City of Blinding Lights

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is a peculiar book for more than one reason. What it is about is puzzling, for unlike what I expected, it really is about cities. Somehow I thought the title and the content would have nothing literally in common, or at least not as directly as it does.

Secondly, the table of contents is as normal as can be, except for the fact that the chapters don't have titles of themselves, nor do they lack a title like in some books. Instead, the chapters all start their names with the word cities and are followed by something related to humans, such as memory, desire, signs (which are designed and created by humans), or eyes, among others. Every chapter is then accompanied by a number from 1 to 5, but they are not in order. Any of these characteristics are puzzling by themselves, but the real confusion came when Mr Tangen explained that the book has no distinct order.

There is no order that must be followed in order to understand. It can be read in disorder by following different patterns. For example, some may decide to read chapter after chapter as said in the table of contents, or they may decide to read it following the numbers. Others may read it according to the cities (those of memory, desire, signs, etc). This in all makes the book of the most peculiar I have ever come across.