The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, Book 1) | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrea Camilleri
Creator: Stephen Sartarelli
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 30925
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0142004715
Dewey Decimal Number: 853.914
EAN: 9780142004715
ASIN: 0142004715
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
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Product Description
Andrea Camilleri's novels starring Inspector Montalbano have become an international sensation and have been translated from Italian into eight languages, ranging from Dutch to Japanese. The Shape of Water is the first book in this sly, witty, and engaging series with its sardonic take on Sicilian life.
Early one morning, Silvio Lupanello, a big shot in the village of Vigata, is found dead in his car with his pants around his knees. The car happens to be parked in a rough part of town frequented by prostitutes and drug dealers, and as the news of his death spreads, the rumors begin. Enter Inspector Salvo Montalbano, Vigata's most respected detective. With his characteristic mix of humor, cynicism, compassion, and love of good food, Montalbano goes into battle against the powerful and the corrupt who are determined to block his path to the real killer. This funny and fast-paced Sicilian page-turner will be a delicious discovery for mystery afficionados and fiction lovers alike.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 A good audiobook October 20, 2008
This was a good book to listen to - the accents (and correct name pronunciation) brought the book alive.
 Terrific June 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this series. Inspector Montalbano is a man you want to spend time with. So this book enables us to follow him around Sicily and eavesdrop on his conversations and ruminations. Highly entertaining. Once started, Camilleri's novels are hard to put down.
Clever, Clever, Clever May 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Andrea Camilleri's Italian Inspector Montalbano mystery series has been a runaway hit, selling ten million copies on the European continent for some time. The author, who lives in Rome, Italy, is an experienced writer, in print and for television, and he certainly knows how best to put his material across. This book, "The Shape of Water," was the first of this series, and the first to be made available in English, in 2002: it was translated by Stephen Sartarelli, poet and translator resident in upstate New York.
The book is set in Sicily, with its abundant Mafia history, and concerns the apparent natural death of Silvio Lupanello, important figure in the small coastal town of Vigata, where Salvo Montalbano is employed. The death appears to have been natural, but nothing is more unlikely than that Lupanello should have died where, and seemingly how, he did, and thence hangs the tale, which Camilleri gives us at a fast pace. It's a smart, complex, well-thought out and highly original many-layered plot, dark and somewhat gruesome, though spiced up by meditations on food, wine, and love. Characters are enjoyably presented, dialog is smart. Book's a quick, ingenious read.
Those who care for Sicily may not care for the tone of the book, however, as Camilleri leaves no cliche of that long-time, poverty-stricken island in the sun unturned: readers are invited to chortle at that island's expense. Some readers may be put off by the writer's casual use of sex, obscenities and violence. Others may have difficulty with the long, unknown Italian names, or the characters and situations raised once, from which we never again hear. Or the cavalier attitude with which Montalbano takes the law into his own hands. And, whether it comes straight from the Italian, or snuck in in this translation, from first to last there's a distinct-- dare I say it -- wise guy tone for which some, who are accustomed to drawing their own conclusions about what they're reading or watching, may not care.
Italian pulp fiction or art? December 15, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Someone asked me read this book and determine whether it was literature or not. Of course, this raises all sorts of questions as to what constitutes literature, none of which I will attempt to answer here. But the book did leave me wondering. Clearly, since it's been translated into 8 languages, it must be well recognized as literature by a diverse audience. Yet, somehow, after spending the 90 minutes required to read through this very brief tale (double spaced, largish print and a chapter break with practically every paragraph, this book has more white space than the Canadian Arctic), I came away feeling hollow. It has its moments of beauty and poignancy; the character of Inspector Montalbano is definitely well fleshed out; and the background of Sicilian culture and politics gives the whole thing an air of refinement or at least exoticism. Yet the rest of the characters in the book, and their number is legion, are barely fleshed out - often encountered for only a page or two. The plot, while not predictable, falls into that category of mystery in which the villain is not even brought on stage till near the very end, perhaps so the reader won't figure things out too soon. The role of coincidence in Inspector Montalbano's investigation is so large as to constitute nearly his entire method. And while the grotesque sexuality and crudity of many of the characters may remind some of a Fellini film, it seems a bit over the top in a number of places.
So, I'm not sure if this is art or simply an Italian murder mystery. If the former, I must say it's not to my taste, and if the latter, its neither a brain teaser nor a page-turner. Sure, the plot will keep you moderately entertained for the few minutes it takes to read, but once you finish you'll wonder if you could have spent your time better - perhaps by watching television.
Marvelous Introduction to the Politics and Sociology of Sicily September 1, 2007
As any Italian will tell you, Sicilians (or Sicilianos) are not Italians, and any Sicilian worth his salt will tell you thats a good thing. Camilleri who wrote this story back in 1994 has a feel for a part of his country that is remote and misunderstood by most of his countrymen. This is not the urbane Commissario Bruneti of Venice, Salvo Montalbano was born and bred on the island, and has contacts among all strata of society.
On the island of Sicily, one has three choices in life, 1)government and politics, 2) mafioso, and 3) leave. Montalbano is unusual in that he grew up there and stayed. He uses his connections to ferret out information as to things that happen on the seamier side of life.
The story itself is pedestrian, but must have been much more intense in 1994 (dealing with adultery, prostitution, bisexuality, homosexuality) so it will read as dated. But all in all it's a good introduction to the character of Inspector Salvo Montalbano.
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