Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

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

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

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
Release dateJun 16, 2017
ISBN9781501963568
Author

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino nació en 1923 en Santiago de las Vegas (Cuba). A los dos años la familia regresó a Italia para instalarse en San Remo (Liguria). Publicó su primera novela animado por Cesare Pavese, quien le introdujo en la prestigiosa editorial Einaudi. Allí desempeñaría una importante labor como editor. De 1967 a 1980 vivió en París. Murió en 1985 en Siena, cerca de su casa de vacaciones, mientras escribía Seis propuestas para el próximo milenio. Con la lúcida mirada que le convirtió en uno de los escritores más destacados del siglo XX, Calvino indaga en el presente a través de sus propias experiencias en la Resistencia, en la posguerra o desde una observación incisiva del mundo contemporáneo; trata el pasado como una genealogía fabulada del hombre actual y convierte en espacios narrativos la literatura, la ciencia y la utopía.

More audiobooks from Italo Calvino

Related to The Road to San Giovanni

Related audiobooks

Classics For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Road to San Giovanni

Rating: 3.613207532075472 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

53 ratings2 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    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.