Okay, this is either the third or fourth time I've tried to write about this novel by Algerian-born Italian resident Amara Lakhous. The book, put out in English translation by Europa Editions, first came to my attention in one of the threads over at Adrian McKinty's blog The Psychopathology of Everyday Life in a comment from Marco, who I am also indebted to for showing all of us how to make a link.
Marco started the ball rolling by saying:
We have mentioned big/plural/diverse cities,immigration,progressiveness vs insularity -one of my favorite novels of recent years,Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator on Piazza Vittorio deals with all these things,and has just been translated into English.
As an American, and maybe even more particularly as a Californian, my view of the vastness of Rome has to do with both its physical scale and its reach back into various layers of historic time. So I was not really prepared to encounter a European story of immigrants and exiles, which feels much more familiar here than the story of Romulus and Remus. Also, I think we tend to see Italy as far more 'unified' than it really is. The people in this book who figure as 'foreign' may be no further away than Naples. I want to say that Southern Californians would not prove so exotic to us in Santa Cruz, but in fact, much of the life of the Central Valley would seem very strange indeed.
This story revolves around a murder and a suspect. It spoils nothing to say that the suspect is one Amadeo, and that all the cast of characters have their own different take on him, often completely at odds with the others. A quote fairly far into the book, but again giving nothing away says: "Amadeo maintained that Italian-style comedy represents the highest level of Italian creativity because it emphasizes paradoxes, combines tragedy and comedy, humor and serious criticism." This is in fact the style of this book, and if that description sounds intriguing to you than you should enjoy this.
A personal note: Not too long after reading this novel I found myself shouting up the stairs at my fellow tenant, through the barrier/mediation of the property manager, a man covered in tattoos but also carrying a little lapdog. Our dilemmas and differences were as trivial as those of the characters in this book, and yet our lack of communication as profound. A little dog figures prominently in Clash of Civilizations as well. Perhaps there is always a little dog somewhere, emblematic of we know not what.
Don't know if anyone will even see this, but if so, let's state that spoilers are okay in the comments, so be forewarned.
I'm updating this to add a link from Peter Rosovsky's highly informative international crime blog, Detectives Without Borders, where he is also talking about this book, doubtless in a much more intelligent way.
Marco started the ball rolling by saying:
We have mentioned big/plural/diverse cities,immigration,progressiveness vs insularity -one of my favorite novels of recent years,Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator on Piazza Vittorio deals with all these things,and has just been translated into English.
As an American, and maybe even more particularly as a Californian, my view of the vastness of Rome has to do with both its physical scale and its reach back into various layers of historic time. So I was not really prepared to encounter a European story of immigrants and exiles, which feels much more familiar here than the story of Romulus and Remus. Also, I think we tend to see Italy as far more 'unified' than it really is. The people in this book who figure as 'foreign' may be no further away than Naples. I want to say that Southern Californians would not prove so exotic to us in Santa Cruz, but in fact, much of the life of the Central Valley would seem very strange indeed.
This story revolves around a murder and a suspect. It spoils nothing to say that the suspect is one Amadeo, and that all the cast of characters have their own different take on him, often completely at odds with the others. A quote fairly far into the book, but again giving nothing away says: "Amadeo maintained that Italian-style comedy represents the highest level of Italian creativity because it emphasizes paradoxes, combines tragedy and comedy, humor and serious criticism." This is in fact the style of this book, and if that description sounds intriguing to you than you should enjoy this.
A personal note: Not too long after reading this novel I found myself shouting up the stairs at my fellow tenant, through the barrier/mediation of the property manager, a man covered in tattoos but also carrying a little lapdog. Our dilemmas and differences were as trivial as those of the characters in this book, and yet our lack of communication as profound. A little dog figures prominently in Clash of Civilizations as well. Perhaps there is always a little dog somewhere, emblematic of we know not what.
Don't know if anyone will even see this, but if so, let's state that spoilers are okay in the comments, so be forewarned.
I'm updating this to add a link from Peter Rosovsky's highly informative international crime blog, Detectives Without Borders, where he is also talking about this book, doubtless in a much more intelligent way.
Lovely non-spoilerish review.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the nods (blushes)
Ciao,Marco
v-word:ultran
Your comment is more a meditation upon the book than a review. This is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteOne review quoted on the back cover called this book the first text by writer from outside Italy that can be considered thoroughly Italian.
V-word: abilityl
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Thanks for stopping by, both of you. I did write reviews for our local paper here briefly, just at the point where they decided to fire their book editor and I guess grab the reviews from the associated press. I had mixed feelings about the whole experience. I liked getting the books and actually having to articulate something about them, but I found the form constraining, especially as the book editor told me her experience was that I should think of the paper's readers as intelligent eighth graders. But I think I also found the form itself not very satisfying. It then occurred to me that if I just blog about it, I can say whatever I want. Even if it's totally irrelevant, which I'm afraid will more often be the case than not.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the reviewer notes the novel's thoroughly Italian nature while my reading makes me wonder 'what is Italy?'
Glad you didn't mind my quoting you, Marco. It occurred to me after that I probably should have asked.
I find writing about books on my blog vastly more satisfying than reviewing them for my newspaper in all ways except financially.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, we won't miss much when newspapers die.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Well, the remuneration wasn't significant anyway, so that's one less cause for ambivalence.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering about newspapers, though. I would have said they are easily replaceable with the new technology, but the phenomenon of how quickly all our papers sold out after Obama was announced leads me to believe that people still cling to the material object, at least for now. When everything becomes digital, what are we going to do for artifacts?
One of my newspaper's top editors was excited about the traffic on our new breaking-news blog. Great, I thought. In effect, he was telling us that we have discovered a surefire formula for success: World Series winners and epoch-making presidential elections.
ReplyDeleteLet me write that one down so I don't forget it.
Hmm. Managerial excitement would seem to be the same the world over. My prediction would be that early next November, the same guy will come around asking people why interest in the blog isn't so hot. "You were doing so great last year," he (or she) will say. "What happened?"
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, write it down. But to jog their memory, not yours.
My prediction is that next November the paper will not exist in its current form. As it happens, the guy who sent that memo was about the one good guy in top management, so I cut him a break.
ReplyDelete===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/