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Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana
romanzo.
400 pages
A dizzying, linguistic labyrinth disguised as a murder mystery, where the search for truth dissolves into the chaotic noise of fascist Rome.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a crowded, overheated Roman apartment building where everyone is shouting in a different dialect. It masquerades as a classic murder mystery, but quickly abandons any pretense of a neat resolution, opting instead to plunge the reader into a meandering, philosophical labyrinth. The prose is a baroque explosion of language, dense, satirical, and relentlessly digressive, capturing the suffocating atmosphere and moral decay of fascist Italy. It is a deeply cynical yet brilliantly vibrant experience, demanding patience and a love for linguistic chaos. This is not a book for those seeking tidy answers; it is a masterpiece for readers who delight in the messy, unresolved, and infinitely complex nature of reality itself.
- Mood
- chaotic
- claustrophobic
- melancholy
- feverish
- Tone
- satirical
- cynical
- philosophical
- polyphonic
- scathing
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- the elusiveness of truth · the chaos of reality · corruption under fascism · the illusion of order · social decay
- The writing
- A dense, linguistic labyrinth blending multiple dialects, high philosophy, and vulgar slang into a baroque masterpiece.
- The arc
- Begins as a straightforward procedural before spiraling into a dizzying, unresolved meditation on the impossibility of absolute truth.
- Who it's for
- Lovers of challenging, modernist literature and anti-detective fiction who prefer linguistic fireworks and philosophical chaos over neat resolutions.
Content notes
- murder
- fascism
- class prejudice
- violence
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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