Leonardo Sciascia
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Leonardo Sciascia (Racalmuto, Agrigento 1921 - Palermo 1989) was an Italian writer.
Leonardo Sciascia, (pronounced shasha), was a prominent Italian writer and politician, serving his beloved Sicily as a councillor, deputy in the national assembly and then in the European parliament. Trained as a lawyer, it was only later in life that he devoted himself to writing about Sicily and the Mafia.
A number of his books demonstrate how the Mafia manages to sustain itself in the face of the anomie inherent in Sicilian life: 'The Day of the Owl' and 'Equal Danger' being amongst the most powerful. His forensic analysis of the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro, Aldo Moro a prominent Christian Democrat, in his book 'The Moro Affair' is masterly. His work is intricate and displays a longing for justice attempting to show how corrupt Italian society had become and remains. His linking of politicians, intrigue, and the Mafia gave him a high profile, which was very much at odds with his private self. This accumulated in him becoming widely disliked for his criticism of Giulio Andreotti, then Prime Minster, for his lack of action towards freeing Moro and answering the demands of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigade).
Sciascia was part of a House of Deputies investigation into Moro's kidnapping, which concluded that there was a certain amount of negligence on behalf of the Christian Democracy Party for their stance that the state was bigger than a person and that they would not swap Moro for 13 political prisoners. Even though, Moro himself had stated that the swapping of innocent people for political prisoners was a valid option in negoiations with terrorists. However, senior members of the party convienently forgot this stance and even went as far as to say that Moro had been drugged and tortured to utter these words.
The best of his books, shows that, as in real life, there is rarely a happy ending and that there is rarely justice for the ordinary man. Prime examples of this are Equal Danger (Il Contesto), where the Police's best detective is drafted to Sicily to investigate a spate of murders of judges. Focussing on the inability of authorities to handle such investigation into the corruptions, Sciascia's hero is finally thwarted.
Sciascia wrote of his unique Scilian experience, linking families with political parties, the treachory of alliances and allegiances and the calling of favours that resort in outcomes that are not for the best of society, but for those individuals who are in favour. Sciascia perhaps, in the end, wanted to prove that the corruption that was and is endemic in Italian society helps only those who are part of the secret societies and loyalties and political classes.
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