Hermit in Paris [Hardcover]

Italo Calvino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2003

Italo Calvino once said that he preferred to give false details about his biography since he felt that even the genuine data of a writer's life shed no light on the creative work. But this volume of posthumously collected personal writings is the closest we will ever come to the autobiography of this most private of writers. The pieces collected here range from the early 1950s to his last interview, completed just before his sudden death in 1985. Apart from shedding light on his own formative experiences and evolution as an author, Calvino's autobiographical writings also examine the major events of twentieth-century history from a very personal viewpoint: his memories of Fascism in San Remo in the 1930s, his participation in the Resistance in the Ligurian hills in the '40s, his militant communism in the early 1950s, and his exit from the Italian Communist Party in 1957. The two most substantial items are of geographical as well as historical interest. The first is an unpublished travelogue recounting his visit to the USA in 1960: apart from narrating his encounters with key figures of the time such as James Purdy and Martin Luther King, and his impressions of the beatniks and the Kennedy-Nixon election campaign, Calvino also takes us on a tour of the major cities as well as to riot-torn Alabama. The other piece, which gives its title to the whole volume, is Calvino's evocative homage to his adopted city, Paris, where he lived from 1967 to 1980. The whole volume is, as ever, full of ideas on literature and other writers, all conveyed with the author's distinctive lightness and intelligence.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Posthumous writings from Calvino.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape; First Edition first Printing edition (January 23, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0224061321
• ISBN-13: 978-0224061322
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,696,227 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.