The book is framed as a conversation between the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, and Marco Polo. Now, Marco's name was as famous as a ROCK STAR of his era, his travel book (IL MILIONE) written while in prison a best seller. Italo wrote brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Polo, many of which can be read as commentary on culture, language, time, MEMORY, DEATH, or THE ODYSSEY OF RECOLLECTION. Cities made of spiderwebs, sounds, abandoned cities, cities that look completely different when you enter its walls - you should read it. Short dialogues between Kublai and Polo (ALMOST LIKE AN INTERVIEW YOU MIGHT SAY) are interspersed every five to ten cities discussing the same topics. These interludes between the two characters are no less poetically constructed than the cities, and form a framing device that plays with the natural complexity of language, stories and LIES. Kublai also asks about a city Polo never mentioned, his hometown of Venice. Polo replies, "Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice." Now, we are listening to the voice of Lestat in his "failures" collection, which are like the chapters of his autobiography. As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. The episodes have been so far extremely hectic, hard to focus on, full of little lies and exaggerated scenes - seen through the main character's imaginative eyes. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.
"The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together."
theartofmadeline
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