Invisible cities is a kind of bestiary of 55 cities in prose poetry, framed by conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. It’s plotless, tightly structured, not very long, and filled with beautiful words. It’s the sort of book that takes far longer to read than the time required to pass one’s eyes over the words. I can imagine fantasy writers using it as a sourcebook. I kept twisting it one way and another, trying to understand it what it meant if anything. The blurb on the back says ‘it gradually becomes clear that he (Polo) is actually describing one city: Venice‘. Maybe in one section, but I thought that for me, it might just as well be my own city, or anyone's.
