Resumo de Marcovaldo - Italo Calvino

Marcovaldo, by Italo Calvino, is a collection of short stories about the day to day living of a common man. The stories contained in it sometimes read too simple for our bowdlerized minds. But therein lies the magic. Marcovaldo, the central character, is a family man who interacts with his environs in what is sometimes an amusing, sometimes ordinary and yet other times in almost ridiculous manner. Yet it is so touchingly humane, one is reminded of how one really loses out in life, pursuing that 9 to 5 job, no matter how fat - or thin - the paycheck.

At times, Marcovaldo casts a keen eye upon a rich harvest of mushrooms that he spies near his bus-stop, only to wistfully observe it being looted by other equally zealous passers-by. His mind plays tricks with him. He comes to a point where he thinks he is almost destined to take the harvest home before the cruel hand of fate tears apart his most cherished desire - to pluck unnoticed the mushrooms as soon as they are ready to be harvested.

You and I are spectators to such frenzied madness in our 9 to 5 lives too. That is what endears Marcovaldo to the reader. If we still retain that honesty of spirit and clarity of mind to see a hero in such an ordinary, vulnerable soul as Marcovaldo, there is hope yet, for us.

At another time, Marcovaldo and his family get themselves engaged in collecting free samples of soap, with plans to sell the soap for a profit - and how! Imagine you and me doing the same these days. They manage to collect enough samples to make a monstrous profit. But then, the villain of villains, the government, smells the lather and a rule is laid down which makes the police search houses for hoarded samples and punish guilty citizens. The family decides to dump the soap into the nearby river and get rid of it. But the swirling water makes soap suds out of the lather and Marcovaldo and his family are penalised for the great effort and innovation they have put into creating a business out of handouts.

Any familiar sounding parallels here? Life is not meant to be wasted at the feet of an evil bureaucracy, or a sinister corporate. It is meant for living up fully in ways that one needs to devise for oneself. Marcovaldo, the simpleton, is in you and me. His frustrations are ours, his inability to cope is our worst affliction, and the plots contained in the anthology are anti-epic.

What can we do to cope with the real pressures and frustrations that circumstances hatch all so often? Where do we get just that right amount of money we know we need, where does one spend one's time once having realized that there is no alternative but to live a dog's life? When will you and I be able to afford a week-long holiday every two weeks? Is it possible for us to live and do the way we intended to when we were young and the world was a charming place to be in?

Do not look for the answers to these questions in Marcovaldo. Just try and see the you in him. Or him in you.

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