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To Each His Own (New York Review Books Classics)

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Set in a small town in Sicily, the novel "To Each His Own," starts with a death threat: "..." But the town pharmacist who receives the threat, Manno, is convinced he has done no wrong and dismisses the threat as a joke. The next day, he and his hunting companion, Dr. Roscio, are found dead. There are no obvious suspects and no obvious motives. After a perfunctory investigation by the town marshal, the local Professor Laurana takes up the case only to have it all end badly.

The author, Leonardo Sciascia, is widely considered a prominent Sicilian author, a master who pretty much invented the form of the "metaphysical mystery". This dazzling page-turner is ample evidence of the master's craft. The book (as are all of Sciascia's works) is also a social commentary on Sicily with its culture of secrets and violence. When the pharmacist and doctor are done in, there is hardly much of a stir in the local populace. The marshal comes down from the county seat to briefly investigate the "big headache", speculations are tossed around and life goes on. The silence and nonchalance are chilling.

The New York Review of Books recently reprinted "To Each His Own" under its "classics" issues (and what a great service that is!). I am eager to read the rest of the talented Sciascia's works. A word of caution--the edition published by the New York Review of Books has a wonderful introduction to the novel in the beginning. Save this for after you have read the book. While the introduction is good, it gives too much of the plot away!

The final word must belong to the absolutely haunting painting on the book cover. Called "Night in Velate" and rendered by the Italian painter, Renato Guttuso, the picture is the perfect choice for the dark, wonderful book.

If you look closely enough, you can almost see the evil lurking and doing its thing under the cover of a deceptively beautiful Sicilian night.

The basic principles of right are: to live honorably, not to harm any other person, to render to each his own." Digest of the Emperor Justinian.

The Latin phrase "suum cuique tribuere" or "to each his own" is one of the three fundamental maxims of the law laid down by the Emperor Justinian. The peculiar interpretation of that phrase in Sciascia's native Sicily forms the emotional core of his brilliant "To Each His Own."

"To Each His Own" begins with a double-murder. A local pharmacist, Manno, receives a death threat in the mail, compiled with words and letters cut and pasted from a newspaper. The pharmacist laughs it off. He considers the letter to be a joke and although these threats are usually taken seriously in his town, Manno leads a blameless life and simply cannot believe anyone intends him harm. So he goes off hunting the next day with his friend Dr. Roscio and, without further ado, both Manno and Roscio are shot dead in the woods.

A police investigation follows but it is doomed to go nowhere. Sciascia paints a very explicit portrait of a society in which everyone knows (or suspects) everything but says nothing, certainly not to the local police. The general consensus (on the surface) seems to be that Manno was killed by a jealous husband and Roscio was an innocent bystander. The matter would have ended there but for the curious intercession of Professor Laurana. Laurana is a history and Italian teacher at the local liceo (high school). He walks into the pharmacy where the police are reading the anonymous letter and quickly spots a clue. The police dismiss his information out of hand. Laurana, however, driven by what appears to be no more than a desire to solve a puzzle, decides to follow up on the clue. In short order he seems to have solved the mystery. Laurana is oblivious to the fact that his musings on the crime pose more of a threat to the murderers than a typical local police investigation. Events play out to their natural conclusion, and in Sciascia's Sicily natural conclusions are not quite so neat and tidy as say in Agatha Christie's parlor room England.

The enjoyment to be found in reading "To Each His Own" is not the mystery itself. The fact of the matter is that, for Sciascia, solving a mystery doesn't require great insight. Rather, it simply requires a willingness to actually see that which is self-evident. As blind as Laurana may be to the danger he puts himself in, he can see well enough to understand why Manno and Roscio were murdered and who murdered them. Laurana's problem is not that he knows more than anyone else in town, Sciascia makes it clear that the actual events do not seem a surprise to anyone. No, Laurana's problem is that unlike everyone else in town, he doesn't bother to hide his knowledge.

Sciascia's writing is both precise and enjoyable. He seems to have a keen eye and affection for his native place, but that affection does not diminish, but likely enhances, the despair he feels for a culture in which silence is golden and in which "to each his own" does not bring to mind Roman traditions of equity but, rather, the critical importance of minding ones own business. "To Each His Own" is a cynical, but highly-entertaining piece or work.

Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

Leonardo Sciascia's To Each His Own (1968) is a complex and absorbing mystery with a political and social agenda. Admirers of Arturo Perez Reverte will find much to enjoy in this book and its combination of mystery and social/political criticism, which is not hammered home but is muted and emerges from the narrative. Most importantly, it's a very good read. Not a police procedural or conventional mystery in any way, To Each His Own focuses on character, principally on the character of Professor Laurana, and his growing interest in the murder mystery he slowly begins to unravel. A sexually repressed young man still living with his mother, he finds himself extremely vulnerable to the beautiful and shapely widow of one of the murdered men, a widow whom her too-short mourning clothes fit strangely. As usual in his work, Sciascia explores the heartless cynicism of a brutalized, corrupt society--one which he sees as a metaphor for the world.

W. S. Di Piero, in his introduction to Leonardo Sciascia's "To Each His Own," aptly comments that Sciascia "used storytelling as in instrument for investigating and attacking the ethos of a culture-the insular, mafia-saturated culture of Sicily-which he believed to be a metaphor for the world." He did this as a political journalist, as a short story writer (notably in his fine collection, "The Wine-Dark Sea," which I also have reviewed here at Amazon) and, perhaps most effectively, as a writer of a unique type of detective story, one in which the usual investigation and solution of a crime is occluded by the lie, the secret, the collusion, and the murder that seemingly pervade Sciasica's Sicily.

In "To Each His Own," a pharmacist receives a simple, threatening and anonymous letter: "This letter is your death sentence. To avenge what you have done, you will die." The threat is apparently soon carried out, for a few days later the pharmacist and a close friend, Dr. Roscio, are found murdered. The two men had been hunting and their pack of dogs returned to the town without the men, prompting much speculation and a typically Sciascian commentary on the Sicilian code of silence:

"The return of the dogs set the whole town to disputing for days and days (as will always happen when people discuss the nature of dogs) about the order of Creation, since it is not at all fair that dogs should lack the gift of speech. No account was taken, in the creator's defense, that even had they had the gift of speech, the dogs would, in the given circumstances, have become so many mutes both with regard to the identity of the murderers and in testifying before the marshal of the carabinieri."

From this point forward, "To Each His Own" narrates the personal investigation of the crime by Professor Laurana, a sexually repressed high school teacher who lives alone with his mother in the same house he has lived in all his life. Professor Laurana undertakes the investigation not because he really cares to bring the perpetrator to justice, but "rather like the man in a living room or club who hears one of those stupid puzzles volunteered by the fools who are always eager to propose and, what is worse, to solve them, and who knows that it is a futile game and a waste of time, yet who feels obliged to solve the problem, and doggedly sets about doing so."

Professor Laurana methodically follows the clues and, along the way, provides a narrative that illuminates the corruption, the secrecy, the complicity, and the silence that make any effort to bring a criminal to justice in Sicily "a futile game and a waste of time." It is a narrative sharply critical of every institution in society-the Government, the Police, the Church, the Family-and laden with commentary and erotically charged innuendo on the relationship between men and women in a patriarchal and overtly sexist, if not misogynistic, culture. "To Each His Own" is, ultimately, a tale that ends grimly for those who seek the truth, even as the perpetrators celebrate their crimes in Sciascia's cynical Sicilian world.

Having read "To Each His Own" (or rather, "Il ciascuno il suo") twice, once in Italian and once in English, I find that each time I found new interesting nuances.

Rich, ambiguous characters fill the novel and leaves one wondering who is considered intelligent and who is considered an idiot in Sicilian terms. It also leaves one wondering what exactly is the crime: the killer or the one that deems himself the investigator? Is it the one who deals in politics or the one breaking the law of "omerta"?The novel explores the mafiosi as an institution, as a family, what it is in the government, the church, the peasant village.

Sciascia's novel is a page-turner for both those who want an easy read detective thriller and also for those wanting to dig deeper into the story's message.

This tale has the punch of a good "Sopranos" episode, one that is filled with subtlety and atmosphere. Sciascia said, according to the introduction, "I don't have a great creative imagination.... All my books are the story of a series of historical delusions seen in the light of the present." Here the delusion is multifold: the delusion of Professor Laurana as he stumbles his way into dangerous territory merely because of his diffident intellectual curiosity; the delusion of the entire Sicilian community as it keeps its deadly secrets to itself, thereby perpetuating them; and the delusion of love as a wife deludes her husband and then, in the name of love, abets deadly acts. There are probably other delusions as well, too subtle for me. In the light of the present, a small band of old timers meet secretly to review reality and agree as to the mistakes the victims sadly made. All the characters in this disturbing and yet satisfying tale are drawn with a craftsman's fine brush requiring just a few telling strokes to present the whole picture. Professor Laurana, a quiet, intelligent man of modest habits, has all our sympathy as he makes a very human mistake. And the cronies that reside in the town gossip about one another almost as if directed by a cultural imperative, harking me back to my own Sicilian relatives. Although this work is horrifying, it also satisfies because of its fine writing, atmosphere, and well-drawn plot and characters. Bravo!
I thank New York Review Books for bringing out this edition and will be reading other Sciascia works very shortly.

I have been an enomous fan of Sciascia for several years. As a lecturer in Criminal Justice at a local university I assigned at least two of his writings for a "literature in criminal justice" class. This particular novel is so many different things: an examination of Sicilian life, the falsity of things seen, a murder mystery, but most important to me is the beautiful and clever use of language. I recently began studying Italian and have begun to read this novel in Italian. What a joy and what a great teacher to learn from. Un bravo insegnante e un meraviglios autore.

As one expects from Sciascia, this is a highly readable book with well-drawn characters, intriguing plot ... all the makings of a delightful read. But as one also expects from Sciascia, the book is also a pointed political and social commentary. Follow the meanderings of a less-than-socially-observant professor as he tries to unravel the murder of a drugist and doctor on opening day of hunting season. Discover that the real mystery is who knows what when ... and why everyone keeps their knowledge close to their breasts. If you like suspense that reveals the complexity of the human condition, this is definately for you.

This tale has the punch of a good "Sopranos" episode, one that is filled with subtlety and atmosphere. Sciascia said, according to the introduction, "I don't have a great creative imagination.... All my books are the story of a series of historical delusions seen in the light of the present." Here the delusion is multifold: the delusion of Professor Laurana as he stumbles his way into dangerous territory merely because of his diffident intellectual curiosity; the delusion of the entire Sicilian community as it keeps its deadly secrets to itself, thereby perpetuating them; and the delusion of love as a wife deludes her husband and then, in the name of love, abets deadly acts. There are probably other delusions as well, too subtle for me. In the light of the present, a small band of old timers meet secretly to review reality and agree as to the mistakes the victims sadly made. All the characters in this disturbing and yet satisfying tale are drawn with a craftsman's fine brush requiring just a few telling strokes to present the whole picture. Professor Laurana, a quiet, intelligent man of modest habits, has all our sympathy as he makes a very human mistake. And the cronies that reside in the town gossip about one another almost as if directed by a cultural imperative, harking me back to my own Sicilian relatives. Although this work is horrifying, it also satisfies because of its fine writing, atmosphere, and well-drawn plot and characters. Bravo!
I thank New York Review Books for bringing out this edition and will be reading other Sciascia works very shortly.

I'm a big fan of other Sicilian novels, especially Lampedusa's the Leopard and Riotta's Prince of the Clouds. The island's tragic history produces a rich backdrop for painting a nuanced set of characters and emotions.

Sciascia's short novel is wholly Sicilian, centering around his anti-mafia frustrations. The characters are nicely sketched and the writing is brief and exciting. It's a short book that reads quickly and lively.

I appreciated the story and its quick moving plot. It's a good book and the introduction is helpful for understanding it's context. At the end of the day, the work is more commentary on Sciascia's times than it is a complex wrought novel. I'm glad I read it, but I didn't find it as fulfilling as I thought I might. Look to the Leopard or the Prince of Clouds if you're looking for a full fledged novel. Otherwise, you'll be very pleased with this nice work.