Cosmicomics

Clever although sometimes too obtuse. The abstract "narrator living through the evolution of the universe" stories are a tad repetitive by the end, but each has a focus. A nice little collection with a few strong pieces. ( )

Despite his Tuscan home, Calvino's Cosmicomics is a must-read for all fans of mid-century South American literature. The wit and fantasy underlying this series of connected stories is surprisingly close to Cortazar's [book: Cronopios and Famas] or Borges's more fantastical pieces. True--you're most apt to see Calvino's works in the hands of that post-modern, comp lit student at the coffeeshop (you know, the one with the asymmetrical bangs and the iPod full of Sigur Ros albums). Don't let that scare you away. Calvino has created a fantastic world that deserves to be explored. ( )

This book is quite the interesting experiment. I love the idea of it. The first story is quite unlike the rest, but that's okay with me. Other reviewers seem to hold the first story as an emblem to be modeled after. Don't discount the other stories. The rest of the stories take you on a trip through history, which Calvino turns into a profusion of surreal anthropomorphic dialectics. I love how Calvino can find human qualities in such dreary and abject objects in space and on a newly formed Earth. Calvino's style can grow quite tiresome and belabored, but treading through them always pays off and leaves a whimsical and mysterious impression. ( )

Imaginative and truly fascinating stories about the nature of ideas and early history of the universe. I want to read them to my future children. ( )

Hmmm. I've read this before, several times, and greatly enjoyed it. I even enjoyed it when I started it for the October TIOLI challenge. So I have to say I must be in a bad mood right now - because I hated most of what I read (the last half of the book). The narrator is a narcissistic, whiny, jealous, greedy sad sack, who's always chasing (and never getting) females. One reason he never gets them is that he never regards them as people - just prizes to be won, usually in competition with another male. When he's not chasing a female, he's busy assuming that everything in the universe (more or less literally, as far as "literally" has any meaning in this weird sciencey fantasy fantastical milieu) is focused on and paying attention to him. Bleah!
The concept is neat - take some scientific idea, such as that in an expanding universe, eventually the furthest galaxies will be moving too fast for light to catch up with them. Make this idea the feature of a short story, in which a character actually experiences the effect in his personal life. The stories get very surreal - well, when the character is sometimes one of a group inside the monobloc before the Big Bang (and the Bang was caused by them imagining what was necessary to make noodles...yes, noodles), and sometimes a mollusk, and sometimes someone that can lean out from a galaxy and make a mark on space...surreal is a weak descriptor. The writing, and especially the description, is beautifully handled, including when the narrator gives up and says something can't really be described. And when I'm in a better mood, I love it. So I'm keeping the book, but rating it middling - I'll try again later and see if I can boost that a little. ( )