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From inside flap:In mezzo alla citta di cemento e asfalto, Marcovaldo va in cerca della Natura... ... Read more

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El castillo de los destinos cruzados, que Italo Calvino consideraba uno de sus mejores libros y el mas fantastico entre ellos, fue publicado originalmente en 1973, tras un complejo proceso de elaboracion a traves de metodos combinatorios que habia iniciado cinco anos antes. Las dos narraciones que lo componen han sido construidas a partir de un mismo desafio formal: las posibles interpretaciones de dos diferentes mazos de tarot el Visconti, para El castillo de los destinos cruzados, con sus delicados miniados que reflejan el refinamiento renacentista, y, para La taberna de los destinos cruzados, el de Marsella, de trazos mas toscos y que requiere un lenguaje mas popular. ... Read more

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El vizconde demediado es la primera incursion de Italo Calvino en lo fabuloso y lo fantastico. cuenta Calvino la historia del vizconde de Terralba, quien fue partido en dos por un canonazo de los turcos y cuyas dos mitades continuaron viviendo por separado. Simbolo de la condicion humana dividida, medardo de Terralba sale a caminar por sus tierras. A su paso, las peras que colgaban de los arboles aparecen todas partidas por la mitad. Cada encuentro de dos seres en el mundo es un desgarrarse, le dice la mitad mala del vizconde a la mujer de quien se ha enamorado. Pero es seguro que se trate de la mitad mala? Esta magnifica fabula plantea la busqueda del ser humano en su totalidad, quien suele estar hecho de algo mas que de la suma de sus mitades. ... Read more

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Marcovaldo se compone de veinte relatos. Cada relato se dedica a una estacion; el ciclo de las cuatro estaciones se repite por tanto cinco veces en el libro. Todos los relatos tienen el mismo protagonista, Marcovaldo, y presentan mas o menos un esquema identico. El texto de presentacion dice: En medio de la ciudad de cemento y asfalto, Marcovaldo va en busca de la Naturaleza. Pero existe todavia la Naturaleza? La que el encuentra es una Naturaleza desdenosa, contrahecha, comprometida con la vida artificial. Personaje bufo y melancolico, Marcovaldo es el protagonista de una serie de fabulas modernas, es la ultima encarnacion de una serie de candidos heroes pobrediablos a lo Charlot, con una particularidad: la de ser un Hombre de la Naturaleza, un Buen Salvaje exiliado en la ciudad industrial.Libro para ninos? Libro para jovenes? Libro para mayores? O mas bien un libro en el que el autor expresa su propia relacion, perpleja y arrogante, con el mundo? Italo Calvino. ... Read more

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Esta sabia y conmovedora novela de Italo Calvino encierra en su brevedad y aparente sencillez una hondura sutil que solamente los grandes maestros son capaces de transmitir.Corriere della SeraDel mismo modo que el observatorio que lleva su nombre, el senor Palomar mira y analiza el mundo. El senor Palomar observa y piensa, entre la aparente no actividad y la enorme actividad interior, que se traduce en evolucion del pensamiento acerca del mundo. Las experiencias de Palomar consisten en concentrarse en pequenos objetos y fenomenos a traves de cuyo minucioso analisis encontrara una relacion entre el objeto y el universo, o entre el yo y el universo, porque este se refleja, se verifica y se multiplica en todo lo que nos rodea. Todo es lo mismo y todo forma parte de lo mismo. El mar, el cielo, las estrellas, un prado, un pequeno queso en la estanteria de un supermercado, el marmol ensangrentado de una carniceria encierran en ellos mismos todas las preguntas sobre la existencia.El itinerario de Palomar hacia la sabiduria recrea una historia en la que la anonima vida del protagonista se eleva como ejemplo del vertiginoso viaje interior que muy pocos osan realizar. ... Read more

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Si en una epoca de mi actividad literaria me atrajeron los folk-tales, los fairy-tales, no era por fidelidad a una tradicion etnica ni por nostalgia de las lecturas infantiles, sino por interes estilistico y estructural, por la economia, el ritmo, la logica esencial con que son narrados. Solo un escritor tan sabio y versatil como Italo Calvino podia llevar a buen termino la tarea de seleccionar los doscientos mejores cuentos de la tradicion popular italiana, aqui publicados integramente acompanados de un extenso prologo y anotados por el propio Calvino. A lo largo de dos anos Calvino escogio, entre un cumulo de narraciones recopiladas durante casi dos siglos, las versiones mas bellas y originales y las tradujo al italiano a partir de los dialectos en que habian sido compiladas. ... Read more

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Fruto de su colaboracion asidua en la prensa italiana, los escritos reunidos bajo el titulo Coleccion de arena ofrecen otra dimension narrativa de Italo Calvino, que se asoma entre las lineas de estos articulos como un observador que intenta describir y examinar lo que ve, que elige con cuidado objetos capaces de estimular una reflexion y que, con tal fin, se da una vuelta por museos y lugares de exposicion parisinos, visita excavaciones arqueologicas en Toscana, jardines zen en Kioto, monumentos en Palenque y Persepolis. Un turista de la cultura que recorre con su mirada el espectaculo de la realidad elegida, pero que jamas se queda en ninguna, fiel a su vocacion de curioso e inquieto comentarista de un universo visual; un coleccionista que selecciona, descompone y reelabora en un esfuerzo por dar un sentido unitario a una realidad multiple y dispersa. Los textos de esta Coleccion de arena se agrupan en cuatro partes: Exposiciones-exploraciones, dedicada a las mas originales e insolitas de ellas y, sobre todo, a descripciones de objetos; El rayo de la mirada y Exploracion de lo fantastico, que tratan de obras de arte o de imagenes que han llamado su atencion; y La forma del tiempo, que describe cosas vistas en paises lejanos, exoticos. ... Read more

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«Muchos criticos han definido estos cuentos mios como un nuevo tipo de ficcion cientifica. Ahora bien, yo no tengo nada en contra de la science-fiction, de la que soy como todos un apasionado y divertido lector, pero me parece que los cuentos de ficcion cientifica estan construidos con un metodo completamente diferente del de los mios. La primera diferencia, observada por varios criticos, es que la science-fiction trata del futuro, mientras que cada uno de mis cuentos se remonta a un pasado remoto, como si remedara un mito de los origenes. Pero no solo eso [] Yo quisiera servirme del dato cientifico como de una carga propulsora para salir de los habitos de la imaginacion y vivir incluso lo cotidiano en los confines mas extremos de nuestra experiencia; en cambio me parece que la ficcion cientifica tiende a acercar lo que esta lejos, lo que es dificil de imaginar, y que tiende a darle una dimension realista.» Italo Calvino ... Read more

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This boxed paperback set includes three of Italian author Italo Calvino's best-known works: Invisible Cities - A beautifully written book in which the young Marco Polo sits in a garden with the aged Kublai Khan, weaving fantastic tales about cities that merge into one.If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - a collection of ten stories that weave themselves into one incredible novel.The Baron in the Trees - A fantasy set in the 18th Century about a young Italian nobleman who rebels against parental authority by climbing into the trees, where he remains for the rest of his life.Calivino's style has been described, by turns, as light fantasy, postmodern, and magical realist. Whatever his style, these stories, translated from the Italian by William Weaver, are to be savored and enjoyed. ... Read more

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Los clasicos son, para Italo Calvino (1923-1985), aquellos libros que nunca terminan de decir loque tienen que decir, textos que «cuanto mas cree uno conocerlos de oidas, tanto mas nuevos,inesperados, ineditos resultan al leerlos de verdad». Y ese es el convencimiento que anima a Italo Calvino a comentar los «suyos», segun su criterio de que el clasico de cada uno «es aquel que no puede serte indiferente y que te sirve para definirte a ti mismo en relacion y quizas en contraste con el». Asi, mezclados en el tiempo y en la historia de la literatura universal, el lector descubre las lecturas de Italo Calvino. El resultado de todo ello es una obra que se ha convertido, a su vez, en un clasico. ... Read more

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Well worth the effort
You must be either a native speaker or a very advanced Italian speaker to read this, but it is well worth the effort. One of the coolest ideas for a story ever. A count returns from war literally half a man (half a face, half a torso and one leg). His other half becomes evil and terrorizes his small town. But is the good half really evil? And is the bad half all that bad? What happens when the two halves fight over a woman? A comment on the dual nature of man. ... Read more

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Italo Calvino was only twenty-three when he first published this bold and imaginative novel. It tells the story of Pin, a cobbler's apprentice in a town on the Ligurian coast during World War II. He lives with his sister, a prostitute, and spends as much time as he can at a seedy bar where he amuses the adult patrons. After a mishap with a Nazi soldier, Pin becomes involved with a band of partisans. Calvino's portrayal of these characters, seen through the eyes of a child, is not only a revealing commentary on the Italian resistance but an insightful coming-of-age story. Updated to include changes from Calvino's definitive Italian edition, previously censored passages, and his newly translated, unabridged preface--in which Calvino brilliantly critiques and places into historical context his own youthful work--The Path to the Spiders' Nests is animated by the formidable imagination that has made Italo Calvino one of the most respected writers of our time.

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A humorous yet sad tale
This is the first novel by the famed Italian writer Italo Calvino (1923-1985) who composed it at age 23. It tells about the Italian Resistance against the Nazis during World War II.
Calvino introduces the novel with a 1964 preface in which he attempts to explain what prompted him to write the novel: the emotions created by the end of the war, the desire to describe the resistance movement and a need to defend the resistance. Yet, Calvino admits that he has not succeeded. He does not state why. Instead he gives a montage of different reasons that leave the reader confused. In fact he admits that he himself is confused why he wrote this book as he did. "The pages," he writes, "stand there in their impudent permanence which I know to be deceptive, pages which even then (when they were written) were at variance with a memory which was still a living presence...these pages are no use to me."
What is wrong with the novel? It won a prize when it was written. It sold about ten times its expected sales. It is very readable and flows well, except for several pages in which Calvino sidesteps from his story and describes the motivations of the resistance fighters.
Readers will have to make up their own minds. But it seems that in hind sight, Calvino would have preferred to write a straight-forward tale about the resistance. Instead, he wrote a story about a very young boy, whose sister was a prostitute who slept with Germans, who found himself among a band of incompetent resistance fighters, who he can't really understand. It is humorous, but it was not the book he wanted to write.

Accessible, even charismatic introduction to this author
Calvino's first novel served great in my World Lit class this semester--a quick, interesting tale that kept students reading for plot, while dishing up some delicious metaphor and imagery. The story follows Pin, a strange boy-man of a small Italian village during late WWII. His sister is a prostitute and he is the dirty boy of the town, a singer of obscene songs in the tavern, possessing a bit too much knowledge for a ten year old about what men do with women. Pin's coming-of-age journey is brought on by his theft of a German sailor's pistol, an act he is goaded into by the local resistance community. Pin's haphazard exposure to the partisans brings him into contact with potential father figures and potential Pins: boy soldiers that he could be himself one day, for better or worse. Through it all, he longs for someone with whom to share "the spiders' nests," a secret place near the village that comes to represent Pin's own history and psyche, among other things. Short but rich, with some fascinating detail and a few unexpected laughs.

Calvino at his most accessible
Calvino's first novel is loosely based on his experiences as a young partisan during WWII.The overriding purpose seems to be to explode the myth behind the all-too-human countrymen who fought in the resistance.Rather than glamorize them as heroes, as had been done in countless books and tales of the period, Calvino takes great pains to show just how foolish, short-sighted and pathetic many of these men really were.Even harsher is his portrayal of the windbags in the barroom, who are quick to egg others on to action, but prove unwilling to take any such risks themselves.Of course he saves what is perhaps the very harshest criticism for his fictional sister - who is literally in bed with the enemy - and himself - in the person of the lonely street urchin Pin, who like the sister, is desperate to fit in anywhere with anyone at any price.

While this all may sound rather heavy and depressing, the viewpoint of the young lad gives it all a fresh and essentially non-judgmental veneer.Think of "The Wonder Years", only focusing on a homeless boy growing up under fascist rule.The characters are skillfully sketched, although hardly people one would care to know, and while the plot is not overburdened with action for a war novel, things move along a fair pace.

Calvino is best known for his technical fireworks, and while there are one or two spots where we see him developing these skills, for the most part the story is told in a very straightforward, chronological fashion.So Calvino's fans, who likely start each of his novels expecting a book unlike any they've ever read, may be disappointed at how pedestrian an approach the master takes to telling this story.On the other hand, readers who find Calvino's novels "too bizarre" may find this one surprisingly palatable, or at least comprehensible.

at the margins of the resistance: funny, sad, chaotic
This is an absolutely wonderful novel about a boy who wanders into the Italian resistance during WWII.There, he finds a hilarious panoplie of characters, from lice-infested peasant marxists to the hyper-intellectual young co-leader.Each person is rendered so vividly - and if you have ever lived in Italy you recognise the types - that the novel is extremely dense and pleasureful.

The plot is fairly simple:a young boy from a chaotic household has to flee after being arrested for stealing a pistol from his sister's German "client."(He was trying to impress the ineffectual drunks in his usual hangout, a smoky and dilapidated bar, and then gets caught up in the resistance.)All the time, he is lonely and desperately seeking a special companion, someone to love and take care of him.It is not a heroic tale, but one about what it was really like in the resistance:more about the pauses and boredom, the bad food and promiscuity, the strange thoughts by men risking their lives for murky as well as clear-cut causes - the socialist revolution or to rid their countryside of the Germans who steal their cows.This is a new and fascinating view, told with great wit and style.This is the first novel I read in Italian, and its vocabulary is difficult but wonderfully succinct and clear.

Warmly recommended.

Picaresque, prescient, pithy
A fascinating tale of compassion and dispair in the postwar picaresque tradition of writers like Gunther Grass.
Told from the perspective of the boy, Pin, Calvino's vision is fresh and imaginative. The tale invites us to understand the resistance movement as one not only of bravery, but of anxious restlessness and chaos. Through the commander Kim, we see war--on either side--as the defense of the humiliated against their aggressors. No one is spared. In this, we see a bit of ourselves and the current political arena in Washington and Iraq. ... Read more