Synopses & Reviews
The crumbling apartment block on the edge of the city is a heaving anthill of thwarted ambitions and dashing egos. As for Tommaso, the nosy janitor who lives in the basement, he is Argus of the hundred eyes: his duties are light and his curiosity about all the inhabitants of this teetering Italian microcosm (high on testosterone and low on tolerance) is insatiable. Through him we get to know them all: the peddlers, the florid housewives, the wanna-bes, and the has-beens. We also get to know the janitor's friend Tir, a blind photographer. Being blind, he is asked to take pictures at a high-society orgy, but fails to turn in the last roll of film. Not long after, he gets killed in a neatly orchestrated traffic accident.
Around this nexus of small characters in their little worlds, a gallery of beautifully depicted grotesques, Gesualdo Bufalino weaves an elaborate tale of frauds and deceptions narrated in the high-flown, allusive language that he has made his hallmark.
Synopsis
Tommaso is the janitor of a crumbling apartment block. Through him we get to know all the inhabitants of this teetering Italian microcosm—the pedlars, the ponces, the florid housewives, the wannabes and the has-beens. We also get to know the janitor's friend, a blind photographer.