The Professor and the Siren

May 5, 2014
The reputation of Sicilian writer Lampedusa rests entirely on his lone novel The Leopard, written at the end of his life and published posthumously. That said, the title story from this slim collection is a classic of weird fiction revolving around Italian Senator Rosario La Ciura, an eminent Greek scholar and surely one of the most memorable old cranks in literature. His insolent diatribes are gorgeously rendered—making it all the more jarring when they give way to a moving recollection of his love affair with a magical and wild creature whose memory beckons the scholar from the deep. “Joy and the Law” is a vaguely condescending workplace fable about a hapless clerk who spends his meager earnings returning the generosity of an employer; and “The Blind Kittens” isn’t a story at all, but the first chapter of an unfinished novel concerning the wealthy Don Batassano Ibba, whose holdings may be as exaggerated as the stories the locals tell of his mysterious lifestyle. The recent memory of Italian fascism lurks in the background of these posthumously published stories, which, taken for what they are, reinforce Lampedusa’s acknowledged mastery of prose—but only the title story extends it.

June 1, 2014
Three parablelike pieces of short fiction from Lampedusa (1896-1957), best known for The Leopard (1958), his sweeping novel about Sicilian aristocracy.This trio of stories doesn't provide a large enough sample size to determine if Lampedusa could have been a great short-form writer, but each is marked by an ironic wit and the intimate knowledge of Italian class distinctions that infuses The Leopard. "The Professor and the Siren" is narrated by a young journalist who allows himself to be routinely browbeaten for his ignorance by an aging scholar of ancient Greece. Set during the rise of fascism in Italy, the tale is an allegory about the perils of forgetting the past, but Lampedusa gives that message a lively and subtle cast, turning on the scholar's alleged encounter with a mermaid. "Joy and the Law" is a brief comic story about a man whose Christmas bonus includes a large cake that proves to be a burdensome reminder of his obligations to others, and it's as light as its "easy come, easy go" message. The closing, "The Blind Kittens," is made of much more ambitious stuff and was written as the first chapter of a follow-up to The Leopard. Centered on the Ibba family, whose rapacious land grabs have made it one of the most powerful forces in Sicily, the story follows a group of men gossiping. As they exchange "envies, grudges, fears," they also share rumors about the clan, and in their chatter lays a hint of a widescreen epic that would capture the family's rise to power. But it has punch as a stand-alone story about jealousy, with a glint of humor: "[E]ach of them wished for Ibba's millions so that others would invent similarly sumptuous lies about him," Lampedusa writes.Three entertaining sketches, though mostly of interest to fans of The Leopard.

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