I went into the book expecting something very dense, a lot of food for thought in few words, which I got. But at the same time I didn't expect how evocative it is. What I mean is how deeply these cities imprint themselves in your head, how vivid an impression they leave even with such short chapters: each city description is like a tiny fairy tale which completely sucked me in. So I feel like there are two levels: you can stop and ponder over every sentence, but as an enchanting dreamscape of places and moods it works too (and you can catch the mood of a city without deeply analysing its detailed implications). I was really impressed and pleased with that, that kind of multilevel enjoyment is how I like any kind of art best, and I think it's done very gracefully. It's all thanks to Calvino's gorgeous writing style of course. The fun thing is that his city descriptions, in their evocativeness, work like the emblems of Marco Polo.

I'm also delighted with the mathematical structure of the book, and even on a smaller scale many of the descriptions of cities are patterned and surreal in a way which reminded me very strongly of Escher's drawings. I think that's another reason I felt so receptive to the book's enchantment; as a kid I used to look at those drawings and daydream about them for hours on end. Calvino's reasoning and insights are also combine the analytical and creative in a mathematical way. Sometimes that typical pattern of insights according to analogies and juxtapositions becomes predictable, but in a way similar to the luminous moment of seeing where a mathematical argument is going before the conclusion is reached, which is satisfying.

ps. the structure reminds me of electron shells in an atom, which is funny considering the comment about crystal structures and molecules in the conversation starting chapter 4. I don't think it's intentional (it's a stretch without particular meaning on my part anyway) but it's fun. Compare these:



pps: my favourite city is Chloe