Difficult Loves

This is a fantastic collection of stories. I read it at the same time that I was reading very many short stories and trying to get a handle on the form. In addition to reading Calvino's book presented here, I was also reading Isaac Baashevis Singer's Death of Methuselah and Other Stories. While Singer's stories in that volume reverberate with the echoes of a firm oral storytale tradition, Calvino's volume is more firmly planted in the literary (qua fable). It is difficult, in my opinion, to find a more heartwarming expression of many of life's great tragedies, including the tragedy of war, presented in a number of stories in the volume with brilliant wit and eccentric cynicism. In some senses Calvino's work can be viewed as a close counterpart to the rather ironic novels of Evelyn Waugh, although there is a sense of grandeur in Waugh that will assuredly not be found in Calvino. Like Mauriac said of Kafka, Calvino is one of those writers with whom you'd like to read everything about and nothing by; insofar as that is true, then this collection of wonderful stories is a vigorous exception.

I read Difficult Loves a month ago and found that the stories in this book have staying power. Italo Calvino conjures up vivid imagery to accompany magical and unsettling stories. His story telling abilities are such that he reminds readers of long forgotten sensations. We feel the marvel and anxiety of two children who happen upon a property that is both enchanting and disturbing. We experience the elation of a man who is new to glasses and his disappointment upon realizing he found only a temporary reprieve from his same old life. Another story that opens with a leathery old man warning a weary traveler against crossing a mountain pass is one of the most powerfully written tales in the book. Difficult Loves is worth rereading.

First off, Italo Calvino is my favorite author and Difficult Loves is one of my favorites of his books. A collection of short stories, as a whole, the book ranks among Calvino's most imaginative and magical works. The collection really displays Calvino's virtuosity as a writer with subjects ranging from war to a solitary woman swimming. Each is magical in its own special way. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading--it serves as an excellent introduction to one of the most creative minds of 20th-century literature.

Calvino is a genius. I read most of his books and all are differents in style, thematic, lenght, etc; but all are similar in quality, humanity and sensibility.This one is a collection of stories where love is only a component, an important one but not the only (as in real life). Even is not the usual love that it is important here. Reaction to love, moments before love, lonely love are the esential components of these stories. Calvino knows that it is not possible write about love, we can only describe the environment of love, but not LOVE. But when you are able to write about it with the class of Calvino, you do not need anymore.Excellent, excellent and excellent

Life is about stories. Italo Calvino has (had) a true ability to bring you "into the detail" of life. The stories are set before you to experience yourself. Many stories which we long for in our own lives, many which we would never wish to know.This book enables you to feel the soil, smell the sea, sense the fear...the details that not so many other authors can bring to you.