Persecution
The Friendly Fire of Memories
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A successful Italian doctor's idyllic life is shattered by shameful accusations in a novel by the Campiello Prize–winning author of The Worst Intentions.
In a sprawling villa on the outskirts of Rome, the internationally revered pediatric oncologist Leo Pontecorvo and his family have gathered for dinner. For these exemplary members of Italy's upper middle-class, the scene is perfect in every way—until a horrifying accusation airs on the evening news concerning Leo Pontecorvo himself. From this point on, nothing will ever be the same.
An allegation of embezzling would be bad enough, but to the horror of his family, Leo is also said to have seduced his son's twelve-year-old girlfriend. The spotlight now turned on Leo reveals every mistake, regret, and contradiction of his lifetime. The details of his private and professional life are debated by both friends and foes, ravenous reporters and punctilious prosecutors. Unable to face the suspicious gazes of his wife and children, Leo descends into the basement of his palatial home—a self-imposed exile in which he attempts to piece together the shattered remains of his life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Piperno's second novel (after The Worst Intentions), and the first in a diptych, depicts one man's descent into self-preoccupation after a criminal allegation. Leo Pontecorvo, famous pediatric oncologist, is accused of having an affair with his pre-teen son's girlfriend. Without denying or admitting guilt, Leo flees to his basement office to avoid the reactions of his wife and sons, and remains there until he emerges to hire a lawyer. When he is finally arrested, he is imprisoned and briefly tried, after which he resumes his self-imposed cellar exile. External events largely serve as pretext for narrating Leo's memories and meditations on his predicament in an associative style in an effort to make Leo's stream of consciousness appear spontaneous, Piperno is by haphazard turns verbose, repetitive, digressive, unpolished, and obscene. And those musings of Leo s that are meant to be insightful fall far short of their mark his thoughts on lust are contradictory, and his recollection of Leibniz is perfunctory at best. Piperno's unnamed narrator purportedly wishes for Leo to be sympathetic, but by the end, it is difficult to feel for the obtuse coward.
