Diego De Silva

Crimini (2008) published by Bitter Lemon. This is a collection of crime stories from Italy. Short, sweet, ranging from a comedy partnership that goes bad, a young man on the run from the cops who holes up with the strange woman who lives below his mother’s apartment, and even a very poorly planned kidnapping. There are nine tales of criminal intent ranging from sad to hilarious.
I especially like the opener, You Are My Treasure Chest. This is a story of a plastic surgeon, about to be arrested for drugs, who makes a fledgling starlet literally into his treasure chest.
All the stories are about corruption to some degree or another. They are fitting for their surroundings of the ancient world and the gradual decline of all things from the pure into the corrupt. All offer a delightful insight to the Italian mindset and how it differs from the American, and also how similar it is to our own. Finally, it is not the noir that we know of, that we in the states mean as noir. Sure, these are dark stories, but they have more of a heart to them than, say, a Jim Thompson, Chandler or Hammett story.
This is a nice change of pace for the average American crime reader. It is always good to get a different view to what you might think of as commonplace material.… (more)

Autoanalisi (?!)

Sembra partire da un episodio dal quale mi aspetto un dipanarsi di interrogazioni sui sentimenti, sulle emozioni, sull'amore e le delusioni. E invece no. All'improvviso diventa un dialogo con se stesso. Dettagli del passato, interrogativi su musiche, parole, costumi, stili di vita. Con chi sta parlando Vincenzo, il personaggio del romanzo? Col suo analista, con se stesso, con noi. E finisce, irrisolto, come possono essere molte domande che ci facciamo. E possiamo solo continuare a vivere. Per poter forse scoprire risposte.… (more)