This book actually contains the short story collection Difficult Loves, as well as two other novellas. While I enjoyed all of them, I enjoyed the comic situations in Difficult Loves the most.
This collection essentially narrates several funny situations where communication mishaps occur. More often than not, the main character that is placed in some awkward situation is suffering from analysis paralysis, thinking of plenty what-if scenarios while troubleshooting the situation they currently find themselves in. And the situations are sometimes rather hilarious.
For example, there was this woman who was alone, bathing in the sea. And somehow, she didn't realise it but her swimwear floated away from her body, and so now she's swimming naked. But she has to go back to the shore. What to do? Or this man travelling in a train, who has a very elaborate ritual of sleeping in the train, very absurd and funny. There are several of these bizarre comic situations, and somehow I cannot help but think that the main characters have more or less the same personality as me, hence I find it easy to relate and rather enjoyable.
I suppose Calvino brilliantly describes these little comic situations life brings to us at some point. I remember getting the same feeling when I have read his other books. There's humour, of a particular kind, that somehow just strikes a very welcome chord, whenever I am reading his prose. I definitely recommend this one, in case you're looking for a new book to read. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
See my other book reviews here.
