| That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana Contributor(s): Gadda, Carlo Emilio (Author), Calvino, Italo (Introduction by), Weaver, William (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1590172221 ISBN-13: 9781590172223 Publisher: New York Review of Books OUR PRICE: $16.16 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2007 Annotation: 'A brilliant, sarcastic appraisal of life in Italy, told in swift-paced prose -a murder mystery intermingled with witty observations and telling phrases that cut through to the bone of the Italian people.' -Newsday |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Crime |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2006036813 |
| Series: New York Review Books Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.89" H x 5" W x 8" (0.90 lbs) 400 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Italy |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are committed within a matter of days: a burglary, in which a good deal of money and precious jewels are taken, and a murder, as a young woman whose husband is out of town is found with her throat cut. Called in to investigate, melancholy Detective Ciccio, a secret admirer of the murdered woman and a friend of her husband's, discovers that almost everyone in the apartment building is somehow involved in the case, and with each new development the mystery only deepens and broadens. Gadda's sublimely different detective story presents a scathing picture of fascist Italy while tracking the elusiveness of the truth, the impossibility of proof, and the infinite complexity of the workings of fate, showing how they come into conflict with the demands of justice and love. Italo Calvino, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Alberto Moravia all considered That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana to be the great modern Italian novel. Unquestionably, it is a work of universal significance and protean genius: a rich social novel, a comic opera, an act of political resistance, a blazing feat of baroque wordplay, and a haunting story of life and death. |