Difficult Loves
by Italo Calvino
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Katie by:
found fortuitously while shelvingrecommends it for: Vicki, among others
Two or three stars for the first three quarters of this collection, a dazzling five to the final installment--the eight "Stories of Love and Loneliness."
A typically rending, 159-word final sentence:
"And on the doorsteps of all those houses were numerous women, elderly or aged, and on the parapets, seated in a row, numerous men, old and young, all in white shirts; in the middle of those streets like stairways, the babies were playing on the ground and an older boy was lying...more
A typically rending, 159-word final sentence:
"And on the doorsteps of all those houses were numerous women, elderly or aged, and on the parapets, seated in a row, numerous men, old and young, all in white shirts; in the middle of those streets like stairways, the babies were playing on the ground and an older boy was lying...more
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Read in January, 2000
There was a time when I thought my purpose in life was to encourage as many people as possible to read Calvino. I bought this book for someone once and they said that the problem with it was that it had all these men and all they had to do was look at women and the women would have sex with them. To which the only answer is that it is a work of fiction and it is written by a man.
If this was all the book was about it would not be worth reading, but these short stories are a real delight. My f...more
If this was all the book was about it would not be worth reading, but these short stories are a real delight. My f...more
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Read in January, 2007
I love Italio Calvino, and this whimsical collection is really, really great. Calvino has a way of storytelling that is simple yet extraordinarily detailed at the same time. It's kind of like listening to your grandpa around the campfire, assuming your grandpa is a storyteller par excellence. These stories are all centered squarely around the theme ('difficult loves') and explore every facet of what it is to be human. A great introduction to Calvino and a nice collection to knock off during quie...more
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Read in August, 2007
why do i keep trying with calvino? i react the same way EVERY TIME. i really like where his books/stories start, and there's ideas and details and sentences which i love and i get all excited thinking this time will be different, that once everything goes all surreal i will still care... but no. he loses me every time. i've tried following other readers' advice and read these stories backwards and out of order, as if that would make a difference, but it hasn't. so i give up. i'm done.
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Read in April, 2007
Thanks to Meg for lending me this book as well as recommending I start from the end and work forwards. The Adventure stories ("The Adventure of a Reader", "The Adventure of a Bather", etc.), collected under the heading Stories of Love and Loneliness, were the best of the book, showcasing Calvino's knack for detailing his characters' obsession with the mundane. Had the entire collection been nothing but Adventure stories, I would have easily given this a five-star rating.
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Calvino does an excellent job of transporting the reader to his world thorugh this short story collection. Beautiful writing and imagery. His stories are both magical and mundane at the same time, and skewed just enough to be quirky without being weird. Alas, for me, not enough stories provided that je ne sais quoi--that emotional tug--that makes a book 5 star book. Certainly worth reading though.
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Read in July, 2007
the stories in this book are amazing. They are divided into four sections: Riviera Stories, Wartime stories, Postwar stories, and Stories of Love and Loneliness. My favorites are: Adventure of a Reader, Adventure of a Photographer, Theft in the Pastry Shop, and One of the Three is Still Alive....less...more "
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Read in July, 2007
Wow the stories in this book are amazing. They are divided into four sections: Riviera Stories, Wartime stories, Postwar stories, and Stories of Love and Loneliness. My favorites are: Adventure of a Reader, Adventure of a Photographer, Theft in the Pastry Shop, and One of the Three is Still Alive.
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1 comments
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
lovers
I read half of this book by train.This collection of short-stories is wonderful,but it`s easy to read.It was just a moment of peace after lots of history books.Anyway,if you`re in love,you`ll realise how important is trust and dialoque in your relationship.I absolutely liked it!
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Read in June, 2007
I read some Calvino before, and was pretty into him, yet got bored with Cosmicomics and did not read him for awhile. ( Although about a year ago I read his journals and found the parts on America interesting - he writes about meeting Allen Ginsberg and Fernando Arrabal
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I don't know why. These stories just rock my socks. I haven't even read all of them, but the stuff with the kids in it--some of the only stories that give me that haunted/elated feeling that, per the offhand comments, short stories are supposed to produce.
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
want to read sometimes sad love stories
A collection of Italian short love stories. Very well written, and collected according to the type of love story, (wartime, unrequited, ect).
Worth it if you only like/read a few of the stories out of it.
Worth it if you only like/read a few of the stories out of it.
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Read in January, 2008
There are tales I have saved for sharing in this book, as well as those I read quickly just to get through them - not my favorite Calvino, but as usual, masterfully spun.
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2 comments
Read in January, 2008
I read these short stories (in original language) on my bus ride to work to brush up on Italian. The author Italo Calvino is under appreciated in America.
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Read in July, 2007
Good short, traditional Calvino stories. A perfect collection. Also, perfect commute reading. Short enough stories to remember what's going on.
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
no
not one of my favorite authors, i did not like his style or his narrative, and consider that the short stories were quite plain.
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I go back to this book again and again. It is quintessential summer reading, full of beaches and thwarted Italian love.
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Like Milan Kundera, Calvino writes of the passing moments of clarity in love, when we realize we should know better.
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Read in January, 2004
One of my personal favorites. I can get so lost in his descriptions and characters but they don't over power you.
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Read in October, 2007
recommended by the librarian at the downtown branch. not engaged enough to keep reading. maybe someday will finish
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.88 (493 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.89 (474 ratings) number of reviews: 36popular shelves
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quote
"It is pointless searching in the depths of the opaque for an escape from the opaque.
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