Reviews

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

call_it_kizmet's review

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

laurabadara's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I am clearly in the minority but I hated this- barely finished it. It's way too pretentious for me. I can't read an entire book where there is zero plot, only these "deep" metaphors- I just can't do it.

coletteharris's review

Not going to rate this one because it was //so not for me// that I cannot give it an unbiased view

tired_maia's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

gera_mtz's review against another edition

dark reflective

4.75

tregina's review against another edition

5.0

Upon reaching the end of this book I am left with the thought, "Now what was it really about?" An oral atlas of unknown urban spaces, it is made up of wisdom and imagination and mystery and fragments of the known world, of philosophical ideas and questions about the nature of reality. Are they fantasies? Are they metaphors? Is the dreaming and telling of the travels the most important thing? Or, ultimately, is it all about this:

“I speak and speak,” Marco says, “but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. The description of the world to which you lend a benevolent ear is one thing; the description that will go the rounds of the groups of stevedores and gondoliers on the street outside my house the day of my return is another; and yet another, that which I might dictate late in life, if I were taken prisoner by Genoese pirates and put in irons in the same cell with a writer of adventure stories. It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear."

itsyeboy's review against another edition

informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

oxnard_montalvo's review

Probably the best book I read in 2013. Came across it a few years ago, reading a small extract in a postgrad lecture and was mesmerized. Took me a long time to pick it up, but it was instantly enjoyable. Beautiful prose even if there's no solid narrative as such. Had a very brief conversation about it with a stranger in a bookshop- he told me to get 'if on a winter's night a traveller...' as it would "blow my mind"- I can't make judgements on a book i've yet to read, but this one is sufficiently 'mind blowing' for now. About Venice, but for me it's just as much about Hong Kong.

(Italy)

jkey_hwood's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

trin's review

2.0

Wait, shit, now I think I'm back to not understanding Calvino again. I mean, I think I got at least part of this book intellectually, but emotionally it did nothing for me. The language was at times beautiful and clever and compelling, but mostly I was sitting here thinking, “And...?” or, like, waiting for Marco Polo and Kublai Khan to make out or something. Can someone who was affected positively by this book tell me why it worked for them?