Where should you start with Italo Calvino?
Start with Marcovaldo (1963), twenty short, funny-sad stories about a working man in a northern Italian city, if you want something easy and charming. If you are ready for Calvino at his most dazzling, go straight to Invisible Cities (1972); then read If on a winter's night a traveller (1979), and keep Italian Folktales (1956) by the bed.
Calvino was born on 15 October 1923 in Santiago de las Vegas, near Havana in Cuba, grew up in Sanremo on the Ligurian coast, and died in Siena on 19 September 1985. He wrote wartime fiction, fantasies, folk tales and books that play games with the reader, which is why people often ask where to begin. There is no wrong door, but some are easier to open than others.
The gentle door: Marcovaldo (1963)
Marcovaldo, ovvero Le stagioni in città, collects twenty short stories about an unskilled labourer working for a firm in a large industrial city in northern Italy. Marcovaldo longs for nature in the middle of concrete and traffic, and in every story he chases something that seems natural and beautiful, only for it to let him down. The stories move through the seasons, five times round the year.
The tone is light and witty on the surface, with a wry undercurrent about poverty, pollution and consumer life. Each story is short, so it is perfect for commutes and for readers who are not sure Calvino is for them.
The dazzling door: Invisible Cities (1972)
Marco Polo describes to Kublai Khan the cities he has seen on his travels, 55 of them, each in a brief prose poem, with short conversations between the two men woven in. The cities are grouped by theme, and the book follows a deliberate, almost mathematical structure. It runs to well under two hundred pages.
There is no plot to speak of. It is a book to read slowly, a few cities at a time, and to reread. If one book makes you a Calvino reader for life, it is usually this one.
The playful door: If on a winter's night a traveller (1979)
This is a novel about you, the reader, trying to read a novel called If on a winter's night a traveller. Your copy turns out to be faulty, so in alternate chapters you keep starting new novels, ten of them in different styles, each breaking off just as it gets going. Meanwhile your own story turns into a strange conspiracy involving a translator and a reclusive novelist. William Weaver's English translation appeared in 1981.
It is clever and very funny about the act of reading. Read it once you know you enjoy Calvino's games, not as a first date.
The bedside door: Italian Folktales (1956)
For Fiabe italiane, Calvino gathered 200 tales from across Italy, drawing on the work of earlier folklorists and noting his source for each. It was meant as a popular collection for general readers, and it has become a standard one. Ursula K. Le Guin compared its importance to the Grimms' collection.
It is not a book to read straight through. Keep it by the bed and read a tale a night.
One more for later
The Baron in the Trees (1957) is a fantasy in which a young nobleman, after a quarrel with his father, climbs into the trees around the family villa and vows never to come down. It is a good second or third Calvino if Marcovaldo hooks you.
FAQ
Which translation should you read?
William Weaver translated If on a winter's night a traveller into English in 1981. For the other books, any established translation will serve you well; the books are short enough to compare in a shop.
Is Calvino difficult?
His sentences are clear and his books are short. The difficulty, when there is any, is in the structure. Start with Marcovaldo and you will learn his tricks gently.
Did Calvino write anything about writing itself?
Yes. Six Memos for the Next Millennium, published after his death in 1988, is based on lectures he wrote for Harvard but did not live to deliver, on lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility and multiplicity. It is a lovely short read once you know his fiction.
Is he a good holiday writer?
Very. Marcovaldo and Italian Folktales are ideal for broken-up holiday reading. See /books/novels-set-in-italy-for-summer/ for more Italian picks.
Sources
Written by the Zestasy editors. General information for curious adults, not medical, nutrition or training advice.