![]() ![]() I cannot think of any writer who has succeeded writing like him. Calvino’s style of writing is different and inimitable. There is the study of humans in this book, followed by the study of cities and how we inhabit them and sometimes how they inhabit us and last of all, I thought it was about fantastical tales – of how far imagination takes us and intermingle then with the philosophy of life and what happens next. ![]() The design of cities might be different, also the essence and what it is made of, but inherently they are all the same and how the entire book then converges with Polo and Khan’s dialogues is something you must read and find out. Each city is magical and has its own aura and yet they all feel the same – they all seem to be Venice. What is the book about? Well, here is the premise: Marco Polo and Kublai Khan talk about cities – more so Polo and he describes cities he has been to, to Khan, and surprisingly all of them seem the same and do not. This should not deter you from reading it though. You might think it will be easy, but trust me, it won’t be. It demands a lot of time and attention for a 165 page book. “Invisible Cities” is not an easy book to read. It was kind of the first magic realism novel I read and I wanted more from that genre (till of course Rushdie killed it for me, but may be more about that at a later time). I then chanced on “Invisible Cities” and loved it. I was all of sixteen and knew that I just had to read everything written by him. My job at Crossword bookstore in 1999 as an intern changed that. I knew I had to read more, and more by him. My first book of his was “If on a winter’s night a traveler” and I fell in love with his writing. I first got to know of him when I was in college and a friend was reading The Path to the Spiders’ Nest without really understanding it. Italo Calvino is a genius and one must read everything he has ever written. ![]()
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