'Invisible Cities' by Italo Calvino is a very strange but creative book.It deals with the major crises of contemporary cities. The book is framed as a conversation between Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler and Kublai Khan,the oriental emperor.Initially Polo tells Kublai Khan the tales of cities he visited and towards the end of the book, it goes the other way round.The only thing that kept Khan interested during the whole trip were the stories of Polo.The two spend hours fascinated over Kublai Khan's atlas. Eventually, the conversation boils down to whether or not a person can be separated from the city in which he lives.
The strange thing is that Polo and Kublai Khan did not speak the same language but each character understands the other through their own interpretation of what they are saying. The book consists of fifty-five extremely short city descriptions,and each city is still so complex so imaginary that it will leave you thinking.All these cities are rarely built of bland bricks and mortar. They are full of aluminium springs, silver domes, crystal, bronze, seashells, high bastions, curved arcades, nets, banisters, awnings, dirigibles, globes, pagodas, gratings, garrets, pilings, verandahs, parapets and porphyry steps. The cities are seldom peopled with characters.And all these cities are named after women - Raissa, Irene, Phyillis, Chloe..one example in Chloe, a great city, the people who move through the street are all strangers. At each encounter they imagine a thousand things about one another; but no-one greets anyone.
The book can actually be confusing as after each story you have to stop; to think about it and make an image of what the city would be like. Many a story hits a nerve.i had to turn back to the pages again and again as it got really confusing for me to read on.
