Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Italian novelist and short-story writer Calvino (1923-1985) is well-represented in this continually surprising collection of more than three dozen fables, tales, fragments and dialoguesa third of them never before published, others culled from magazines or newspapers, only a few previously anthologized. Qfwfq, the chameleon-like, timeless creature who related his subatomic and metaphysical adventures in the author's Cosmicomics, here recalls the split-second birth of the universe out of the void (``Nothing and Not Much'') and evinces sympathy for the fragile, perishable cosmos. Adapting the dialogue technique of Invisible Cities, Calvino presents imaginary interviews with Henry Ford, a still-surviving Neanderthal man and a rueful Montezuma, deposed from his Aztec throne. The regimentation and absurdity of life under fascism is evoked in several short fables written under government censorship during WWII, while lyrical neorealist stories explore the moral confusion and social anarchy of the immediate postwar period. A number of fables grapple with political ferment or technological change, like the premonitory title story, written in 1958, about supercomputers that run offices and know the past and future, or ``The Tribe With Its Eyes on the Sky,'' an allegory about nuclear arms proliferation and transnational corporate control of Third World societies. Novelist Parks's superb translations capture Calvino's quirky, iconoclastic voice, helping to make this a worthy addition to the Calvino shelf. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Calvino is best known as a fabulist, and indeed his writing, nearly always short forms or broken up episodically in the case of his novels Mr. Palomar (LJ 9/15/85) and Invisible Cities (1978), justifies itself not by character or plot but in moral and meaning. As a teenager in 1943, Calvino wrote, "One writes fables in periods of oppression. When a man cannot give clear form to his thinking he expresses it in fables." The early pieces, written during the last days of fascism in Italy, reflect a concern with the survival of human relationships in a time of overweening government and takes a bitter delight in the unpracticed exercise of authority by ordinary men. Later stories reflect on the conflict between imagination and repetitive industrial labor. Both themes are picked up in "The Workshop Hen," about a man who squeezes in two-word thoughts about his son's engagement in between the careful manipulations of the four heavy machines he is charged with operating. At the same time he is plotting the abduction of the chicken kept by the security man in charge of maintaining factory production quotas. Later works include an interview with the sole surviving Neaderthal and a chat with Henry Ford about his invasive business practices. These stories reward the patient reader with wisdom, humor, and insight. Highly recommended for collections of literary fiction.-Adam Mazmanian, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
YAThis fine collection contains an interesting variety of selections, from parable to polemic, with complex and challenging characters, situations, and themes. Some of the older stories have allusions that may not be apparent to YAs, but the universal ideas are expressed in a new and clever way. Calvino presents a different world view, expressed with wit, humor, irony, and wicked perception. Students who discover this book will be rewarded and tempted to read other works by this master storyteller.Margaret Hecklinger, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fascinating, frustrating posthumous collection of short tales (previously unavailable in English) from the great Italian writer (192385), assembled and introduced by his widow, Esther Calvino, and vigorously translated by English novelist and Italophile Parks. A series of ``Fables and Stories,'' written between 1943 and 1958, includes such comic dramatizations of intellectual and metaphysical concepts as ``Making Do,'' which ingeniously expresses the difficulties of imposing freedom on a population accustomed to tyranny, and ``A General in the Library,'' in which a military task force investigates the allegation ``that books contained opinions hostile to military prestige''--with embarrassing unforeseen results. Here and there, Calvino overexplicitly discloses his stories' morals (it should be remembered that many of this volume's inclusions were left uncompleted at his death). Still, the better pieces won't disappoint Calvino's many admirers. The marvelous title story, for example, reveals to a small boy helping his mother clean office buildings at night the hidden truth about the bogus economic stability of the entire planet. And the unfinished ``The Queen's Necklace,'' a terrific melodrama developed from the fortunes of the story's title object, shimmers with the promise of witty anatomy of the several social levels occupied by its losers and finders. The later ``Tales and Dialogues,'' dating from 1968 to 1984, are comparatively slow-paced and theme-ridden, including pieces written to order for IBM's computer operations department and, of all things, a Japanese distillery. It's make-work stuff, only infrequently showing Calvino in top form. The best selections are ``Henry Ford,'' an unproduced television script in which Calvino simultaneously presents both a stalwart defense of the great industrialist's capitalistic and paternalistic principles and some sly mockery of them, and ``Beheading the Heads,'' a fantasy about periodic executions of elected public officials that offers a classic example of Calvino's ability to transmute concept into hauntingly vivid fiction. A last hurrah from one of the modern masters. Middling Calvino but, for all that, a welcome gift we would not willingly have done without.
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