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That Awful Mess On The Via Merulana

Carlo Emilio Gadda William Weaver Italo Calvino

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Paperback

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Italian
NYRB Classics
01 February 2007
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.
By:  
Introduction by:  
Translated by:  
Imprint:   NYRB Classics
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 205mm,  Width: 128mm,  Spine: 23mm
Weight:   420g
ISBN:   9781590172223
ISBN 10:   1590172221
Pages:   416
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893--1973) was born in Milan, where he spent a tormented childhood and even more miserable adolescence. He earned a degree in engineering, volunteered to fight in World War I, and was taken prisoner by the Germans. After the war, he began to write while working as an engineer in countries as far afield as Argentina. Acquainted with Grief, Gadda's first novel, set in an imaginary South American country, appeared in 1938. His masterpiece, That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana, was serialized after the war, but only published as a book in 1957. Both novels, like much else that Gadda wrote, were left incomplete. Among Gadda's other notable works are essays, film and radio scripts, a travel book, and his journals from World War I. Italo Calvino (1923--1985) was an Italian writer and novelist. His works include The Road to San Giovanni, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Invisible Cities, Marcovaldo, and Mr. Palomar.

Reviews for That Awful Mess On The Via Merulana

The experimental masterpiece modern Italian literature has long been awaiting.... There is a kinship to Joyce, especially in Gadda's inspired outbursts of comic invective, his ferocious Romantic humor. -- The New York Times The experimental masterpiece modern Italian literature has long been awaiting. There is a kinship to Joyce, especially in Gadda s inspired outbursts of comic invective, his ferocious Romantic humor. The New York Times -The experimental masterpiece modern Italian literature has long been awaiting.... There is a kinship to Joyce, especially in Gadda's inspired outbursts of comic invective, his ferocious Romantic humor.- --The New York Times The experimental masterpiece modern Italian literature has long been awaiting.... There is a kinship to Joyce, especially in Gadda's inspired outbursts of comic invective, his ferocious Romantic humor. --The New York Times


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