That Awful Mess on Via Merulana

That Awful Mess on Via Merulana

First edition (Italian)
Author	Carlo Emilio Gadda
Original title	Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana
Translator	William Weaver
Language	Italian
Genre	Crime fiction
Publisher	Garzanti
Publication date	1957
Publication place	Italy
Published in English	1965
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	400 (NYRB edition)
ISBN	1590172221

That Awful Mess on Via Merulana (Romanesco : Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana) is an Italian novel by Carlo Emilio Gadda, first published in Italy by Garzanti in 1957. An English translation by William Weaver was published in 1965.

Plot summary

Rome, Fascist Italy, 1927. Detective Francesco Ingravallo, known to friends as Don Ciccio, is called in to investigate the murder of Liliana Balducci, a well-to-do woman who happens to be a close friend. As Don Ciccio and his colleagues dig deeper into the grisly murder, the mechanics of the detective novel take a backseat to the wordplay and experimentation with which Gadda presents a panorama of life in early fascist Rome. ^[1]

Reception

That Awful Mess on Via Merulana was well received in Italian literary circles.^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. "That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana". New York Review Books. 2021-02-08. Retrieved 2021-05-25.