One of the things I enjoy most about trying to read deeply and widely is to make an unexpected discovery. That was the case this week. It also was the chance to read the latest from an author whose earlier books were highly satisfying to read, and to notice that the earlier and latest books are different but with a similar outlook.
Gianrico Carofiglio is a former anti-Mafia prosecutor and Italian Senate member. His first novels featured Guido Guerrieri, a prosecutor with an underlying melanchony that Carofiglio matched with the setting of those books. That is Bari, Italy, where the author began his career. Involuntary Witness, A Walk in the Dark and Reasonable Doubts, the first three books in the series, covered a range of issues that come up with investigating crime, courtroom drama and cultural issues.
Carofiglio's latest novel has been translated into English. Although everything about the narrative itself is different from those crime novels, there is the same sensibility -- that life may rarely be fair but it is here to be lived and not merely endured.
Three O'Clock in the Morning is a slice-of-life tale about Antonio, a teenager who receives a diagnosis of epilepsy. His parents, although separated, smoothly find common ground to take him to Marseille, for treatment by a renowned specialist. The doctor calms the family, says he may well not be affected in years to come and tells him to come back in three years for further consultation.
When the time comes, the young man does not want to go back. His life has been in stasis and he doesn't feel confident enough to change things. But his parents talk him into it. Both of them are professors. His father, who has not lived with him and his mother since he was quite young, is able to go but his mother has a conference she has been anticipating. They decide that he will go with only his father.
The doctor decides he needs to stay awake for two days and nights, and then see him afterwards to determine his diagnosis. Whether this was medically feasible in the early 1980s, which the story is set, is immaterial. It is the means by which the stage is set for the important part of the story.
His father is pretty much a stranger. He thinks he knows about the man who hasn't been part of the family for years, but during the next two days and nights, he learns a lot. Mostly, Antonio and his father talk, for the first time in their lives.
The conversations are wide-ranging, from the power and promise of his father's lifelong pursuit of mathematics, to jazz, to what happened to his parents' marriage and to the first time. They meet interesting people, see strange sights, recall well-loved books and movies and think about the things that matter to them.
The title is taken from an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, which comes up in one conversation when they are talking about his writing:
In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.
Although this short book covers a variety of deep ideas, Carofiglio has the same light touch he used in his early crime fiction to bring them up. The end is pitch perfect in the most bittersweet way. This will be a story I'll return to read and reflect upon.
