Mr. Palomar

Mr. PalomarCalvino, Italo. Mr. Palomar. (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1985) (ISBN 978-0151628353) (English First Edition). is the title of William Weaver's English translation of Italo Calvino's novel Palomar (first published 1983; English translation 1985). In an interview with Gregory Lucente, Calvino stated that he began writing Mr. Palomar in 1975, making it a predecessor to earlier published works such as If on a winter's night a traveler.Lucente, Gregory. An Interview with Italo Calvino. Contemporary Literature. Vol. 26, No. 3, (Autumn 1985), p. 248.

In 27 short chapters, arranged in a 3 × 3 × 3 pattern, the title character makes philosophical observations about the world around him. Calvino shows us a man on a quest to quantify complex phenomena in a search for fundamental truths on the nature of being.

The first section is concerned chiefly with visual experience; the second with anthropological and cultural themes; the third with speculations about larger questions such as the cosmos, time, and infinity. This thematic triad is mirrored in the three subsections of each section, and the three chapters in each subsection.

For example, chapter 1.2.3, "The infinite lawn" ("Il prato infinito") has elements of all three themes, and shows the progress of the book in miniature. It encompasses very detailed observations of the various plants growing in Mr Palomar's lawn, an investigation of the...
Read More