Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio | 
 enlarge | Author: Amara Lakhous
Creator: Ann Goldstein
Publisher: Europa Editions
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.93
You Save: $7.02 (47%)
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 4990
Media: Paperback
Pages: 144
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 4.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 1933372613
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781933372617
ASIN: 1933372613
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
A compelling mix of social satire and murder mystery.
A small culturally mixed community living in an apartment building in the center of Rome is thrown into disarray when one of the neighbors is murdered. An investigation ensues and as each of the victim s neighbors is questioned, the reader is offered an all-access pass into the most colorful neighborhood in contemporary Rome. Each character takes his or her turn center-stage, giving evidence, recounting his or her story the dramas of racial identity, the anxieties and misunderstandings born of a life spent on society s margins, the daily humiliations provoked by mainstream culture s fears and indifference, preconceptions and insensitivity. What emerges is a moving story that is common to us all, whether we live in Italy or Los Angeles.
This novel is animated by a style that is as colorful as the neighborhood it describes and is characterized by seemingly effortless equipoise that borrows from the cinematic tradition of the Commedia all Italiana as exemplified by directors such as Federico Fellini.
At the heart of this bittersweet comedy told with affection and sensitivity is a social reality that we often tend to ignore and an anthropological analysis, refreshing in its generosity, that cannot fail to fascinate.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio October 24, 2008
Jean Clara Miller (Springfield, MA USA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was a quick read. It was an interesting study of the people involved and of their thoughts and opinions.
The ending will be disappointing to some but not to all. It held my interest and I loved some of the characters.
 "Human beings need dreams the way fish need water." October 1, 2008
Mary Whipple (New England)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
(3.5 stars) Algerian author Amara Lakhous, now an Italian resident, pens a sly satire of an immigrant's life in Italy, exploring the murder of a young man in the elevator of an apartment building adjacent to Piazza Vittorio to show the hidden and not-so-hidden prejudices of Roman residents toward "outsiders." The victim, Lorenzo Manfredini, a young hood also known as the Gladiator, had repeatedly defaced and urinated in the building's elevator, earning the enmity of every resident. As residents and local merchants tell their stories to a police inspector, their hidden agendas and casual resentments against immigrants surface. Amedeo, a resident uniformly admired by everyone, thought to be an Italian volunteer who helps immigrants deal with Roman bureaucracy, is sought for the crime. No one has seen him since the murder.
Lakhous cleverly creates twelve unique voices as each person tells "the truth according to...", alternating these separate voices with "wails" from Amadeo as he comments on what the residents say. Amedeo, who speaks Italian like a native, provides a running commentary on Roman life, pointing up the contrasts between what people say to other Italians and what they say and do about their immigrant neighbors behind their backs.
As each person provides additional information about Amedeo and the victim, the reader comes to know characters like Parviz Mansoor Samadi, who has barely escaped from Iran, leaving his wife and four children behind; Benedetta Esposito, "the oldest concierge in Rome," a Neapolitan whose suspicions of all immigrants is determined by their behavior with regard to the temperamental elevator; and Iqbal Amir Allah, from Bangladesh, whose observations about Amedeo's understanding of Muslim customs lead him to say that "Signor Amedeo is as good as mango juice." The owner of a local bar, a neighborhood fish seller, and the police inspector also give their impressions of Amedeo, the building residents, and immigrants in general.
The characters' gradual revelations and Amedeo's commentary change the reader's perceptions, and as the plot becomes more complex, the novella matches the sympathies one develops for the immigrants with the understanding one evolves for those who resent the immigrants' perceived privileges. Often hilarious, the novella carries an edge, and though the author is not heavy-handed with his satire, his points are obvious--and repeated--as each character reveals prejudices and reactions to prejudice. The conclusion takes on a somewhat different tone and style as police inspector Mauro Bettarini, believing that "truth is like a coin: it has two faces," gives two different possibilities to explain the murder. The novella becomes more impressionistic and more ambiguous, and readers may be surprised by the concluding pages. n Mary Whipple
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