ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

by Leonardo Sciascia ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 1977

A plot summary might hint at a Jesuitical remake of And Then There Were None: cassocked participants in a retreat for ""spiritual gymnastics"" are reduced in number as one is shot (while praying in moving squad formation), a second is bludgeoned, and a third--supervising priest-hotelier Don Gaetano--turns up a possible suicide. But, even more than in Equal Danger (1973), Sciascia submerges suspense and detection under dense, witty dialogues--here touching on Don Juanism, medieval Christ portraiture, poetry, Voltaire--and under the musings of the narrator, a nonparticipating painter-observer who has whimsically come to the monastery with ""no worries, no anxieties"" except for a ""tiny but tenacious trinity neurosis."" Guilt, political corruption, and the hovering image of the Devil-in-glasses darkly predominate as public prosecutor Scalambri (""a sphinx"") investigates. There's fine Italian wine here, but for connoisseurs of slim, black-bordered belles lettres, not bodies in the library.

Pub Date: May 18, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION