May 2019 Bookclub read Once upon a time, there was a guy called Macro Polo, and he invented a very cool pool game. Yeah, I know. But he did talk to Kublai Khan about cities. Or was it one city? Or women? Calvino’s book isn’t s...
“For those who pass it without entering, the city is one thing; it is another for those who are trapped by it and never leave. There is the city where you arrive for the first time; and there is another city which you leave never to return. Each deserves a different name; perhaps I have already spok...
The book includes Marco Polo's descriptions to Kublai Khan of faraway places (though it's unclear if these parts are fictional, true, or fiction-based-on-truth). It's poetic, heart-warming, and soul moving. There is more to be felt in these short, simple descriptions of settings than many authors co...
Marco Polo and Kublai Khan talk of cities Marco has visited.Where to begin with this one? I thought the writing was beautiful. Calvino and his translator painted vivid pictures of various cities, each a seemingly magical realm with its own quirks. As Marco tells more and more stories, Kublai questio...
"Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice at once, if I speak of it. Or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little."
I really dislike this kind of writing - I'm impatient for it to do something! Of course, this says more about me than about Calvino, who imagines prolifically and writes prettily, but I'll keep clear of his work after this."You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer...
Invisible cities is a kind of bestiary of 55 cities in prose poetry, framed by conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. It’s plotless, tightly structured, not very long, and filled with beautiful words. It’s the sort of book that takes far longer to read than the time required to pass one’s...
You past adolescence and enter the world of adult literature. At first, you read anything and everything that found its way to your hands; then, slowly you begin discovering your own, unique literary taste, and you become selective. The more you read, the more selective you become. Your list of favo...
A forgotten book until suddenly reminded of its former power over me. I was stunned by Calvino's power of imagination when I was forced to pick it up once again yesterday. How is it to live in a dream and then describe it in such vivid detail. Calvino manages to do that through the voice of Marco Po...
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