Ray Sawhill

Polly and I read Leonardo Sciascia's 1961 Sicilian crime novel as our Book Club selection for October 2009. OK, so I'm a little late getting around to putting up this posting. In the 1950s and early '60s, the Mafia's existence in Sicily was firmly denied. Sciascia's novel is famous not just for affirming the Mafia's existence, but for demonstrating how Sicilian culture generally was entwined with the organization.

Polly: "Important, I guess, but I didn't find it very involving."

Ray: "Impressive as a New York Review-style act of moral writerly courage, but not very involving as fiction."

Bonus Links

• Wikipedia's entry on Leonardo Sciascia
• Wikipedia's entry on the novel
• The New York Review publishes a number of Sciascia titles
• Vincenzo Salerno makes the case for Sciascia's importance
• For those who can manage Italian: The Leonardo Sciascia website