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House in the Shadows
by Maria Messina, Translated by J Shepley
Original title: Casa nel vicolo
Original language: Italian
| Published by Marlboro Press | | Pub. Date: 1991 | | Pub. Place: UK | | Format: 133 pages | | List Price: £6.50 | | Not available for ordering |
| Published by Marlboro Press | | Pub. Date: 1991 | | Pub. Place: USA | | Format: 133 pages | | Not available for ordering |
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Like Pitigrilli’s Cocaine (also reviewed in this Babel Guide) this is one of those forgotten-and-rediscovered books; it is also an extraordinary work of art. In a 1920s Sicilian town a petty tyrant of a man wields a blunt and crushing authority over two sisters, immuring them in his cold, selfish little empire, ‘the house in the shadows’. Both sisters eventually become his sexual property and he then goes on to victimize his children.
The book has been disinterred in this English translation by a small literary publishing house in Vermont USA partly perhaps for its early feminist message. Paradoxically though The House in the Shadows breathes an old-fashioned ‘-womanly’ tone with its flashing glimpses of that mysterious thing, Sicilian emotional life and is much profounder and wider in scope than any propagandistic work could be.
‘Nicolina brought the pipe to her brother-in-law. He was once again- immersed in his papers, frowning but calm... He was a man who never made a mistake, who knew right from wrong. One could only have faith in him, as in the sailor who steers the boat on the open see. It’s so good to have faith in someone... And again her heart swelled with boundless admiration for her brother-in-law. «Here’s your pipe,» she said meekly. Once more she waited for him to raise his head, in the hope of catching an expression of benevolence in his eyes. Somewhat distressed and humiliated, she sat down next to her sister. She felt a great need to talk, to move, to hear others talking.’ p44
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