Andrea Camilleri was over seventy years old when he wrote Excursion to Tindari. His protagonist, Salvo Montalbano, was fifty. The novel's closing pages contain as rueful and touching a meditation on age, crime and the passage of time as any I can think of. This passage is a tease, but a tease is better than spoiler, so don't complain:"[Montalbano] himself had reacted the way he did, nearly suffering a stroke. Whereas Mimi had turned pale, yes, but didn't really seem too upset. Self-control? Lack of sensitivity? No, the reason was clearly much simply: the difference in age. He was fifty and Mimi was thirty. Augello was already prepared for the year 2000, whereas he would never be. Nothing more. Augello naturally knew that he was entering an era of pitiless crimes committed by anonymous people, who had Internet addresses or sites or whatever they're called, but never a face, a pair of eyes, an expression. No, he was too old by now."There's a fair bit of understanding, insight and resignation there, I'd say. That paragraph is the early leader in the race for my favorite piece of reading of 2009, or maybe even my favorite since I started this crime-fiction thing.
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
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