The author of the bloody “Suburra” changes his style. With “I am the punishment”, the first opus of a trilogy, Giancarlo De Cataldo pours into fine humor mixed with lyrical references. A real pleasure.
As part of lyrical season 2022, Cervantes theatre welcomes Rigoletto opera of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Rigoletto is performed by baritone Juan Jesus RodrÃguez, soprano Sabina Puertolas and tenor Alexey Tatarintsve. (Photo by Jesus Merida/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Photo SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty
Published on March 31, 2023 at 1:00 p.m.
Rcriminal shit, it’s him. Subura (with Carlo Bonini), Also. Written by Giancarlo De Cataldo, then a judge at the Rome Assize Court, these wonderful novels written in 2002 and 2013 have deciphered, eleven years apart, the rise of the mafias through drug trafficking and the ambitions of small Roman thugs who became major international criminals. These books are now classics, adapted to the cinema (by Michele Placido and Stefano Solima) as well as in series.
The magistrate has just retired following thirty-eight years of service, which does not prevent him from pursuing a career as a novelist. With I am the punishment first volume of a trilogy, Cataldo chose to stage a prosecutor who looks a bit like him, even if he presents himself as an aristocrat responding, soberly, to the name of Manrico Leopoldo Costante Severo Fruttuoso Spinori della Rocca. Seducer, opera lover, nicknamed “the little count” through his faithful valet Camillo, Manrico knows how to surround himself with strong women, starting with his mother (who frequents the casinos a little too much) and up to his strong-willed assistants.
life is a melodrama
No more spectral and chilling Rome, here we are in pure Italian black comedy, irresistible and finely written. Giancarlo De Cataldo has always had a sense of humor, but his thrillers plunged into a world of underworld and violence. Now, we kill with irony, mocking Italian justice, clumsy cops and social networks that imagine themselves to be the masters of the world and of the law. All once morest a backdrop of Italian opera.
First, let’s search for the corpse. A man is found dead in his car following an “accident”. He is 70 years old, wears a dandy costume and, very quickly, the witnesses recognize him. This is Mario Brans, nicknamed “Golden Wick”, who had his heyday in the 1960s before becoming a TV presenter of popular shows and a producer of young artists.
To listen
Cercle Polar #174 receives Giancarlo De Cataldo, co-author of “Suburra”
Mèche d’or has visibly lost control of his car, but we quickly realize that the brakes have been sabotaged. To find the one who wanted to kill this former star of the music hall, Manrico has the solution: listen to the great opera repertoire. And it’s in Rigoletto that he will find the answer. For the author, as for his hero, life is a melodrama and everything is already written in the initial score.
By abandoning the gravity of his first books, Giancarlo De Cataldo does not let go of his obsession with justice. Looking playful, he denounces the power of social networks and hasty judgments. He chisels his dialogues, makes the reader want to go straight to the opera to listen to Puccini or Verdi. And, as a gift, the epicurean novelist reveals Rome and its best wine bars.
“I Am the Punishment” by Giancarlo de Cataldo. Métailié editions
r I am the punishment Giancarlo de Cataldo, translated from Italian by Anne Echenoz, Métailié editions, 240 p., €20.50.
