The story mainly concerns young Mladen, happily married to Anna, and his growing conviction that his life, already twenty-five years long, is not really going anywhere. As I suggested, many American readers would find the book a little hard to take, because it doesn't follow the patterns to which they have become accustomed. The only official-type personage in the story is Viktor, who owns a neighboring garden, and he is shown, although not in the best of lights, as being guilty of superciliousness and officiousness, not of totalitarian tyranny. La Or Pozidono appeared earlier, although there is really no way to determine the order of writing. I would guess that, indeed, Maja Pluvo is a later work.
Some lacunae remain.
But the main problem with the book is that it isn't longer. The book is well put together and attractive. Typos exist, but are few and far between, and not really bothersome. In fact, at one point the vile Communist government does ban all watering of gardens.