Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities

Pros: Sparkling, poetic prose, philosophical ruminations, and a whole which is utterly uncategorisable.
Cons: Unconventional structure, which may not be to everyone's taste.

Like many concepts which are commonly presumed to be unitary and simple, the idea of the 'city' is, in fact, nothing of the sort, and so it is unsurprising that its treatment in literature should frequently be characterised by complex layers of...

Pros: Mesmerizing; Exists well outside the confines of traditional storytelling
Cons: Look elsewhere for a linear, plot-driven narrative: this is much, much more than that

I first read this book a couple of years before I saw Venice for the first time, and after the trip I had an entirely new experience with Invisible Cities, which is both about and not about Venice all at once. Ostensibly, Invisible Cities...

Pros: Beautiful imagery, amazingly written
Cons: None

Invisible cities was perhaps the most beautifully written book I have ever read. Tying with Woolf in the theme of connection and with Shakespeare in the theme that, ultimately, words do not matter, Calvino brings you an illustrious world filled not with w ...

Pros: Simply a beautiful masterpiece
Cons: Will require some thought (if you consider that a con)

"Invisible Cities" is perhaps Calvino's best book - it's lyrical, well-written, compelling, approachable - in short, everything that makes a book great is here. It's a very philosophical book, and one that's hard to describe, but it's still great.
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Pros: Beautifully written, tangible, insightful
Cons: none

Italo Calvino's intricately woven story of a young Marco Polo and the aging and sagacious Kublai Kahn is truly a consummate work transcending time and space to provide a glimmer into the very essence of life itself. So simple is life's meaning that it...

Pros: Philosophical without being overwrought. Great imagery.
Cons: Non-linear plot.

With a narrative style completely his own (as far as I can tell, in any case), Italo Calvino's books simply can't be accurately described outside of experiencing them firsthand. Case in point is "Invisible Cities," which is comprised of a...

Pros: Transcendent
Cons: Requires open-mindedness

How to describe the writing style of Italo Calvino? Multi-dimensional would be one word. Elegant, mathematical, finely sculpted, would all be others that fit. Barraged daily as we are by writing of the most mundane sort - newspapers, magazines, junk mail...