The Watcher and Other Stories (Harbrace Paperbound Library)

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They looked as if, daughter following mother, they had never done anything but prepare for elections. He seemed to be working towards literary styles that were suited to urban and rustic life (and its socio-political implications).

The title story involves Amerigo, a rather naive young Communist who is employed as a "Watcher" at a hospital; he keeps an eye on the patients to make sure they are all aware enough to vote. More Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon.Smog" is a story about industrial pollution, and about a man hired to become the editor of "Smog" magazine, a periodical devoted to the eradication of industrial air pollutants. In the cruel speech of the poor, that name had become, by a natural process, a mocking epithet, meaning cretin, idiot, even abbreviated, in the Turin way, to its first syllables: cutu.

It's only 75 pages long, so by the time I'd got used to Calvino's style and his perspective, the story was half over. The way that Calvino’s dialogue bleeds from person to person, sometimes leaving sentences without any literal substance, just enough words for you to get the basic idea of the sentiment being expressed… it’s brilliant to me!That's why it's so surprising that a common theme in these works emerges anyway -- namely, that existence is futile and farcical and yet also must be cherished because, in the end, what else is there? Founded by an avid collector with 30+ years experience in all facets of the book trade from bookselling and library science to publishing. For his part, Amerigo had learned that change, in politics, conies through long and complex processes, and you couldn’t hope for change overnight, as if it were a stroke of luck; for him, as for so many others, acquiring experience had meant becoming slightly pessimistic.