"...Limpid and cold in the mirror"

Every book I recall reading has had a plot. I never imagined there could be a book that had no plot, but Invisible Cities demonstrates it's possible. This book has no plot whatsoever, it just describes cities by dividing them into different categories. He is able to concentrate on why every city belongs to the category it's in. However, there's no way that cities won't connect to others, since some categories are so similar. And so I noticed that more than once, categories merge.

In Isidora for example, although it is a city of memories, the man thinks about what he wants. It is the place where desires become memories. Similarly, Zoe is a city where "Thin Cities" merge with desires. There's no better way to put it than the way Calvino did: "Those [cities] that through the years and the changes continue to give their form to desires, and those in which desires either erase the city or are erased by it."(P. 35) In "Trading cities" Chloe is one where people never speak, only look into each other's eyes, thus connecting "Trading Cities" with "Cities and Eyes." Yet, the theme that is mentioned the most throughout the book is memory. It merges with signs  in Zirma, where it is explained that memory is merely a way to repeat signs so that the city can exist. Later in the book, Euphemia is described as a city where memories are traded, this way combining both of these themes of the book.

It is interesting how Calvino is able to describe everything as if you were there. For example, when describing Euphemia, a place where memories are traded, he tells mostly of what you'd hear if you went there. Then, when writing about Chloe, he describes mostly the people seen there, since nobody speaks, just watches. "A girl comes along, twirling a parasol on her shoulder, and twirling slightly also her rounded hips. A woman in black comes along, showing her full age, her eyes restless beneath her veil, her lips trembling." He never says who these people are, he just describes them physically, allowing the reader to judge on his own. It is through these descriptions that the reader acts as not only the audience, but also as a citizen of every city that is described throughout the book.