Magical realism - short stories/ novels of fairytales are what I’m interested in
An Italian writer, who grew up on a farm around agriculture
Part of a communist group in the Italian Resistance - under the name ‘Santiago’/ his parents were held hostage by the Nazis because of his refusal to be a conscript and they pretended to shoot his father three times in front of his mother's eyes
Calvino returned to Uni, took up writing - war provided raw material/ he confirmed his membership to the Italian Communist Party - did some journalism, released 3 novels (not very successful)
Eventually moved away from communist writing toward magical realism/ fables (left the communist group - no longer wanted to have an active role in politics)
He described himself as an atheist
Some of his most famous works:
Some of his most famous works:
- The Cosmicomics collection of short stories - (my favourite) 12 stories each is a fictional story built around a scientific fact - mainly space and evolution based - really interesting characters - ‘The Distance of The Moon’ - really vivid description of moon surface, ladder, boat, sea - interesting setting/ description of girl covered in limpets, tenticles, barnacles etc.
- 'Invisible Cities' - A conversation between Polo and the emperor about the 55 cities in his empire - each city is described in a poem - really cool for location!
- 'If on a Winters Night a Traveller' - Whole story is about someone trying to read a book - first half of each chapter is about the person trying to read a book/ 2nd half is the start of a new book - all unfinished - as he reads themes from the books come into the whole novel - postmodern - sounds interesting I guess I could pick out place, characters from short stories/ library etc.
If I look at Calvino I'd like to start by ordering the Cosmicomics then maybe invisible cities..
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