what an incredible way to write. makes you want to really run around! brilliant, active voice that surprises and specifies endlessly. some bits of dialogue were so funny and read so theatrically it made me jealous as a sore tooth!!
calvino is my most beloved author. here he’s written three quick stories based on his memories of the summer 1940, as italy entered the war and he entered adulthood. it’s a time of great confusion and reconciliation that he writes beautifully, and his usual sense of whimsy functions in such an interesting way here cause it deals directly with the contradictions of a whimsical adolescence under fascism. my favorite was the third story “UNPA nights”