Words in Commotion and Other Stories (First Edition)

Text: English, Italian (translation)

Little known in this country when he died in 1979, Landolfi is scarcely better recognized today, a situation this collection of 24 stories, with an introduction by Italo Calvino, is intended to remedy. Landolfi did not aspire to amuse or entertain in the usual sense; he preferred to confound and mystify. Even in his relatively conventional stories he scarcely bothered to inquire into motive or seek resolution. In "Uxoricide," for example, a wife-murderer sets out to kill the shrew for reasons that do not seem quite sufficient, so that the act itself appears brutal and sadistic. In "A Woman's Breast," a man lusts after that part of a stranger until he attains it, is thereupon sickened by the sight and discovers odd morbidities within himself. Landolfi's overriding interestslanguage and its literary possibilities, metaphysics, literary criticismnecessarily limit his audience. He saw the writer as one who spits words (see the title story), and he set himself against the critics who accused him of being "utterly indecipherable and mysterious." That is, however, a challenge hurled at the reader. QPBC alternate
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This translation of 24 stories by Italy's Landolfi marks one of the rare appearances of his work in English. Much admired in Europe, Landolfi's work entertains in a dark, often ironic and obsessive, way that may remind English readers of Poe or Kafka. Almost all these tales have elements of fantasy and horror; a man is apparently buried alive in "The Labrenas," an innocent parlor game turns into a murder in "The Provincial Night." In other stories, such as "Personaphilologicadramatic Conference with Implications" and the title story, "Words in Commotion," the obscure references to obsolete words make for slow reading. Nearly all the stories end with a disturbing lack of resolution but nevertheless make rewarding reading. Lucinda Ann Peck, Learning Design Associates, Gahanna, Ohio
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.