Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino

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Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780156453806
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Invisible Cities

Book Review: Invisible Calvino
Summary: 5 Stars

"Italo Calvino's dazzling imagination and extraordinary intellegence combine here in an enchanting series of stories about the evolution of the universe. He makes characters out of mathematical formulae and simple cellular structures. They disport themselves among galaxies, experience the solidification of planets, move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms, and have a love life."

Wow.

I met Calvino through the book *On a Winter's Night, a Traveler*, which I fell in love with, and which pursuaded me to consider Calvino as one of my favorite authors - after reading just one book. When I searched for other books of his at the Richmond library in San Francisco, only *Invisible Cities*, a slim volume with an uninviting endorsement from Vidal and a bizarre, esoteric summary, was available. The first few pages revealed that the book is, in fact, about cities. Each city is granted two or three pages of text, then ostensibly forgotten. The cities are arranged in a formulaic system of chapters with serial titles - 9 chapters, each divided into a set of sub-chapters, each of which is devoted to one city, except the first and last subchapter of each chapter, which describes a dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. The subchapters are given generic sounding titles, such as "Cities and Memory," "Cities and Desire," or "Cities and the Sky." These titles are reused for different cities, creating an alliance of "Cities and Signs," or "Trading Cities." The structure of the Table of Contents reveals a lot about the nature of the book - the serialization of chapters, the lateral movement of serialed titles. It could be described as molecular, mathematical, organic: a pristine, crystalline, geometric construction of text.

Wow. (the last sarcastic wow)

I wasn't looking for a poetic novel about math. I wanted more Calvino, whoever he is. The unique but somewhat sterile organization of the book did not immediately appeal to me, but as I began to read, it became obvious that the book was about more than numbers and symmetry. These cities are kaleidoscopic: in each one, you can see your own city, every city you've ever seen, every city you've ever dreamed, nothing you've ever thought possible, localized systems of life and death, personalities built on an exaggerated human characteristic, and cities as living creatures. Midway through the book I thought I'd try and record some of the themes that I came across.

Chapter 4-3: Parasitic city

Chapter 4-2: Momentum of mentality; depression

Chapter 4-1: Authority of Tradtion; Self-determination; delusion

Chapter 4 (epilogue): probablity; infinity; random processes (1,000,000 monkeys typing for a million years)

Chapter 8-5: Relativity

Chapter 8-4: Black Hole

Chapter 8-3: Expansion of the Universe

Chapter 8-1: the Big Bang

But not only does every city have a theme (and I'm sure you will find your own); there is an embedded lesson as well. *Invisible Cities* reads like a Physics book that has been absorbed by the Tao Te Ching. The lessons of life are offered in the complexity of nature - the universe has figured it out; all we need to do is listen.

Wow.

Summary of Invisible Cities

Literature & Fiction Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction