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1 to 8 of 8 items
Aug 20, 2021Sam_Duffy rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Among my most favorite books—a masterpiece.
May 11, 2020CALS_Lee rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
You can read this story by the Italian fabulist Calvino on two different levels. Ostensibly a dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan in which the adventurer describes 55 cities he has visited in the empire to the emperor, you can try…
Sep 11, 2017scribby rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
A slim little volume but an outsized triumph of imagination. A beautifully written meditation on place and on memory. We slowly realize that some or all of these cities (as portrayed by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan) may be fabrications; but…
Dec 08, 2014Chapel_Hill_KenMc rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
There's good reason this is a classic. A profound meditation on perception, memory, and human existence.
Mar 08, 2014lukasevansherman rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
"Signs form a language, but not the one you think you know." So, like, Kublai Khan and Marco Polo are just kicking it in a garden and M-Pol starts telling the Khan stories of these fantastic cities, which maybe are all the same city? The…
theorbys
May 30, 2012theorbys rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Marco Polo is describing fabulous cities to Kubla Khan. Each city's description is a short prose poem of sorts. At first I thought it was something of a homage to Borges, but as it kept piling on the cities it became a rather grueling…
Jan 25, 2011Richood rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, and fun in a very, very advanced literary way. The book's entirely short pieces linked together, none more than 5 pages and most 1-2.
Apr 13, 2010Kevint40 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This short work is so magical, and undescribeable. One of the great little books of the 20th Century. It owes much to Borges for its design and inspiration, but it is all Calvino's.