Synopsis
THE CONCLAVE, the gathering of the world’s Roman Catholic cardinals at the Vatican in complete isolation and secrecy after the death of the pope in order to elect a new spiritual leader, is the setting for Roberto Pazzi’s latest novel, a magical fable rooted in the realities of today. A week, a month, four months go by and still the cardinals cannot come to a decision. The world outside grows impatient, but time inside the Vatican has another quality: oneiric, suspended, symbolic. The cardinals conspire in secret meetings to advance their absurd political struggles with Kafkaesque determination. Who shall rise to don the vestments and wield the authority of the Holy See? A political activist from Latin America? A black cardinal from sub-Saharan Africa, the Church’s leading growth market? A prominent Palestinian whose election would shake up geopolitics? Or has the time come for an Italian to once again wear the pope’s miter? A series of fantastic events intrudes to upset the conclavists’ opulent comfort, steal their dignity, and undermine their faith. The end result is a work of fabulist fiction of the highest order.
“. . . clearly acknowledges Italo Calvino and others who have made fantasy a vital force in contemporary Italian fiction. None-theless Pazzi is his own writer and a marvelous one, too.”-- The Chicago Tribune
“A dazzling reinvention of history that has all the narrative delights of a fine novella, combined with the hard luminous glow of epic verse.”-- The New York Times
Reviews
A rodent infestation of biblical proportions overcomes the Vatican City at the start of this hilarious, sophisticated new novel by renowned Italian poet and novelist Pazzi (Adrift in Time, etc.), just as cardinals from around the world are assembled in an isolated conclave at the Vatican to choose a new pope. While different factions plot to elect their own favorite or political ally, a limousine with Vatican diplomatic plates cruises Rome's seedy alleyways searching out the solution to the rat problem-the Eternal City's notorious feral cats. But what will happen when they can no longer be controlled? Pazzi deftly straddles the genres of fantasy and verismo, laying a meticulously researched foundation for a plot with twists and turns as serpentine as those of any Roman catacomb. As the bizarre, almost chimerical events of the conclave stretch from weeks into months, the elderly clergy begin plotting their escape from the bitter isolation required by papal law. The novel's main character is Malvezzi, the endearing cardinal of Turin, who begins to feel his grip on reality slipping. "Maybe this is how insanity comes on: like an odd habit that you can't find time to address, always waiting for a more opportune moment, until finally it becomes tolerable, almost insignificant." Composed in prose so rich and finely tuned-and seamlessly translated by Stransky-that readers can smell the incense, the novel ends when Pazzi's assembled cardinals at last elect a most unlikely candidate. As clever as Calvino, and funnier, Pazzi deserves a larger readership in this country.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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