Book Review - To Each His Own by Leonardo Sciascia

 To Each His Own by Leonardo Sciascia, Translated by Adrienne Foulke, with and Introduction by W.S. Di Piero

New York: New York Review Books, 2000                 ISBN 9780940322523

I very much like the writing of Leonardo Sciascia, and have reviewed other works of his here over the years. To Each His Own is yet again a little literary insight into the mindset of Sicily - an ancient mindset that comes from a time before governments, and even before nation-states in the sense that we know them. A mindset of unspoken bonds, of deeds seen by everyone but at the same time unseen, and of silence and words chosen carefully.

The story revolves around Professor Laurana, the friend of Roscio the doctor, and the Pharmacist, who have both been found murdered. The Pharmacist had received, a few days before, a threatening letter, and the assumption of the town is that Roscio was killed merely because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Laurana notices something odd about the threatening letter - the cutout words from the newspaper on the letter were from a very particular newspaper that only a few people in the town subscribe to. 

Laurana, initially as nothing more really than an intellectual exercise, follows this clue, trying to make sense of a senseless crime. The police and authorities, naturally, are following leads to do with the pharmacist, following every rumour. Laurana begins to suspect that Roscio was actually the target, and a few chance discoveries confirm his suspicions. He begins to wonder if Roscio was murdered so that someone could take his very beautiful wife for themself.

Unfortunately for Laurana he is too honest and too free with his words, and too trusting. When Roscio's wife suggests his suspicions might be true, he is blinded by her beauty, which leads to his eventual doom. The cruel irony Sciascia creates at the end of the book, when the reader discovers that many other men in the town had worked out what really happened (that Rosello, the lawyer, had been having an affair with Roscio's wife for many years, and organised the killing so he could marry her), sums up his Sicily: be careful talking about what you know, to whom, and know when it is safe to do so.

The beauty of Sciascia's work (and kudos to his translators is due here) is the way his language evokes Sicily. His short pithy sentences gives the reader a feeling of being there, of trying to navigate a course that keeps one safe, but still relevant and in the know, and how difficult it is to live and be true to oneself. How some people just go with the flow and forget the deeper life, and those who can't are at risk.

A short book, a very readable book, and an insight into another world. Recommended.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell