Books: Man up a Tree

THE BARON IN THE TREES (217 pp.)—Italo Calvino—Random House ($3.50)

One of the nicest ways to get awa> from it all is to go climb a tree—every child knows that. Seen from a stout limb and framed in shade, the world seems a safer and more interesting place. But sooner or later the child must come down to earth. In this novel, the hero never comes down, and neither does Italian Author Italo Calvino. He seems to have had great fun dreaming up his fantasy; all he asks of the reader is a suspended intelligence and a taste for the bizarre.

The...