{"id":4355,"date":"2014-01-29T19:11:14","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T00:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4355"},"modified":"2025-08-11T21:06:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T01:06:28","slug":"the-paper-moon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4355","title":{"rendered":"The Paper Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Paper Moon<\/a><\/em> (2005\/2008) Andrea Camilleri<\/a> translated by Stephen Sartarelli<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The story opens with a woman–concerned that she has not heard from her brother–coming to report him missing. It hasn’t been long enough to declare him officially missing, but she convinces Montalbano to come with her, to see what signs are at his apartment.<\/p>\n

“Aahh, Chief, Chief!”<\/p>\n

“What is it Cat?”<\/p>\n

“There’s some lady waiting for you.”<\/p>\n

“For me?”<\/p>\n

“She din’t say it was f’you poissonally in poisson, she just said she wants to talk to somebody from the police”<\/p>\n

So why couldn’t she talk to you?”<\/p>\n

“Chief, she said she wanted a talk to somebody superior to me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Poor Catarella.<\/p>\n

Besides the sister, there is another woman in the story–a young woman who was the man’s mistress. The sister hates the mistress with a frightening intensity, which really doesn’t help her case very much, but a mourning woman is giving some slack.<\/p>\n

This was a fascinating story, in so many levels. The intensity of the relationship between the siblings, and little by little the details that leak out about the brother. To be honest, by the end of the story, I wasn’t at all sorry he was dead, but I had little sympathy for her murderer either.<\/p>\n

As with all these books, food plays a major part in the story.<\/p>\n

(H)e ate so much that as he was eating he felt embarrassed, ashamed, but couldn’t help himself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That single sentence sums up Montalbano’s relationship with food. And I suppose that of the vices a Sicilian cop could have, gluttony is the least of them.<\/p>\n

Especially since he remains fed up with the corruption.<\/p>\n

“(I)n our neck of the woods, and not only our neck of the woods, politics is the art of burying one’s adversary in shit.”<\/p>\n

“What’s politics got to do with me?”<\/p>\n

“A lot, even if you don’t realize it. In a case like this, do you know what your role is?”<\/p>\n

“No. What’s my role.”<\/p>\n

“You supply the shit.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again I remain glad that I have nothing to do with Italian politics or the Italian bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

But the mystery in this story was very good. The more you learn about all the people centrally involved in the case, the more you come to dislike all of them, and aren’t sure how justice can every be served.<\/p>\n

Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Penguin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Paper Moon (2005\/2008) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli The story opens with a woman–concerned that she has not heard from her brother–coming to report him missing. It hasn’t been long enough to declare him officially missing, but she convinces Montalbano to come with her, to see what signs are at his apartment. “Aahh, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[191,8,291,42,38],"tags":[94,95,54,435],"class_list":["post-4355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-mystery","category-paper","category-police","category-translated","tag-andrea-camilleri","tag-inspector-montalbano","tag-italy","tag-stephen-sartarelli"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-18f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":929,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/929","url_meta":{"origin":4355,"position":0},"title":"The Paper Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"January 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Paper Moon (2005) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli I am sad. I have now read all the Inspector Montalbano books that have been published and translated into English. August Heat comes out later this year, but after that? No more Inspector Montalbano for me--at least until the next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Paper-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4668,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4668","url_meta":{"origin":4355,"position":1},"title":"Angelica’s Smile","author":"Michelle","date":"June 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Angelica's Smile (2010\/2014) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli \u201cAh Chief, Chief! Ahh Chief!\u201d Catarella's cry pretty much describes how I feel about this book. Ah Chief, how you've fallen. A strange series of burglaries has hit Vitaga. Burgulars break into a vacation home, gas the couple sleeping there, then,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Angelicas-Smile.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4371,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4371","url_meta":{"origin":4355,"position":2},"title":"The Potter’s Field","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Potter's Field (2008\/2011) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This might be one of my favorite mysteries in this series. A dismembered body is found in clay fields, the face beaten so as to hinder identification. A beautiful woman comes to the station, to report that she believes her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Potters-Field-195x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4374,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4374","url_meta":{"origin":4355,"position":3},"title":"The Age of Doubt","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Age of Doubt (2008\/2012) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli On this second reading, I really didn't like this story. The mystery was fine, but I knew what was coming, and I just kept getting madder and madder at Montalbano, not wanting him to make the mistakes I knew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Age-Doubt.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4364,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4364","url_meta":{"origin":4355,"position":4},"title":"The Track of Sand","author":"Michelle","date":"January 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Track of Sand (2007\/2010) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is another story that is not a particular favorite. Montalbano and Livia are still fighting (of course), but the book opens with a really horrible scene, the discovery of a dead horse by Montalbano. A horse that has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Track-of-Sand.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10845,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10845","url_meta":{"origin":4355,"position":5},"title":"Voice of the Violin, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"May 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Voice of the Violin, Audible Version (1997\/2003\/2008) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli narrated by Grover Gardner This book begins the slow and slight redemption of Catarella. \u201cOh, Chief, I got another streamly impoitant ting to tell ya. Somebody from Montelusa Central called to talk to me in poisson, Inspector\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Voice-Violin-e1511038008168.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}