The Elegant Variation: ITALIAN CRIME FICTION

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February 27, 2004

ITALIAN CRIME FICTION

In a piece I'm sure Sarah would run if she were here, the Nation reports on some rather interesting sounding Italian crime fiction.

A new quartet of detective novels from Italian crime writer Andrea Camilleri, published here by Viking and Penguin, takes us to the fictional waterfront town of Vigàta, in Sicily. Camilleri's protagonist is the overworked, straight-talking, politically radical Inspector Salvo Montalbano, whose passion for solving crimes is equaled only by his love of the perfect pasta al dente and the novels of his namesake, the contemporary Spanish detective writer Manuel Vazquez Montalbán. (Although Montalbán's works have not found a home in the United States, British publisher Serpent's Tail has been translating him into English for years.) When Montalbano hits a wall in his sleuthing, he's known to turn himself around by asking himself what Pepe Carvalho, Montalbán's famous sleuth, would do.
Like Mike Hammer or Sam Spade, Montalbano is the kind of guy who can't stay out of trouble. He's in a long-term, long-distance relationship with the smart and independent Livia, but every time they arrange to see each other, a corpse or two--usually bearing the marks of a deviant tryst--comes between them. (Over the course of the four books, this puts a considerable strain on Salvo and Livia's relationship.) Montalbano is competitive and narcissistic; he exploits personal relationships to turn up clues, and often gets friends and witnesses killed during his investigations. Still, deftly and lovingly translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli, Camilleri makes it abundantly clear that under the gruff, sardonic exterior our inspector has a heart of gold, and that any outbursts, fumbles or threats are made only in the name of pursuing truth (and, often, thwarting Italy's egocentric and dishonest politicians in the process--but that's another story).

Now, they did say fiction, right? (Shit, here comes the Italian hate mail ... )

Posted at 12:17 AM | Permalink

Comments

It's been very interesting to see how well Camilleri's books have taken off in the US--I was working at the bookstore when the first book, THE SHAPE OF WATER, was released, and soon after customers were clamoring for more. But there's a lot of great things happening in the genre in Italy. Carlo Lucarelli's ALMOST BLUE was, considering its brevity, a wonderful psychological thriller and very insightful into a blind man's world. And one of the books I've picked up on my trip is Massimo Carlotto's THE COLUMBIAN MULE, which is supposed to be fiendishly high-octane noir, and comes very highly recommended. And there's an Italian crime fiction blog, Marsilio Black (http://marsilioblack.splinder.it) that I tune into regularly for that sort of thing.

Posted by: Sarah | February 27, 2004 at 09:30 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
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February 27, 2004

ITALIAN CRIME FICTION

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

February 27, 2004

ITALIAN CRIME FICTION

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism