---
product_id: 62678079
title: "That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (New York Review Books Classics)"
brand: "carlo emilio gaddawilliam weaveritalo calvino"
price: "$67"
currency: NZD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 11
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/62678079-that-awful-mess-on-the-via-merulana-new-york-review
store_origin: NZ
region: New Zealand
---

# That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (New York Review Books Classics)

**Brand:** carlo emilio gaddawilliam weaveritalo calvino
**Price:** $67
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (New York Review Books Classics) by carlo emilio gaddawilliam weaveritalo calvino
- **How much does it cost?** $67 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
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## Description

That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (New York Review Books Classics)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Tortuous, witty novel with inventive language
  

*by R***A on Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2020*

The narration is uncommon, messy (but not in an awful way), Gadda is telling a part of the story and suddenly the book seems to take a recursive dive into a character's or a place's description. Just as suddenly you find yourself out of that segue again.One moment you're amidst nobility and la borghesia and another you're surrounded by characters of the Roman low-life: thieves and more. All of them regardlessly are very keen on eluding the investigation and lying to our Ingravallo; all have something to hide.I believe that the transator did a monumental job in the English adaptation, for Il Pasticciaccio is close to being untranslatable (almost as much as the masterpiece Grande Sertão: Veredas by Guimarães Rosa). The author's mastery of the Italian language and the many dialects of that country greatly enriches the novel and make the characters more interesting.This is a difficult if not tortuous novel, that rewards the reader with the notion that you have met some of the shady characters of the Lazio.

### ⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Verbal Sprawl
  

*by T***T on Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2008*

First off, DO NOT READ THE $#%@ing INTRODUCTIONS.  This is not an easy book to get through - but it's much harder to get through when the introductions reveal the ending and deprieve you of your (much needed) motiviation to plow through this text.  Am I the only one who thinks we need more Afterwords?  The main reason I bought the book was for Italo Calvino's introduction - and even in the introduction the book sounded boring.Here's the problem:  You have a typical literary crime novel drowning in  what appears to be an encyclopedia.  You have sprawling descriptions of cities, metal processes, historical respectives, a minor treatise of pastries, etc.  And occasionally, there plot plods drunkenly on.  It is so bad that the real investigation does not get underway until will into the second half of the book.  Oddly, despite the piles of description in the text, you get no real sense for anyone in the book.It reads like the Italian answer to Joyce's Ulysses only something of a story.The sentences in this book are verbal labyrinths- by the time you finish a sentence, you forgot were it began and how it related to the sentence in front of it or how it related to the novel.Here's an example of the actual text (and yes, this is one sentence):"A majolica pan, as if from a clinic of the first category, was set on the brick floor, and not even near the wall: and neither did it lack some undeciphered content, on the consistence, coloration, odor, viscosity, and specific weight of which both the lynx eyes and bloodhound scent of Ingravallo felt that it wasn't necessary to investigate and analyze: the nose, of course, could not exempt itself from its natural functioning, that is from that activity, or to be more accurate, the papillary passivity which is proper to it, and which does not admit, helas, and interlude or inhibition or absence of any kind from its duty."All that is too say:  There's poo in the bucket and it smells quite bad.If you're looking to read 300 pages of jammed meandering narrative like that above, this is the book.  The jammed style isn't accidental, you get the feeling it is supposed to be humorous and makes typical references to the joys of a young buxom girls.  The joke, however, becomes tedious  within two minutes.  And then you start wondering:  Is this a joke?  Was he getting paid by the word?  Did the author enjoy peculiar snacks, such as mercury thermometers?

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    This is an excellent book by Emilio Gadda
  

*by A***Y on Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2015*

This is an excellent book by Emilio Gadda. Travel to Rome and go to Via Merulana Street to see for yourself- Richard Burton made a movie of this W.W. II event, in which the Nazis slaughter a group of the Italian resistance fighters, the slaughter taking place near the Jewish Resistance Museum, near the Lateran Church, in Rome. Arrived quickly enough and in great condition. Ordered a second copy and gave it to Italian friends. Thank you.

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*Product available on Desertcart New Zealand*
*Store origin: NZ*
*Last updated: 2026-02-14*