THE INVISIBLE PLAYER

by Giuseppe Pontiggia ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1988

This academic thriller is the Italian Pontiggia's first to appear in English: part psychological investigation, part scathing satire of academia, it's fun but limited in interest, intended for an erudite audience. A Professor, attacked anonymously in a letter published in The Voice of Antiquity, a magazine, spends the entire book trying to track down the culprit. At times, the plot seems more like an elaborate joke stretched into a novel (replete with numerous allusions to chess) than like a credible story, but satirical set-pieces and the development of a psychological love-triangle save it. The Professor's wife chose him over Daverio, another former teacher, and Daverio has never gotten over her ("" 'Please, Lord, make her love me back,' he prayed. . .""). He speaks to her often but never gets anywhere; finally, he descends into a nervous breakdown that will lead to suicide. The Professor's wife then leaves her husband, but not for Daverio. And the Professor's investigation takes him throughout academia and its publishing world, where backbiting and pettiness run rampant. The investigation, that is, leads him to understand how little he knows about himself or others. The set-pieces include satires of the Professor, his colleagues and students, mostly pompous bureaucrats or bad but ambitious writers; of Martelli, editor-in-chief of New Narrative, who ""used to screen the manuscripts he received with a rigor as intense as the secret confusion he felt every time he came across some unknown author""; of the ex-writer Cattaneo. The Professor, with Cattaneo's help, composes a response to the letter, but finally fails to solve anything, especially the enigma of his own personality. ""You mean to tell me that you still believe in language?"" one colleague sums up. Post-modern game-playing--at times, clever and fascinating (and even moving, with Daverio's suicide); at other times, passÉ--Pontiggia is chewing over more than he's bitten off.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Eridanos--dist. by Rizzoli

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1988

Categories: FICTION