A series of lectures which Italo Calvino wrote in the final year of his life. Drawing on the works of Lucretius, Ovid, Boccaccio, Flaubert, Kundera, Perec and many more, he pinpoints the universal laws and literary values: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility and multiplicity.
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A series of lectures which Italo Calvino wrote in the final year of his life. Drawing on the works of Lucretius, Ovid, Boccaccio, Flaubert, Kundera, Perec and many more, he pinpoints the universal laws and literary values: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility and multiplicity.
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"This is a MUST READ for any aspiring writer or poet. Calvino's "memos" in this EXCEPTIONAL work on literary values number five: Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, and Multiplicity [the sixth was to be Consistency, but we are deprived by his untimely death]. This is an excellent book - read it cover to cover, make notes. I found it so good that I hesitate to draw from it for this review. It was published prior to the millenium, but he was thinking about the future of writing and I still find his comments laudatory today. I will venture to say that Calvino wrote from the perspective of more than 40 years of writing and his comment for an overall definition of his work is worth repeating. "...my working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight". Many authors could benefit greatly from applying this to their manuscripts.
I only know Italo Calvino's work in English translation - many kudos to Patrick Creagh, the translator and others to be thanked for this book, including Calvino's wife, Esther. The writings were prepared in the mid-1980s to be read by Calvino at Harvard University for The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures in 1986. He died before he could go to the United States for this event.
I recommend this book to any reader and especially all writers. The briefness of the memos are an additional value as it could be read again and again as a standard against which to measure your own work or commentary on writing.
My favorite Calvino so far are the short stories on Mr. Palomar. I particularly love "The infinite lawn" for his musings on "the lawn" and "the universe". Read it!"
