I think it's inescapable to compare Calvino to Lightman's "Einstein's Dreams." Calvino is the early explorer of this sort of surrealistic fable; Lightman does a better job of creating an aesthetic and meaningful whole. After reading Einstein's Dreams, I have a clear sense of the message of the author (live your life with mindfulness; experience time with mindfulness). Calvino seems to have been sending out signals into the aether, never getting an answer back. That being said, his imagination, and his language, are fantastic, comparable to the imaginative punishments of Dante.