Resumo de The Knight And Death

The Knight and Death is a collection of three
stories. The first is about a dying Deputy who becomes involved in a murder
investigation with sinister political overtones. It combines farcical elements
reminiscent of Eco''s Foucault''s Pendulum with a powerful account of
stoicism in the face of death. The second story is a straightforward detective
story in classical form, with a clever double twist at the end. The final story
is a courtroom drama which transcends the courtroom. Its subject is a judge
presiding over a murder trial in fascist Italy, and it is his thoughts and
private conversations which constitute the real drama, a debate about the
nature of the law and the legal process, and about individual responsibility
and the ethics of capital punishment. Sciascia''s style in these stories is
distinctive but engaging. His focus is very much on individual ratiocination,
rather than on external events; so much so that none of his protagonists, whom
we come to know so intimately, are ever even named.

Although it is also a work of legal fiction (with a dash of mystery) set in Italy, Morris
West''s novel Daughter of Silence is rather different. A young woman
kills a man to avenge the death of her mother sixteen years ago during the war,
and her case provides a lawyer with a weapon in his conflict with his wife and
father-in-law. The most compelling components of the story are the mystery
associated with the wartime events and the drama of the trial. Once these are resolved,
the book loses its way completely; the continual psychological analysis of the
main characters by one another is both implausible and shallow. Despite their
more realistic presentation, none of West''s characters are as real
as Sciascia''s, and though great things are claimed for them, none of them
attain the heroic status of Sciascia''s Deputy or little judge.
While the philosophical and legal issues raised in Daughter of Silence
(free will versus determinism) are big ones, their treatment is cursory, and
the result is not nearly as satisfying as that of Sciascia''s much briefer final
story.

Leonardo Sciascia has been added to my list of authors to look out for, and
connoisseurs of quality detective fiction should definitely check him out. I am
not likely to read more Morris West unless I get stuck in an airport without
better options, though perhaps I would have been more impressed with Daughter
of Silence if I hadn''t read it immediately after The Knight and Death
.

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