Montalbano is not a real person. He's only a character in a mystery series set in the fictional town of Vigata (which bears a strong resemblance to a real town in Sicily called Porto Empedocle). But I needed to be with someone who understands the importance of fighting "the imbecility of power." I also wanted to end and begin the year honoring Andrea Camilleri, the creator of the iconic Montalbano. Camilleri, who was born in Porto Empedocle in 1925, died in Rome in July just short of his 94th birthday.
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| Author Andrea Camilleri |
Camilleri has been a hero of mine for some time.
A successful playwright, director and screenwriter in Italy, Camilleri decided at age 69 to see if he could write a mystery. In The Shape of Water, he introduced Commissario Montalbano, an inspector in his fifties who was more interested in getting justice than getting credit. That first foray into mystery writing was so successful it spawned two dozen and a half more books, a TV series and a prequel to that TV series (The Young Montalbano). In a nod to all the tourists who flocked to Sicily to track down the picturesque scenes they read about in Camilleri's books, the town of Porto Empedocle actually officially changed its name to Porto Empedocle Vigata.
With Montalbano, Camilleri created an alter ego who is younger than himself, but not by much. I think Camilleri chose to tell the story of an older detective because at age 69, he himself had begun to reflect on his own path toward, well, the end of the line.
In The Smell of the Night, the third book of the series, for example, Montalbano reflects on his longtime relationship with Livia, his girlfriend who lives miles away in Genoa on the other end of Italy: "But why, when talking on the phone, did they quarrel, on average at least once every four sentences? Maybe, thought the inspector, it was an effect of the distance between them becoming less and less tolerable with each passing day, since as we grow old -- for every now and then one must, yes, look reality in the eye and call things by their proper names -- we feel more keenly the need to have the person we love beside us."
In the latest three books translated into English which I have just read, Montalbano's complaints about aging had become even more pronounced. He fretted about going a bit deaf and that his memory wasn't as sharp as it used to be. He was alarmed when Livia stopped bickering with him on the phone: He worried that it might be a sign that she had given up on life. At one point he even worried that age was affecting his appetite, which would be a disaster for someone who loves to eat so much.
In a poignant author's note at the end of The Other End of the Line, Camilleri thanked his long-time assistant Valentina Alferj for helping him complete the book, "not only physically but also by intervening creatively in its drafting." Camilleri explained that he had gone blind. "I would not have been able to write this story (nor those that I hope will follow) without her," he admitted.Thankfully, more books did follow Number 24, as Camilleri had hoped. The 25th book in the series will be issued in English this Spring. And there are two more already published in Italy that have yet to be translated into English.
The best part, however, is that there is still another Montalbano book, truly the last one that will ever be written about the Sicilian detective. This one hasn't even been published in Italy yet. Camilleri wrote it 13 years ago and sent it to his publisher with the stipulation that it only be published after his death or if he became incapacitated and couldn't write anymore. He didn't want someone else deciding the fate of his creation. The book -- called Riccardino (Little Richard) -- describes the demise of Montalbano.
"When I get fed up with him or am not able to write any more, I'll tell the publisher: publish the book. Sherlock Holmes was recovered," Camilleri told an interviewer for the Guardian in 2012, referring to the resurrection of that famous detective from a watery death at Reichenbach Falls after readers attacked Arthur Conan Doyle for killing him off, "but it will not be possible to recover Montalbano. In that last book, he's really finished."
Last year I read 54 books -- one a week with an extra one for good measure. This year my New Year's resolution is to read 70 -- one for every birthday I have celebrated so far. I haven't picked out all the books I want to read yet -- but, if they are available, I hope to add the last four books written by Camilleri to that list.
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| The last published Montalbano book, not yet available in English. |
That social commentary has continued through the series. In The Other End of the Line, Camilleri addresses with great sympathy the plight of migrants flooding into Italy, much to the chagrin of the supporters of Matteo Salvini, Italy's right-wing interior minister, and his anti-immigration policies.
Camilleri's feisty response? "Salvini reminds me of a member of the Fascist regime." In 2007 Camilleri had told an interviewer in The Independent: "I've always tried to make Montalbano critical about the behavior and order of his bosses, the imbecility of power."
Here's hoping that Sartarelli will be swift in translating the remaining Camilleri mysteries. Something tells me that Montalbano's wisdom will be more than needed in 2020.
