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That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana | William Weaver, Carlo Emilio Gadda
4 posts | 8 read | 9 to read
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 husbands, 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. Gaddas 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.
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Billypar
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana | William Weaver, Carlo Emilio Gadda
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#nyrbbookclub members I'm struggling with my first NYRB selection since the monthly picks. I like a challenge every now and then, but to give you an idea of what this one is like, this single sentence (which is too long to fit in its entirety) contains the phrases: "post-traumatic cicatrization", "passionate peroration", and "an extracting maieutics" ?‍? I'm torn about continuing - not exactly the murder mystery I was hoping for!

Leftcoastzen 🤯 2y
AlaMich No one should have to work that hard to read a book! 2y
LeahBergen Oh my … that‘s quite the sentence. 😬 2y
See All 10 Comments
BarbaraBB That is not very encouraging! I am reading a NYRB at the moment too and it feels different without the group behind me! However it‘s very readable and interesting! 2y
batsy Oh dear. That's a tough one to parse 😳 2y
Billypar @Leftcoastzen @AlaMich @LeahBergen @batsy It's not all as bad as this example, but there are so many confusing digressions. Kind of like reading Nabokov but with all the good parts removed. 2y
Billypar @BarbaraBB I've seen that one before and it did sound like a really interesting story - I'll look out for your review. I have another one by Di Benedetto on my to read shelf that I'm looking forward to picking up in the new year. 2y
vivastory This one is on my shelves. There's been a few times I've thought of picking it up. 2y
Billypar @vivastory If you do pick it up, I hope you have better luck with it than I did. I decided to bail at a little past the halfway point, which I almost never do, but after two weeks, my brain couldn't take anymore! 2y
vivastory I think I will set it aside for when I feel like a challenge! Maybe in the new year. 2y
26 likes10 comments
review
AlizaApp
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana | William Weaver, Carlo Emilio Gadda
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Mehso-so

Two crimes in the same building in 1920s Rome. I wanted to like this one (and usually do like NYRB reprints) but didn‘t care for the writing style, with tangents on tangents and filled with insider-y jokes and references that make little to no sense anymore. Meandering plot and annoying ending did not help.

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AlizaApp
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana | William Weaver, Carlo Emilio Gadda
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My main takeaway from this book so far is that Gadda really did not care for Mussolini. But he does make lots of excellent asides!

review
jfount
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana | William Weaver, Carlo Emilio Gadda
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Mehso-so

This was not a book for me, unfortunately. I‘m willing to believe it‘s a masterpiece — I felt vindicated when I read in the introduction that it‘s been compared to Joyce — but I found it hard to understand, and thus appreciate.