The Goodbye Kiss

I add this review above all as I disagree with a previous review from another reader. Comparing books, as he does, is a tricky and complex task. Thompson and Carlotto books are quite different under any aspect. Background, aims, means. Thompson and Carlotto are interested on focusing and bringing into light different aspects of crime. Some 50 more years have gone by between the two books. To advise re-reading Thompson in writing on Carlotto is as advising to re-read "Crime and Punishment" commenting on Thompson. Carlotto depicts a provocative and enlighting scenario of the post-70s european generation (non-UK, especially French, Italian, Spanish and German), of the 80s need of conformism and modern hypocrisy. The noir plot is, as in best writers (as Durenmatt), an excuse for bringing into light dark places of our societies.

Well, I am glad that they translated Carlotto in English. I guess there is something in this novel that US crime/noir readers will appreciate: that is, the story told by the Bad Guy. And this Bad Guy, the narrating I of this dark story of corruption, violence, and politics (plenty of politics), is as good (or as bad) as the charaters you may meet in the pages of that underrated genius of US fiction, Jim Thompson. The man who tells the story is a former Brigate Rosse terrorist and exile. But he is above all a cynical, cold, amoral individual. His story is the grim tale of how you can be formally rehabilitated, thanks to good connections and a corrupt political system, yet remaining the insensitive thug you were. And such cold, cynical people are always appreciated in a world like the Italian Nordest in the 90s, where only money and glamour and power count. Carlotto's simple style has been criticized because it doesn't meet the literary standards of critics who only care for a high number of synonims and adjectives and adverbs. Actually he writes in a language which is as simple, polished and piercing as a bullet. But some of his choices of words and details are simply powerful. And this book is one of those where you couldn't take away anything. A remarkable thing is that in noir you always have the dark lady. This is an exception. Here you have the dark man. The lady is the only clean person in the story...