The Terra-cotta Dog
By: Camilleri, Andrea
Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series now numbers six or seven titles, and this is one of the best. Originally written in Italian and set in Sicily, there is no shortage of great scenery, good food, sly politics, corruption, and fatal mistakes. As a good Sicilian cop, Inspector Montalbano doesn’t reveal much as the story develops – to the reader, his colleagues, or his girlfriend. Yet he is always conscious of the multiple layers of meaning in the actions and words of his superiors and his suspects alike. In keeping with the setting, there are classical themes at work – notably tragedy and fate. Good and bad people alike overreach, suffer, and occasionally pay a terrible price, or make fools of themselves.Camilleri’s characters, always strongly described, also share a streak of rough and ancient comedy. As one translation of Artistotle’s Poetics puts it, “the ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly”, there is plenty of ugliness in Sicilian life, and Camilleri uses it for great comic effect.
Readers of Donna Leon’s books set in and around Venice will find here the antipode of northern Italian life.
The only disappointing thing about this and all of the Inspector Montalbano books is that they end too soon.
Reviewer: Dennis Trombatore
