calvino's best early work (the stories were originally compiled in two books from 1949 and 1958). Those who have read "The Baron in the Trees" (from 1957) will recognize the style at work here. The book burgeons with short stories, 28 in all divided into four sections, and each one includes a discovery of some sort as well as a reflection on the most bizarre of human emotions: love.
The stories contained in the book's first section, "Riviera Stories", seem to have political subthemes. Many deal with the haves and have nots and their interactions. "The Enchanted Garden" tells of two children that happen along a seemingly deserted villa to discover a utopia or a dystopia - are the people who live in such luxury happy?; "A Goatherd at Luncheon" explores the gaps between the rich and the poorer classes when the man of the house invites the goat herder to lunch; In "Big Fish, Little Fish" a very capable young diver comes across an astonishing motherload of fish along with a sobbing sunbather who says she's "unlucky in love", but every fish the boy pulls out seems to have problems - the downside of a bonanza; "Lazy Sons" traces a day in the life of two boys who refuse to work in spite of the fulminations of their hard-working parents.
The next section, "Wartime Stories", not surprisingly, contains the most violent and disturbing stories of the book. "Hunger at Bévara" explores the desperation of a village caught between two fronts and the hero Bisma who helped save the village, at least temporarily; "Going To Headquarters" plays with expectations as the tensions between two men, one who might be a spy, and the other who may be his executioner, heighten; "One of the Three Is Still Alive" probably qualifies as the book's most disturbing story. A man thrown into a deep pit by the enemy discovers that the dead bodies of his comrades broke his fall, he then tries to escape from the pit; "Animal Woods" is both comedic and tragic. A man tries to shoot a looting German soldier but the livestock of his village keeps interfering.
The third section, "Postwar Stories" deals with a desperate world, one with limited resources and where almost anything goes. "Theft in a Pastry Shop" tells the hilarious story of criminals who suddenly find themselves on a gluttonous rampage during a robbery; "Dollars and the Demimondaine" explores a couple's quest for dollars amongst a crowd of rather lusty American sailors. This section deals with the desperate climate of a postwar country. As people suffer some take a no holds barred approach while others find themselves giving up or asking what's it worth.
The book's final, and longest, section, "Stories of Love and Loneliness" is probably the most intriguing. It presages somewhat Calvino's later book "Mr. Palomar". The style in this section is deeply character driven, and the thoughts and motivations of characters get explained with amazing detail. "The Adventure of a Soldier" follows a soldier's conquest of a woman seated next to him on a train. He cautiously explores her body to gauge her reaction. Did she pull away? Is she acquiesing? "The Adventure of a Bather" explores how some see nakedness as a humiliation, so much so that they risk death rather then being seen unclothed. "The Adventure of a Photographer" depicts a seemingly non-obsessive man's all consuming obsession with capturing life through photographs. He's too engaged to even notice the interest of the beautiful woman acting as his subject; "The Adventure of a Nearsighted Man" shows just how much a pair of glasses can change one's life. The character can now recognize many things, but other people no longer recognize him. Even the woman he yearns for, and who he's known for years, doesn't recognize him with his glasses on.
"Difficult Loves" provides a suitable umbrella title to package these stories under. Many deal with love in its various forms: physical, emotional, spiritual, self, political, material. In nearly all cases the characters in the story have difficulty defining or requiting the love they have for others or things. The book explores the nebulous nature of desire and attraction to others and the inevitable hardships of bridging one's desires with reality. Throughout the book, Calvino's writing mesmerizes (even in translation) and pulls the reader in without mercy. The character studies of the final section are incredible in their detail and ambition. It's amazing how much Calvino can cram into a ten page story. The range of emotions is also incredible. The stories evoke laughter, disgust, pity, shame, and of course love.
If you want a good read or want to study the art of the short story, look no further than this book by Calvino. It won't disappoint.

Delightful.......2005-03-15

First off, Italo Calvino is my favorite author and Difficult Loves is one of my favorites of his books. A collection of short stories, as a whole, the book ranks among Calvino's most imaginative and magical works.

The collection really displays Calvino's virtuosity as a writer with subjects ranging from war to a solitary woman swimming. Each is magical in its own special way. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading--it serves as an excellent introduction to one of the most creative minds of 20th-century literature.

Average customer rating:

Unbridled creativity
Crossing "Castles"
cult novel that is a literary masterpiece
I find the writing a bit dry...
Amusing for more than a few reasons...

The Castle of Crossed Destinies
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156154552

Book Description

A series of short, fantastic narratives inspired by fifteenth-century tarot cards and their archetypical images. Full-color and black-and-white reproductions of tarot cards. Translated by William Weaver.A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

Unbridled creativity.......2005-03-15

Calvino is one of the most creative writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The concept alone of this book is jaw-dropping in its possibilities--a group of strangers come together and tell their adventures through tarot cards. Each tarot combination is illustrated and interpreted by the narrator with ties to several mythological tales. It is all extremely subjective and extremely ambitious.

All of that aside, the concept proved to be more than Calvino could adeptly handle. (He admitted to never being completely satisfied with the book and finally published it as a way to put it to rest) However, I don't think I've ever read another author who could have handled the subject matter better than Calvino. All in all, I would only recommend this to Calvino's most devoted admirers.

Crossing "Castles".......2005-02-22

Italo Calvino was a master of surreal storytelling -- he was, for example, one of only two authors I've seen who could manage a second-person narrative. But his gimmick falls flat in "The Castle of Crossed Destinies," a book that is intriguingly laid out, but never manages to be more than a curiosity.

In the first section, a traveler comes to a castle full of other guests, but for some reason no one there is able to speak. To tell each other about their histories, they use a pack of tarot cards to communicate their stories -- tales about love affairs, ancient cities, and Faustian pacts.

The second is pretty much the same, except that it takes place in a tavern, where mute people are still using tarot cards to describe their pasts. The stories -- evil queens, fallen warriors, even an Arthurian tale -- get darker and stranger, especially when the narrator himself began to describe his own past to the people who are watching him and the cards.

As an idea, tarot cards being used to tell a story is brilliant. Especially since the stories that Calvino spins out are not necessarily the only interpretation -- each card used to tell the story can be interpreted differently. The problem is, in the first half of the book, Calvino tries to apply this to some very boring, straightforward little stories. They tend to stop suddenly, without much of a finale.

The second half of the book uses this gimmick more skilfully, with Calvino writing in greater detail, and using more ornate, atmospheric writing. It feels less like stories wrapped around some cards, and more like stories with cards as illustrations of what might have been. He also adds a more eerie, macabre tale to this half, making it even more engaging.

The first half sags in a big way; it's almost tiring to read. But the second half of "Castle of Crossed Destinies" is where Calvino's tarot gimmick starts to pay off. Interesting, but not all that it could have been.

cult novel that is a literary masterpiece.......2004-03-17

Just as the tarot card reading unfolds in the story, this book has innumerable levels that beg for thought and interpretation: it is part historical novel, part fortune-telling, and part a history of the great classics of western civilization. It is also a fascinating experiment in expanding the literary vehicle, adding the dimension of the cards - functioning as kind of symbolic building blocks as well as a springboard for association - that creates a parallel narrative to the gorgeous descriptive power of the work. Calvino, I feel, has created a work as complex and rich as the best of Nabokov. As with all truly great novels, there is a great deal left unsaid, that the reader can mull over if she so chooses. While the vocabulary was very difficult for my primitive Italian, it was as beautifully written as Calvino's other work.

Warmly recommended.

I find the writing a bit dry..........2003-03-23

... but I'm such an avid Tarot fan that I still recommend this to others who want to see his treatment of the subject.
Naturally, the Tarot is interpretated differently by almost everyone who indulges. But, hey!... that's the point of studying it as far as I'm concerned.

Definitely check this one out!

Amusing for more than a few reasons..........2002-11-21

I'm a beginner at reading Italian literature, but there's a few amusing things Calvino did here...he took pivotal scenes from classic literature that includes the poetic epic Orlando in Love and characters of Shakesphere, works of Renaissance literature, and rematched them to the minature art of the time, tarocchi game cards.
I recognize excerpts of human passions from the poetry epic of Orlando in Love from Matteo Maria Boiardo, the Ferarra count, poet and storyteller for the D'Estes clan in the 1470s in the Castle of Crossed Destinies. Calvino also took parts of the Arthurian romantic tales that Boiardo, Aristo and other courtly poets and 'rematched' them to the trump and other cards of the classic Italian tarocchi. I say rematched, as Boiardo and other poets/artists of D'Estes family members did allegorical praising in their poems or paintings that included direct or thinly disguised praises to their patrons. The patrons appear as romantic heroes amid Greco-Roman, Arthurian or other mythic landscapes. The D'Estes and Visconti-Sforzas were related through marriages and both sets of families have historical tarocchi card sets---but it is the "completed" set from the Milanese Visconti-Sforzas that we are familiar with now.
I thought that I recognized a few of the fictional scenes that Calvino presented from Renaissance sources.

Average customer rating:

Hoping to be swept away...
The Literary Fantastic According to the Master Himself

Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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t zero (Harbrace Paperbound Library, Hpl 70)

ASIN: 0679415262
Release Date: 1997-10-28

Amazon.com

The brilliant Italian writer Italo Calvino (1923-1985) compiled Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday, a historical overview of great fantastic literature of the 19th century. Many of his 26 selections are from well-known authors (Sir Walter Scott, Honoré de Balzac, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Ivan Turgenev, Guy de Maupassant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and H.G. Wells), but Calvino largely avoided their best-known stories; the only inclusions likely to be familiar to many Americans are Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," and H.G. Wells's "The Country of the Blind." The remaining contributors range from moderately well-known to obscure. So the reader who purchases Fantastic Tales gains not only an intelligently annotated anthology of superb fiction, but, in one pleasant sense, a collection of mostly new stories.

Interestingly, some of the finest stories are by authors least known in America. Théophile Gautier's beautifully written, wrenchingly ironic "The Beautiful Vampire" establishes the traditions for romantic vampire fiction. Mérimée's "The Venus of Ille," a tale of culture clashes (Parisian and rural, ancient classical, and contemporary Christian), is sharp, well-written, and uncommonly horrific. With the gorgeous "A Lasting Love," the sole woman contributor, Vernon Lee, paints the most vivid portrait of obsessive, transcendent, destructive love.

Caveat: Calvino's introductions sometimes reveal more of the plot than readers will like. --Cynthia Ward

Book Description

Compiled by Italo Calvino, one of the essential writers of the twentieth century (and editor of the best-selling Italian Folktales), Fantastic Tales is a rich and wide-ranging collection of twenty-six classic, uncanny tales from the nineteenth century written by an intriguing panoply of European and American authors. Master storyteller himself, Calvino has contributed an informative introduction to the collection, and an engaging précis to each story.

As Calvino writes in Fantastic Tales, which traces the genre from its roots in German Romanticism to the ghost stories of Henry James: "The fantastic tale is one of the most characteristic products of nineteenth-century narrative. For us, it is also one of the most significant. . . . As it relates to our sensibility today, the supernatural element at the heart of these stories always appears freighted with meaning, like the revolt of the unconscious, the repressed, the forgotten. . . . In this we see the modern dimension of the fantastic, the reason for its triumphant resurgence in our times."

Fantastic Tales is a fantastically canonical anthology assembled by an editor who, in the words of Salman Rushdie, "possesses the power of seeing into the deepest recesses of human minds and then bringing their dreams back to life. "

Italo Calvino's works include The Road to San Giovanni, Numbers in the Dark, Six Memos for the Next Millennium, The Baron in the Trees, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Invisible Cities, and Mr. Palomar. Calvino died in 1985.

Customer Reviews:

Hoping to be swept away..........2001-07-13

I was instead disappointed. I enjoyed Italo's Italian Folktakes so much that I thought this would be another endless read. Instead, I found it dry and methodical. While some of the stories were intriguing, the majority were immature works created by talented authors. Meaning, many of the stories just didn't have the direction, plot, or moral I expect from a "fantastic tale."

The Literary Fantastic According to the Master Himself.......2000-06-29

The stories collected in this volume span through some several hundred years and many languages. The authors represented wrote not only in the genre of the fantastic, they are recognized masters. But here we find their finest, eeriest, most bizarre and phantasmagoric tales. Reading through the book provides a real sense of the development of the ghost story and the fantasy through the years.

Perhaps of even greater importance, for those of us who are Calvino fans, we can see what stories the Italian fabulist cherished most, what he read and what influenced him. He places each book in a historical and literary context, and the opening essay is truly key to understanding Calvino's theories of the fantastic, which in themselves make this book worth buying!

Under the Jaguar Sun
Average customer rating:

Three senses

Good Calvino laced with unfulfilled potential...

Posthumous -- and it shows

Exquisite style, but short on substance, irony

A mixed bag

Under the Jaguar Sun
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Three senses-taste, hearing, and smell-dominate the lives of the characters in these witty, fantastical stories. But the senses, promising the fulfillment of desire and an exit from the self, only lead back to their source: the savoring palate, the listening ear, the smelling nose. “A sumptuous small gem of a book” (Publishers Weekly). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

Three senses.......2006-06-30

As the author's widow explains in the epilogue, Italo Calvino once got it into his head to write a book about the five senses. He dabbled on and off in this project until he died, producing three short stories. With his usual magical delicacy, Calvino explored taste, hearing and smell with a rare skill.

The title story tells of a young couple vacationing in Mexico, where they explore ancient ruins, hear of the history of Oaxaca, and discover new erotic dimensions as they try the local food -- spicy, rich, and almost intoxicating, the food helps link them back to one another.

"A King Listens" is a more experiment story, with no real plot and a second-person narrative ("You are the king; everything you desire is already yours"). A king sits on his throne, alone in a giant hall, alienated from most of his palace and everyone in it. But he hears a woman singing, strange whispers, a prisoner scrabbling against a wall, and much more, which are his roads to the outside world.

"The Name, the Nose" is a tragic tale in the tradition of Poe, but in more lush language. A man danced with a masked lady at a ball, falling madly in love with her -- but he can only identify her by her perfume. He desperately searches a parfumerie for the right scent, thinking of the night when he met her... and is shocked when he discovers where she is, and who the masked figure with her is.

Italo Calvino was obviously a guy who liked to dabble in magical realism, and "theme books" -- tarot cards, magical cities, and the unfolding of the universe. So it's a shame that he never finished "Under the Jaguar Sun." While delightful as a collection, it makes you think of how wonderful "Sight" and "Touch" would have been.

And the way he writes is suitable to each story -- the first is hot and passionate, the second is steady and slightly dull, and the last one is ornate, gothic and blue. Calvino even drops some hints as to what the stories should be about, even when it's obvious; the king in the second story even describes his palace as "all whorls, lobes; it is a great ear." Subtle, huh?

But he can't hold back his natural flair for description in any of these stories. Even though sight isn't explored in this book, we get intricate descriptions of ballrooms, rock orgies, and "a theatre-church, all gold and bright colours, in a dancing and acrobatic baroque, crammed with swirling angels, garlands, panoplies of flowers, shells." His prose can be almost intoxicating.

Calvino's stories about three of the senses are all beautiful, each in a unique, spellbinding way. A must-read for lovers of the magical-realist maestro.

Good Calvino laced with unfulfilled potential..........2005-10-20

In an afterword note, Esther Calvino asks the reader to think of this book as "not something Calvino started and left unfinished but simply as three stories written in different periods of his life." She gives good advice, but the sense that Calvino had something more, something bigger, planned for these stories pervades this tiny book. He definitely wanted to write a book about the five senses and interweave them in some way (as he did with other themes in previous books). In all of these stories the senses mingle sensuously with desire and sensuality (one can only imagine what he had in mind for the sense of touch). Here sense catalyzes desire, hidden desires, nameless primordial desires. But this book only contains a scratching of a surface, a deep misty lake that promises more. Unfortunately Calvino died before wrapping up the project. So here remains a sketch of what might have been. Sadly, stories published posthumously always seem to have a certain "not quite final draft" feel about them. Here sits another example.

Regardless, plenty of good Calvino exists here for ardent fans of his work. 1982's "Under The Jaguar Sun" is a great story about a couple vacationing in México. Taste awakens forbidden desires (the story begins with a very suggestive description of a "love" between a priest and a nun). The couple explore the ruins of ancient México, the local food (now an amalgam of national cuisines), and each other's bodies and psyches as they rip and tear their lusciously spiced food. But forbidden desires arise once again as they explore the history of human sacrifice and realize that eating mingles deeply with the sensual and the forbidden.

"A King Listens", dated 1984, speaks to the reader in second person (sometimes in a manner similar to "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler"). The king sits on his lonely throne trapped by necessity in his own palace. All he knows of the surroundings are sounds. They reverberate, echo, and thud all around him. Paranoid thoughts about the inevitable usurpation stew with the sounds. Suddenly a woman's voice sings out, but he can only hear her. He wants to experience her as a person, not just a voice. Which leads to one of the best lines in the story: "And so, when a desire to be fulfilled presents itself to you at last, you realize that being king is of no use for anything." The senses again awaken desire.

"The Name, the Nose", from 1972, switches contexts abruptly between a French parfumerie (where the saleswomen erotically encircle the cherished patron), the dank smoky aftermath of a rock concert, and a battle between two early humans (this episode evokes "Cosmicomics"). All of the men in the story come to know a woman only by her smell. The singular smell of each woman ignites desires. Strange ineffable and mad desires. The story itself remains a little indescribable.

So taste, hearing, and smell all get represented here as awakening desire or as a source of desire. And desire weaves through this book like a sinuous thread. It interconnects the stories and provides glimpses of a whole. That is mainly why Esther Calvino's advice remains hard to follow. Something more wants to bubble up from beneath this collection. Because of this, thinking of these stories as three disparate entities poses a stiff challenge. So we're faced with a nagging feeling of incompleteness. Here possibly sits the "lost" or "unfinished" Calvino book. Which inevitably leads to lonely abstract thinking about what Calvino had in mind. And so on...

Still, "Under The Jaguar Sun" will doubtlessly please many Calvino fans. It contains plenty of good, not outstanding, examples of Calvino's work. It also unfortunately leaves behind it a sadness of unfulfilled possibilities. Thankfully Calvino stayed around long enough to write numerous masterworks. This probably would have been another one.

Posthumous -- and it shows.......2001-12-26

A collection of 3 short stories. Each deals with one of the senses and were going to be part of a projected suite with, presumably, some kind of framing device. Calvino was one of those happy people that can write works that stretch the intellect without altogether sacrificing story, plot and characterisation. The middle tale ('A King Listens') is unsuccessful, ending up as nothing more than an experiment - who knows whether it would have improved had he time to revise it, it was the last thing he wrote before his death. But the opening and closing stories are much better, especially the latter ('The Name, The Nose'), although still not prime Calvino (try 'Adam One Afternoon', 'Invisible Cities' or 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' if you're new to the writer and want to know what his talents can *really* produce). 'Under the Jaguar Sun', the title story set in Mexico, deals with taste and develops the idea of human relationships as a form of canibalism in which we digest our partner to taste their thoughts, feelings, desires and wishes in order to make them part of ourselves. 'The Name, The Nose' takes three characters (a Proustian aesthete, a prehistoric apeman on the verge of walking upright and a drug-addled rock musician) that are all in love with an unknown woman identifiable only by her scent, eventually discovering that she has died since making love with them. Despite the differences in the characters, their tales are interlinked surpringly smoothly and satisfyingly. However, due to its posthumous nature, the book is very short, only 83 pages of big type, and so can only be recommended to Calvino fans.

Exquisite style, but short on substance, irony.......2001-08-15

This book collects three of Calvino's last stories, originally planned to be a set of five, each focused on one of the five senses. One of the world's most original and sensitive storytellers, he will be solely missed.

"Under the Jaguar Sun" presents a married couple whose vacation in Mexico is punctuated by the powerful flavors of the local cuisine. Before the trip is over they discover that the spicy food whets their appetite for passion as well as for dining. In "A King Listens" the proud ruler, constrained by the obligations and dangers of his office, finds his only real source of information is his hearing. The ambient sounds of his palace, and the voices inside his own head are all that he can depend on. Finally, "The Name, the Nose" shows us a collage of desperate swains trying to seek out a woman whom they can identify only by her fragrance. As in "Jaguar" Calvino touches on the relationship between the senses and sexual desire, but this tale also carries a different message - one that seems to hint darkly at the author's own coming demise.

For those unfamiliar with the work of this master of postmodern literature, these three stories are probably not the best introduction. The quiet intensity of Calvino's voice is there, and his style is as pristine as ever, almost a prose poetry; but while the stories feature at least a couple of genuine surprises, they fall short of the knockout power that distinguishes his very best work. By focusing so strongly on the senses, he underplays what are probably his greatest strengths - in-depth logical analysis and exquisitely ironic humor. Fans will surely appreciate one last opportunity to experience Calvino's skill, but others should probably start with one of his more revolutionary works if they want to see why he is so greatly admired.

A mixed bag.......2001-04-21

I'm a Calvino mark. Simply said, I love the man's writing! This, however, is a mixed bag, in my opinion. A truly interesting theme (stories about the senses) the only one I really liked was the story dealing with the sense of smell ("The Man, The Nose" I believe.) Its not that the others weren't imaginative or beautifully crafted, but I just felt as if something didn't click for me. The first two tales about the sense of taste and the sense hearing were a little too... self-indulgent, perhaps? It is somewhat difficult to articulate. All in all, this is suitable more for the true Calvino fan, rather than as an introduction or the casual reader. The one lasting impression I drew from the collection was, "What about sight and touch?" Maybe next time around.

Average customer rating:

Exceptional Anthology
A personal antology
Calvino get you inloved with literature!!

Why Read the Classics?
Italo Calvino
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679743499
Release Date: 2001-01-16

Amazon.com

Why read Italo Calvino's book on the classics? Because it passes his own test for what a classic is, and its brisk prose can blast your concept of the word clean of the dusty associations that cling to it. Calvino gives 14 offbeat definitions of classic, my favorite being "a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off." His sharp essays on Conrad, Dickens, Diderot, Flaubert, Ovid, and others constitute an act of self-criticism too, a novelist's imaginative autobiography. In 1955, when rave-reviewing Robinson Crusoe, he called Daniel Defoe the "inventor of modern journalism." In 1954, he overcame his disgust with Hemingway's life "of violent tourism," coolly assessed his dry heights and sodden depths, and called himself Papa's apprentice. And the 1984 piece on Borges shows who influenced Calvino most once he'd become a master himself.

From both the American and the Argentinian, Calvino learned to be concise, and his quick sketches of books like the "unqualified masterpiece" Our Mutual Friend provide a contact high--one wants to drop everything and head straight to a library, so infectious is his enthusiasm. "How many young people will be smitten" by Stendhal's recently, brilliantly retranslated Waterloo-era adventure The Charterhouse of Parma, he writes, "recognizing it as the novel they had always wanted to read... the benchmark for all the other novels they will read in later life." Like a great teacher, Italo Calvino distills a writer's essence in a vivid phrase: money, for instance, serves as "the motive force of Balzac's narrative, the true test of feeling in Dickens; but in Mark Twain money is a game of mirrors, causing vertigo over a void." --Tim Appelo

Book Description

From the internationally-acclaimed author of some of this century's most breathtakingly original novels comes this posthumous collection of thirty-six literary essays that will make any fortunate reader view the old classics in a dazzling new light.

Learn why Lara, not Zhivago, is the center of Pasternak's masterpiece, Dr. Zhivago, and why Cyrano de Bergerac is the forerunner of modern-day science-fiction writers. Learn how many odysseys The Odyssey contains, and why Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are a pinnacle of twentieth-century literature. From Ovid to Pavese, Xenophon to Dickens, Galileo to Gadda, Calvino covers the classics he has loved most with essays that are fresh, accessible, and wise. Why Read the Classics? firmly establishes Calvino among the rare likes of Nabokov, Borges, and Lawrence--writers whose criticism is as vibrant and unique as their groundbreaking fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Exceptional Anthology.......2002-09-22

An inspirational collection from an excellent essayist. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in literature.

A personal antology.......2001-02-28

The answer to the question sophisticatedly raised by this little anthology, is given in the essay which opens the collection.The basic reason lies in forming a personal scale of values that help you individualize the real artistic elements in new works. The second one is that reading increases the quality of living in usual and unusual situations, as well. But the quality of school anthologies and their presentations is still an open problem.

Calvino get you inloved with literature!!.......1999-10-05

What makes a book a clasic? Borges once said in a conference, that the fact that a whole generation lives with the idea of a book makes it a classic, Calvino involve you in that idea..

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