In five elegant ``memory exercises'' written between 1962 and 1977, Italian fiction writer Calvino (1923-85) presents an affecting self-portrait and offers indirect insights into how he conjured up his imaginary worlds. He writes of his difficult relationship with his father, a farmer and horticulturist whose passion for studying and acclimatizing exotic plants filled the future writer with an investigative spirit. Calvino ( The Baron in the Trees ) also recalls his adolescent movie mania, when watching the silver screen ``satisfied a need . . . for the projection of my attention into a different space.'' His graphic account of fighting fascists during WW II becomes a meditation on the role played by imagination in human memory. One essay is an informal structuralist analysis of living in a house in a Parisian suburb. This sparkling translation concludes with Calvino's lyric, metaphorical, highly elliptical description of his creative process. (Sept.)
"In each other's presence we became mute, would walk in silence side by side along the road to San Giovanni. To my father's mind, words must serve as confirmations of things, and as signs of possession; to mine, they were foretastes of things barely glimpsed, not possessed, presumed." -from The Road to San Giovanni. In these autobiographical essays, published after Italo Calvino's death, the intellectually vibrant writer not only reflects on his own past, but also inquires into the very workings of memory itself. From the title essay's lyrical evocation of the author's relationship with his father, and a charming account of teenage years spent in the glow of the cinema screen, to Calvino's reminiscences of his experiences in the Italian Resistance during World War II and of his years in Paris, to his declaration of purpose as a writer in the final essay's visionary fragments, these five "memory exercises" are heartfelt, affecting, and wise.
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The Road to San Giovanni
"In each other's presence we became mute, would walk in silence side by side along the road to San Giovanni. To my father's mind, words must serve as confirmations of things, and as signs of possession; to mine, they were foretastes of things barely glimpsed, not possessed, presumed." -from The Road to San Giovanni. In these autobiographical essays, published after Italo Calvino's death, the intellectually vibrant writer not only reflects on his own past, but also inquires into the very workings of memory itself. From the title essay's lyrical evocation of the author's relationship with his father, and a charming account of teenage years spent in the glow of the cinema screen, to Calvino's reminiscences of his experiences in the Italian Resistance during World War II and of his years in Paris, to his declaration of purpose as a writer in the final essay's visionary fragments, these five "memory exercises" are heartfelt, affecting, and wise.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171314699 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
| Publication date: | 06/16/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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