Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City

I happened upon this book doing a crossword puzzle. It seemed intriguing so I bought the Kindle version. We get a series of adventures of Marcovaldo, a poor man living in a northern town of Italy. He gets into scrapes because he is from the country and poor. [Spoiler Alert] One of the early ones is that he steals a rabbit from the hospital, but it full of a disease they are researching and could kill anyone who eats it.

This was an incredibly nice break after working my way through The Idiot (Everyman's Library) . (about which I have still been unable to write) Calvino, as always, touches the innermost feelings that make all of us who we are. While we do follow the main character throughout the seasons and the years, this is still a collection of slice-of-life stories that really do not rely on the specific characters at all. I thought, briefly, that I would be able to follow the growth of Marcovaldo's eldest, Michelino, as he grew up throughout the stories, but that really wasn't something for which this book was striving. It just wants to put us in the center of an elegantly and thoroughly described Italy. It was nearly fantasy... I felt like we followed Calvino (and ourselves) through the troubled life of adulthead beset by bills, sickness, and the search for food with the uninhibited joy of a child. Marcovaldo's family - even Marcovaldo himself - were simply props the author used to describe the world around him as it was and as he wished to see it. No permanent ills ever befall the family; in fact nothing solid really changes from story to story. We simply are gifted with the ability to see the city through someone else's eyes. This was an escapist book. A delightful diversion that read incredibly quickly and really didn't require too much of me as a Reader. Everything was simply laid bare. It was easy, at times, to identify with Marcovaldo as an adult, ("Oh, if I could wake just once at the twitter of birds and not at the sound of the alarm and the crying of little Paolino and the yelling of my wife, Domitilla!") but this really felt more like an exercise in getting back in touch with the wonderment, joy, and excitement the world can bring to a child whose experiences do not yet encompass the normality and boredom of every day life. Aside from the story of the rabbit, for whom I wept silently, these stories just related the beauty of being alive, even in the harshest of times. I really couldn't put this down, not because there was any underlying plot pushing me forward but because I wanted to continue living life through the eyes of a child for just a little while longer. I wish it hadn't ended, but when it did, I was smiling.

Once more, Italo Calvino shows why he is the greatest fabulist of our times. The focal point of this piece is the character Macrovaldo, the unfortunate Everyman of these stories who although a city dweller extraordinaire constantly finds the bucolic in the city. Yet owing to the fascinating wit of the author, Macrovaldo is always unpleasantly surprised. One doesn't know who to feel more sorry for, the family of Macrovaldo or the man himself. Structure around the seasons of the year in a five year cycle, this Pythagorean world is perfect for Calvino to test his theory of time and place while at the same time providing an oblique commentary on politics, cultural mores etc. in a pattern so familiar to those familiar with his work. Whether he is breeding rabbits, hunting for mushrooms, fishing, the troubles of Macrovaldo always entertain and usually surprise the reader. The inevitable tension between the urban world and the Arcadian aspirations of Macrovaldo are typically Calvino's. It is curious to note how Calvino has surreptitiously influenced much of the more serious Italian film makers.

On the back cover of this book is a quote from the New York Review of Books, claiming that Italo Calvino is, "... one of the world's best fabulists." For the life of me, I just cannot understand what's so great about Italo Calvino's writing. True, this little book of 20 short stories, entitled "Marcovaldo," was entertaining at times (as was his "The Cloven Viscount") and funny at times. At the same time it was also depressing and derisive. Virtually every story ends downbeat. But, Calvino is a good writer, often showing a clever turn of phrase and offering clear picturesque descriptions, especially of nature and common phenomena. The translation is adequate. The story of the rabbit is charming, funny and cute in the beginning, but horrible and not at all funny at the end. Same with the story about mushrooms. The tale of the cows marching through town to pasture in the hills (and followed there for the summer by one of Marcovaldo's sons) is another example. It was clever in the beginning but excruciating at the end, a dismal, biting, unpleasant commentary on the ordinary life of farmers. The funniest story involved Marcovaldo falling asleep on a river barge which floats downstream. It was mostly mischievous. Calvino walks a fine line between ridicule and humor. While reading these little stories about his title character, Marcovaldo, I felt that Calvino despised the fictional man he created, while admiring his simplicity and naiveté. Marcovaldo had the ability to appreciate even a row of ants marching nowhere, for instance, but his life was one disaster after another. Marcovaldo lives a somewhat miserable life in which he dislikes his wife, barely tolerates his too-numerous children, and works at a meaningless, mindless job, above which he will never rise. Hope for Marcovaldo is futile. Marcovaldo obviously has a below average IQ and is a man easily duped by not only others but also himself, his urges, his thoughts and his wife and children - all of whom seem even less capable than he. Thus Calvino wrote a scathing -- though ironic -- set of essays about how awful life was in mid-20th Century in Italy to be someone who is not very smart, someone who suffers from a lack of education, and someone must live a life of near poverty and vast ignorance. Marcovaldo teaches his children false ideas about everything that completely baffles him. Calvino really not only disrespects and disapproves of his character but makes great fun of him. Throughout almost every story, ridicule and indirect abuse is heaped upon the poor, hapless Marcovaldo. While Marcovaldo shows a nice sensitivity to nature and his very ordinary surroundings. He never masters his environment, that mysterious world around him, even though he rises from a one room flat to a two room flat in time - his primary life accomplishment. The stories degrade Marcovaldo's character and simplicity, showing him as the unwitting victim of his own and others crazy beliefs, ignorance and folly. The primary flaw in Marcovaldo is his inability to foresee potential consequences whatsoever to his actions. He simply plunges forward in life, irrespective of possible bad results to his idiotic ideas and schemes. Is this the substance of a fable? Calvino makes strong political statements in many of the stories, but without subtlety or nuance. In addition, there is a foreboding eeriness to most of these little fables which removes them from being bedtime reading for children. At best, these stories, (allegories, fables and metaphors -- to be generous to Calvino), might make good reading for a young teenager, whose sense of humor often borders on the bizarre and twisted, thus making the youthful reader quite possibly a fitting audience for these unusual tales. There is little in most of the stories for thinking adults, however, no matter how persistent Calvino is in forcing a message about Capitalism, Commercialism and Corporate greed, all of which apparently are at the root of Marcovaldo's fate. Collectively, the stories raise more questions about Calvino than they provide an enriching literary experience or coherent social commentary for a reader. Does Calvino simply hate everyone who isn't as clever as he? Are people who are poor and uneducated a fit subject for ridicule? Does Calvino truly believe that the life of average people is ultimately doomed by a terrible social structure and will inevitably end in the kind of overwhelming despair found in the person of Marcovaldo? Are there life lessons provided in these stories not better learned elsewhere? In sum, giving credit to Calvino's baffling positive reputation, I reluctantly rate "Marcovaldo" 2.75, but round it up to a 3.

I really never laughed so much while reading. The hijinks of Marcovaldo are funny, mythic, and yet oh so human. The ability of Italo Calvino to weave so much humanity into what feels like absurd fables, philosophical musings, and goofball ridiculousness is an incomprehensible level of skill and talent. The simplicity of the words. The ease of understanding. The beauty of the prose. Rhythmically dancing from mind to tongue to soul. These books make me love reading in ways as a person who reads a lot (120 books a year) I thought I understood what it meant to love literature. Calvino has shown me an entire new world of appreciation. Every book is just fantastic. Haven't found a bad one yet. They're modern folk tales. They're a celebration of the universe. They're a love of life.

I have two (kind of three) other works by Italo Calvino sitting on my shelf but chose to start with this one, because it's the shortest one and I read it as a transition piece between two denser books. My experience of this book is probably marred by that mindset. This is definitely something I'll reread in the future, and I can see myself upping the stars I've given it after a reread. First off, Calvino's prose is beautiful. It's whimsical and then suddenly grounded, and always conjures a rich world and mood, with hints of magical realism. There's no overarching storyline. You cycle through the seasons with Marcovaldo, with each season having its own tale. Marcovaldo is an impoverished menial laborer whom you track through his various escapades to "lessen his burden and that of those around him" (as the back of the book cover says). All of these ultimately fail in simultaneously hilarious and saddening ways. Calvino explores consequences of industrialism, nuances to family relationships (Marcovaldo's wife and children are featured in most of the stories), the helplessness of the individual (but without the depressing air such ponderings often bear), and the individual's perpetual attempt to find meaning and beauty. My favorite is the season of the poisonous rabbit (one not-so-fair autumn). Marcovaldo and the rabbit are both characters who are acutely very universally human. The juxtaposition of dissapointment/despair and humor/hope here, while also quite characteristic of the other stories in the book, had the greatest impact on me.

Some of Calvino's more adventurous and thoughty books are, I'm sure, superior to the humble Marcovaldo. But the Calvino I love best is when he's writing straightforward stories - such as these or the ones he collected in Italian Folktales. I also love everything else I've read by Calvino - which is most of everything available in English - but Marcovaldo remains among my favorites. A simple and endearing series of tales about a hapless but lovable buffoon that really stay with me.

Marcovaldo is a wonderful collection of short stories, or vignettes, of a poor urban laborer's dogged attempts to find nature and solace in the city. The stories are brief and often hilarious. I enjoyed it immensely!

Buen libro. Rapido en la entrega.

Molto soddisfatta dell’ acquisto . Lascia la pelle morbida e compatta. Ottimo rapporto qualità prezzo .sicuramente da consigliare . Lo ricomprerò

Each story will have you in stiches. A superb slice of 1950's Italy from Italo Calvino's mind.

A

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