|
Inside
the Big Apple
Although
Italian figurative and literary tradition offers
no equivalent of Hieronymus Bosch or Edgar Allan
Poe, for quite some time now in Italy, thrillers
have been no longer strictly imported goods:
suffice to consider, without venturing beyond
the past decade, the merit of novels such as
“Io non ho paura” by
Niccolò Ammaniti,
“Almost blue” and “Un giorno dopo
l’altro” by Carlo
Lucarelli, or the short
stories of “Gotico rurale” by Edoardo
Baldini. All these books share the same quest
for a specific, original and Italian vein in the
thriller genre: with familiar settings, and
characters plucked from everyday life, they are
far removed from the often OTT spectacular style
of American thrillers. What was very different
about Giorgio Faletti's debut (two years ago) in
the thriller genre with “Io uccido”
(translated into several languages and published
in many countries, it is one of the best-sellers
of recent times), was the author's successful
bid to create an “American-style” crime
story, but with international characters,
setting, structure and plot. The formula works
even better in this second book “Niente di
vero tranne gli occhi” (Baldini Castoldi
Dalai), where the action is split between New
York and Rome - although predominantly New York
- and the American metropolis is shaken by a
series of brutal murders, with the victims'
bodies arranged in such a way as to imitate the
posture and behaviour of Peanuts characters. The
killer, who seems to target wealthy young
individuals (the first victim is the
non-conformist son of the mayor, an in-vogue
painter who goes by the name of Jerry Kho), is
being hunted by former NYPD lieutenant Jordan
Marsalis and, subsequently, by a Detective
Superintendent from Rome, the intriguing Maureen
Martini. Fast-paced and with shrewd composition,
this book is impossible to put down, despite its
almost five-hundred pages: at more than one
point, the strong cinematographic style of
certain passages would seem to indicate a work
conceived already with the big screen in mind (a
work indeed influenced by movie imagery, as
well, from “Eyes of Laura Mars (Occhi di Laura
Mars)” by Irvin Kershner to “In Dreams” by
Neil Jordan, taking in “Murder to the tune of
7 black notes (7 note in nero)” by Lucio
Fulci). No criticism intended, let us be clear:
the focus on the spectacular cut of some
segments certainly does nothing to detract from
the tight narrative, nor from the quality of the
writing. And the latter is high, indeed higher
than one might perhaps expect from a thriller:
one cannot but note how, even in a work of this
length, Faletti has taken the trouble to work
with the precision of a master engraver, with
truly convincing results. The book is a
first-class read and definitively confirms the
bona fide talent of a worthy new author.
F.T.
|
Giorgio
Faletti
Niente di vero tranne gli occhi
Baldini Castoldi Dalai
500 pages
18.60 euros
Other
analyses
Io
uccido
Link
Official
website
|
