From Publishers Weekly
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 dialogues?a 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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
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"Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
