The Goodbye Kiss - Massimo Carlotto

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the complete review - fiction

The Goodbye Kiss

by
Massimo Carlotto

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Title:	The Goodbye Kiss
Author:	Massimo Carlotto
Genre:	Novel
Written:	2001 (Eng. 2006)
Length:	144 pages
Original in:	Italian
Availability:	The Goodbye Kiss - US
	The Goodbye Kiss - UK
	The Goodbye Kiss - Canada
	The Goodbye Kiss - India
	Arrivederci amore - France
	Arrivederci amore, ciao - Deutschland
	Arrivederci amore, ciao - Italia

Italian title: Arrivederci amore, ciao
Translated by Lawrence Venuti
The Goodbye Kiss was made into a film, Arrivederci amore, ciao, in 2006, directed by Michele Soavi and starring Alessio Boni

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Our Assessment:

B+ : excessive, but with considerable suspense as to how bad things can get

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
FAZ	.	3/4/2007	Julia Bähr
Lire	.	5/2003	Dinah Brand
The NY Times Book Rev.	.	22/1/2006	Marilyn Stasio

From the Reviews:

"Der Roman fasziniert vor allem dadurch, dass der Leser dem Bösen direkt in die Augen sieht. (...) Carlotto scheut keine deutlichen Ausdrücke, geht aber dankenswerterweise selten ins Detail. Ein kleiner Machiavelli für Gangster ist da entstanden, dessen einzige Schwäche die mangelnde Tiefe seiner Hauptfigur ist. Von einer unheilvollen Anziehungskraft ist die Geschichte trotzdem" - Julia Bähr, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"Voici un roman d'une amoralité totale où la corruption triomphe voluptueusement." - Dinah Brand, Lire

"Although he lacks the diabolical charm of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley, Pellegrini is a smart guy. (...) (A) narrative voice that in Lawrence Venuti's translation is cold and heartless -- but, in a creepy way, fascinating." - Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Morality does not figure high in The Goodbye Kiss, and the only moral of the story appears to be: once a low-life, always a low-life. Callous brutality is a way (and becomes a necessity) of life in this pitch-black, sour noir, but there are enough quirky elements to the story -- and considerable suspense -- to make it worthwhile.
       The novel is narrated by Giorgio Pellegrini. Years ago he was part of a revolutionary group, fleeing Italy when one of their actions resulted in the death of a night watchman. One of those involved ratted him out, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in abstentia. He fled to Latin America, joining an insurgency there.
       His political idealism and revolutionary fervour had clearly diminished over the years, and when the book begins he's drifting towards returning to Europe, burning his bridges behind him. Back in France he contacts an old associate and explains that he's going to give himself up to the Italian authorities, and that they should arrange a deal for him, or he'll sell out his old comrades. The revolution is a spent force (nicely presented by Carlotto), but Giorgio gets his deal -- even though it means a few years in prison.
       From the first page, Giorgio is presented as someone willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. No more revolutions for him, just self-interest. Prison proves a good training ground for this (even though he notes, with apparent disappointment: "nowadays even prisons aren't what they used to be"), as does his first real job as a free man again, in a strip club. He has ambitions of going straight -- opening a restaurant sounds good to him -- but known to be a police informer (part of his deal with the cops) and working in a strip club, he's a long way off from respectability.
       Giorgio begins by skimming a bit at the strip club -- though not carefully enough. Still, his indiscretions aren't enough to get him whacked -- he's just taught a lesson. But soon enough he sees bigger opportunities. Working with a crooked cop, Ferruccio Anedda, he gets out of the lap-dancing business -- and then there's an opportunity for a really big haul:

Attacking armored trucks in Italy was highly remunerative and far from complicated. You just needed to locate the weak point of the route and kill most of the guards.

       The idea of killing a few guards doesn't bother him, and he learns about a weak point -- but he needs more people to help him out. Enter Anedda again, who sets him up with some Croatian war criminals and three Spanish anarchists, all very much on the wrong side of the law but willing to do it for the money. Of course, Anedda and Giorgio have no intention of sharing the loot .....
       For quite a while the novel reads like a coup-caper, building up to this one heist and what will clearly be a brutal aftermath. It's probably the weakest part of the novel -- a bit too implausible, a bit too little detail, and way, way too messy. But Giorgio gets through it, and then he's ready to rebuild his life, and then it gets a bit more interesting again.
       He wants to settle down and live a normal life, and he fortunately has a lawyer who can help him out. They petition to have him legally rehabilitated, which isn't a problem if he can stay out of trouble for a while, and he starts working in a restaurant which he will then officially take over when he's legally clear.
       Things go fairly well -- the restaurant is a success -- but Giorgio can't quite escape his old lifestyle. His lawyer has him do a couple of favours for him. And then Anedda shows up, needing a bigger favour .....
       Killing is Giorgio's preferred solution: no loose ends, and it's something he has to fall back on quite frequently. Nicely, Carlotto offers quite a few variations on the theme. The suspense is heightened by the fact that, about nine times out of ten, the people Giorgio is dealing with are planning to do the same to him, so it's just a matter of who gets to it first. And then there are the women in his life: the mobster's widow who understands her fate, and his fiancée who winds up knowing just a bit too much .....
       Killing isn't an afterthought here, but it's nothing out of the ordinary. Giorgio's actions almost never weigh on him: it's what he had to do, the cost of business (and survival). And so, it sometimes seems, the book merely moves from one body (or slaughter) to the next.
       So Giorgio is not the most sympathetic of characters -- no noir hero (or even anti-hero). He's a low-life, plain and simple. But Carlotto's account is consistently gripping -- in part because Giorgio is the way he is. His attitude towards women and sex, for example, shows yet another mean streak, but it's perversely fascinating (and it's nice to see a leading man who likes his ladies older and doesn't always get (or take) the most beautiful women around).
       The action, too, holds the reader's attention: there is suspense throughout, curveballs coming from every direction, and though some seems rather unlikely, it's still fun.
       Quite a disturbing read and maybe a bit too unconcerned with morality (or cynical, set in a world in which there are essentially no innocents and most are really, really corrupt), The Goodbye Kiss is written engagingly and surprisingly enough to make it worthwhile.

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Links:

The Goodbye Kiss:

Europa editions publicity page
Edizioni e/o publicity page
Article in Die Welt (German)

Reviews:

Arrivederci amore, ciao - the film:

IMDb page

Massimo Carlotto:

Massimo Carlotto - Il portale del noir - official site
Profile in The Observer

Other books by Massimo Carlotto under review:

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
See Index of Italian literature

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About the Author:

Massimo Carlotto is a popular Italian author.

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