LA GUERRA PRIVATA DI SAMUELE / SAMUELE’S  PRIVATE WAR AND OTHER VIGATA STORIES

Vigàta’s stories never cease to surprise, they all spring from literary suggestions, traces of the past, chronicles, many draw on Camilleri’s real life, they go through History. Six perfect tales, accomplished enough to constitute almost a novel. A web of stories, that is, a proliferation of surprising plots. The usual expressive concentration, the scenic writing of brilliant lucidity, and the humorous talent, allow Camilleri to translate the playful into the satirical with ease, making the tragic play with the comic: without, however, excluding moments of emotional enchantment, as in the tale The Four Christmases of Tridicino. The collection opens with a “comedy” of misunderstandings and betrayals, with slyly mischievous flashes. It closes with a sea tale of powerful Verga ribbing, cast in a world suffused with ancient and sorrowful wisdom: «Life is like the undertow: a day brings a thread of seaweed to shore and the next day takes it back. […] Now that it had brought ‘this great present, what would the wave of undertow have taken back again?».