Leonardo Sciascia

Leonardo Sciascia

Leonardo Sciascia (Racalmuto, Agrigento 1921 - Palermo 1989) was an Italian writer and politician. Sciascia, (pronounced Shasha), was a councillor in Sicily, a deputy in the national assembly and, later, a member of the European parliament. Trained as a teacher, it was only later in life that he devoted himself to writing about Sicily and the Mafia.

A number of his books demonstrate how the Mafia manages to sustain itself in the face of the anomie inherent in Sicilian life: 'The Day of the Owl' and 'Equal Danger' being amongst the most powerful. His forensic analysis of the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro, a prominent Christian Democrat, in his book 'The Moro Affair' is masterly. His work is intricate and displays a longing for justice attempting to show how corrupt Italian society had become and remains. His linking of politicians, intrigue, and the Mafia gave him a high profile, which was very much at odds with his private self. This accumulated in him becoming widely disliked for his criticism of Giulio Andreotti, then Prime Minster, for his lack of action towards freeing Moro and answering the demands of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigade).

Sciascia was part of a House of Deputies investigation into Moro's kidnapping, which concluded that there was a certain amount of negligence on behalf of the Christian Democrat Party for their stance that the state was bigger than a person and that they would not swap Moro for 13 political prisoners. Even though, Moro himself had stated that the swapping of innocent people for political prisoners was a valid option in negoiations with terrorists. However, senior members of the party convienently forgot this stance and even went as far as to say that Moro had been drugged and tortured to utter these words.

The best of his books shows that, as in real life, there is rarely a happy ending and that there is rarely justice for the ordinary man. Prime examples of this are Equal Danger (Il Contesto), where the Police's best detective is drafted to Sicily to investigate a spate of murders of judges. Focussing on the inability of authorities to handle such investigation into the corruptions, Sciascia's hero is finally thwarted.

Sciascia wrote of his unique Scilian experience, linking families with political parties, the treachory of alliances and allegiances and the calling of favours that resort in outcomes that are not for the best of society, but for those individuals who are in favour. Sciascia perhaps, in the end, wanted to prove that the corruption that was and is endemic in Italian society helps only those who are part of the secret societies and loyalties and political classes.

Notable Works

Detective Novels

• The Day of the Owl (1961)

In a small town early on a Saturday morning, a bus is about to leave the small square to go market in the next town nearby. A gun shot is heard and the figure running for the bus is shot twice in the back, with what is discovered as 'lupara' (Literally meaning wolf-shot — a sawn-off shotgun that the mafia use for their killings.)

The Captain from Parma gets on the case, ruffling feathers in his contemporaries and colleagues alike. Soon he discovers a link that doesn't stop in Sicily, but goes onwards towards Rome and the Minister Mancuso and Senator Livigno.

It seems that the man shot has been warned that he should take protection from friends, which he refuses, soon his building firm sabotaged and he has a warning bullet fired at him. Which all leads to the calling.

Using faintly corrupt methods, Bellodi- Carabinieri Captain- traps one man and uses the names given by a dead informer to trap another, who has money staved away in many bank accounts that add up to more than his fallow fields would ever bring.

The death of an eye witness leads to the collasping of the case against all three, which sees Bellodi taken off the case and him going sick, for ignoring the crime passionel which was the obvious answer to all the deaths.

Sciascia uses this story as refutation against the Mafia and the corruption apparent to his eyes that leads all the way to Rome.

Stylistically, this is light, yet requires further readings in order to grasp each of the nuances that he employs to tell his moral tale. It is a book for the writer, those interested in crime fiction and those in political machinations. Sciascia reveals his intellect to bring out the story not to mock the reader for not knowing.

• Equal Danger (1971)
• To Each His Own
• The Knight and Death
• One Way Or Another

True Crime

• The Moro Affair (1978)

Short stories

• The Wine-Dark Sea
• Sicilian Uncles

USEFUL LINKS

[1] Friends of Leonardo Sciascia Society www.amicidisciascia.it