Abstract in progress

It's a little disjointed but I think I've almost got what I want to say.

Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities is a series of fifty-five stories describing the travels of Marco Polo. Each city is fictitious on its own, but together they make up all the different sides of Marco Polo’s hometown of Venice.

The suburbs were the American dream. Created on a large scale after the Second World War, they were the perfect blend of city and country, providing easy access to both, while qualifying as neither.

Since then the suburbs of North America have become a highly disputed area of design and building. There are many voices criticizing the planning and image of suburbia, and very few that are willing to stand up for it. I’m not saying that everything about these semi-urban living areas is wonderful, but it’s not all tract housing and miles of asphalt winding towards nothing. There are aspects of suburbia that only those who live there ever get to see. The sparkle of a rainbow reflecting off of water droplets, sprayed into the air by the lawn sprinkler. The combined joy and frustration of watching a child dive into a newly gathered pile of fallen leaves. The hum of the crickets in the summer interrupted by the ding of a bicycle bell, or the seven note tune of the ice-cream truck rolling down the street. These are all a part of suburban life, the part that makes the hour long commute to work and the stress of finding a parking space at the mall worth it.

These are the stories of experiences and situations that occur in the suburbs of Toronto.