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That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana

Carlo Emilio Gadda,

William Weaver (Translator)

Start date: September 1, 2019

Finish date: October 1, 2019

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Aug 27, 2013 Nicholas During rated it really liked it

A woman is elderly widow is robbed of her very valuable jewels, then across the hall, a young, beautiful sophisticated wife is brutally murdered. The murder victim is, in fact, good friends with the smartest detective in Rome. Think you'll learn the criminal at the end of 400 odd pages? [Spoiler alert] (view spoiler) This is a mystery as if Joyce wrote it. Except Joyce is only concerned with one idiom (I'm thinking Irish English, but that probably isn't true), and Gadda A woman is elderly widow is robbed of her very valuable jewels, then across the hall, a young, beautiful sophisticated wife is brutally murdered. The murder victim is, in fact, good friends with the smartest detective in Rome. Think you'll learn the criminal at the end of 400 odd pages? [Spoiler alert] (view spoiler) This is a mystery as if Joyce wrote it. Except Joyce is only concerned with one idiom (I'm thinking Irish English, but that probably isn't true), and Gadda plays with all the dialects then still prevalent on the Italian peninsular.

Digressions abound, with any particular item a target: trees, animals, thoughts, jewels, roads, morning sounds, bathroom activities, it doesn't seem to take much to have Gadda spending a page or two on something else that what you were expecting (or hoping), mainly the crime and criminals at hand. But, of course, he does it all brilliantly. There is plenty of that complicated, broad, intellectualism going around. The digressions often become discourses on topics that can range from ancient philosophy to modern fashion; the characters (mostly either policemen or small-time crims) think about their diurnal irritations more than the investigation at hand. All of which makes the world of crime novel—normally with only characters that matter, who are either ruled out, killed, or heroes in the end—incredibly large. The fact that it all takes place with the confines of suburb Rome amazes me on writing. The murdered wife has a penchant in taking on young maids from the country, all of who have a wide range of similarities, but important differences. There is an unforgettable moment when driving become a scene of criticizing the encouraging and infantilizing beginnings of Italian road rules—none of which I wouldn't have got if it weren't for a helpful footnote; I can't imagine what it's like in Italian the many dialects are represented and played with.

Again, I'm not doing this book justice. But this is a rare book that is fun, provoking, very literary, and unlike any other crime novel you're ever likely to read. Not for the faint of heart, but take it with a grain of salt and this book has plenty of fun. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 18, 2013 Cynthia rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, nyrb, 2013

Imagonnabe thinking about this one for a while. Gadda and this novel had a mention in Enrique Vilas-Matas' totally wonderful Bartleby & Co. as a book the writer couldn't/wouldn't finish.

That awful mess a crime novel without resolution--an armed robbery plus a murder that may or may not be connected. It's a cutting misanthropic/misogynist social satire of Rome circa 1927, in the early days of Mussolini's reign. It's an exercise in playing with language from puns and near obscenities to dialect, ...more

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May 19, 2016 Featherbooks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: italy

Baroque, ornate, dense, tangled, funny, brilliant unfinished 400-page rant from Carlo Emilio Gadda

thwarts logical conclusions and forces the reader to go along for the ride in the many-layered, stinky, cacaphony of corruption and magic depicted as 1927 Rome. Ostensibly a detective novel, there's a theft, a murder, and a host of descriptions of Mussolini-era Italy in 1927 including the memorable references to Il Doochay as "Death's Head," "Fierce Face," the Shit...the syphilitic Swaggerer." ...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Trevor rated it liked it

Shelves: nyrb-classics, 1957

I didn't know what I was getting into when I started this book! Think of picking up Ulysses with no idea what it was all about.

For my complete review:

http://mookse.wordpress.com/2008/07/3... ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2007 Kate added it

Dec 23, 2007 New York Review Books added it

Shelves: italian-literature, mystery-detective

Jan 05, 2008 John rated it liked it

Mar 27, 2008 Stewart marked it as to-read

Shelves: italy, nyrb-classics

Nov 23, 2008 Giovanna marked it as to-read

Shelves: italy, nyrb

Jun 12, 2009 Kate marked it as to-read

Shelves: found-in-translation, the-stacks, 20th-century-fic, italy, adventure-2013, favorite-presses, nest, nyrb, started-and-will-finish-later, mystery