Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings [Hardcover]

Italo Calvino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2003

Never before published in English, these essayistic writings enlarge our understanding of one of the twentieth centrury's most beloved authors.

In evocations of Italo Calvino's tumultuous teenage years--his life during Mussolini's rule, at the time of the liberation, and during the Cold War--we learn the story of the author's generation as it confronted moral, civil, and artistic dilemmas. In writings from the extended periods during which Calvino lived alone in Paris and New York, we witness his struggle to find "the right distance between being involved and being detached." In "American Diary" he recounts his peregrinations throughout the United States in 1959 and 1960: from New York to Texas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Savannah, and Charleston. He describes his bafflement with heretofore unimaginable technology, his fascination with the Beats, his horror at the squalor of the suburbs, the inspiration he derived from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words and actions, his impressions of myriad aspects of American culture.

Filled with the author's characteristic insight, intelligence, and brio, Hermit in Paris will take its place alongside Italo Calvino's seminal works.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This new volume of autobiographical writings (never before translated into English) by Calvino, whose short stories and novels gave him international acclaim as one of the 20th century's most important Italian fiction writers, is a welcome addition to his extensive works as well as to The Road to San Giovanni, a posthumous collection of autobiographical essays published more than a decade ago. This volume includes a series of articles and interviews that builds on the understanding of Calvino's life after World War II when he returned to Italy from the Communist resistance in the Alps, a period when Calvino felt a "moment of uncertainty" and a "perplexity about" his vocation as a writer before producing his first novel, The Cloven Viscount. The articles also feature Calvino's views on some of his most popular novels: "In the United States... the book of mine that became a hit was the one that you would have said was the furthest from American reading habits: Invisible Cities." But it is Calvino's lifelong fascination with America that makes this collection remarkable: more than half the book is given to an "American Diary 1959-1960," written during Calvino's two years traveling in the U.S., as he explores New York's thriving Greenwich Village and Actors Studio; a "violent, tough" Chicago; San Francisco's "squalid and filthy" beatnik scene; and Montgomery, Ala., where Calvino (who died in 1985) finds himself "in the middle" of "crucial days of struggle" of the Civil Rights movement. His diary reveals an obsession with what he later says most interests him as a writer: "daily life as the constant nourishment for writing."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Posthumous writings from Calvino.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 Amer ed edition (March 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037542184X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375421846
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,802,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Welcome Opportunity to Know Italo Calvino, June 9, 2003

By 

Steven Bookman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings (Hardcover)

This book is for readers who already know and appreciate Italo Calvino's major works of fiction. The center piece of this collection of interviews and memoirs is Calvino's notes on his 1959-1960 trip to the United States. The culture shock and fascination/irritation are especially absorbing to those who have been to the places Calvino visited and share Calvino's interests in literature and culture. These reminiscences are also interesting in the context of earlier Italian observers such as Ferruccio Busoni (concert tours 1892-1915) and Giorgio de Chirico (essay about New York in the 1930s).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Italian Writer Extraordinaire, August 14, 2007

By 

Christine Zibas "AnythngArt" (Chicagoland, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings (Paperback)

I first read "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by Italo Calvino and was hooked. Many years later, I had not forgotten this charming book, so when I was strolling in the bookstore and saw "A Hermit in Paris," I knew I had to get it. This is a collection of Calvino's writings collected after his death by his wife. There is some repetition among the writings, but the lyrical gems that await you in this autobiographical collection are worth wading through some similar pieces.

Most engaging are his writings from his travels to the US in 1959-60 while on a grant from the Ford Foundation. As he notes in the book, although he is Italian, and lived a long stretch in Paris to write, at heart he is a citizen of New York. His take on the US is so fresh and engaging, it's sure to be your favorite section. He's surely the 20th century Italian version of de Toqueville, showing Americans new ways to look at themselves.

However, there's a lot more there, including his tales of Resistance fighting against Mussolini in World War II, his work with an Italian publishing house, and his disenchantment with the Italian Communist Party, which he eventually left. This is a man that not only is a wonderful writer, but led a very colorful life, and these writings capture just a hint of what that life was composed of. This is a fascinating book, and not just for those of us who love Calvino's writing.

3 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hermit in Paris, April 20, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings (Hardcover)

Calvino is a wonderful writer and a genuine original, someone I've always loved to re-read, year after year. But prepare for a shock with "Hermit in Paris": he's almost a caricature of the rude, snotty, anti-american Leftist who finds "95% of America is a country of ugliness, oppressiveness and sameness, in short of relentless monotony." He meets James Purdy and describes him as "pathetic" (why?)

"American Diary" is a tour of the USA through the lens of an Italian Communist. He describes American housing projects as "prisons built of brick" and "terrifyingly anonymous" -- and while few would disagree, they remain positively cheerful (not to mention well-made) when compared to the European model. Exhibit A: East Berlin. When it comes to sheer cement horror and ugliness, no one can outdo the communists of Europe. Painting raw cement electric pink and mint green definitely doesn't help alleviate the hideousness of it all. A more squalid region of the world would be impossible to find.

European Communists are amazing to me, they have Yugoslavia, Poland, East Germany - it's right there, right next door! You can drive there in a few hours. They never mention it. They pretend it isn't there.