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    The Road to San Giovanni
    The Road to San Giovanni
    The Road to San Giovanni
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Road to San Giovanni

    Written by Italo Calvino

    Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    "In each other's presence we became mute, would walk in silence side by side along the road to San Giovanni. To my father's mind, words must serve as confirmations of things, and as signs of possession; to mine, they were foretastes of things barely glimpsed, not possessed, presumed." -from The Road to San Giovanni. In these autobiographical essays, published after Italo Calvino's death, the intellectually vibrant writer not only reflects on his own past, but also inquires into the very workings of memory itself. From the title essay's lyrical evocation of the author's relationship with his father, and a charming account of teenage years spent in the glow of the cinema screen, to Calvino's reminiscences of his experiences in the Italian Resistance during World War II and of his years in Paris, to his declaration of purpose as a writer in the final essay's visionary fragments, these five "memory exercises" are heartfelt, affecting, and wise.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 16, 2017
    ISBN9781501963568
    Author

    Italo Calvino

    ITALO CALVINO (1923–1985) attained worldwide renown as one of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers. Born in Cuba, he was raised in San Remo, Italy, and later lived in Turin, Paris, Rome, and elsewhere. Among his many works are Invisible Cities, If on a winter’s night a traveler, The Baron in the Trees, and other novels, as well as numerous collections of fiction, folktales, criticism, and essays. His works have been translated into dozens of languages.

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    Reviews for The Road to San Giovanni

    3.5/5

    53 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A beautiful collection of essays from the master fabulist. My favorite was about garbage cans. Covers Fellini through Latin plant names. Worth it.
    • 2/5
      The title piece and "From the Opaque" seemed to be the highpoints in this collection of "memory exercises". Both do an admirable job of attempting to recreate not just memories but direct sensory experience and how it was translated into a more subjective world view of simpler, fewer, and less sharply defined objects a younger age. I'm sure it is possible to dig some hard philosophy out of these pieces, but as a casual reader the strongest impression was of an almost transcendental nostalgia.

      The other three essays were less interesting to me. The piece on cinema was decent while the war time recollection felt a little too slight and the essay on the Parisian garbage can seemed a bit self-indulgent. Still, I am sure all of these essays have their fans (well, maybe not the second). I haven't read anything else by Calvino, so I don't really know whether it is representative of his work as a whole.