My Mother-in-Law Drinks (The Vincenzo Malinconico Novels)

He makes you laugh, though you can never be quite sure why. He's affable enough, of course, but it's not so much that. He is both a kind of halfwit and a genious, filppant and profound, chaotic and yet possessed of a Zen-like calm. He's easily distracted but tends to hound-dog every thought until he has it by the throat. His conversation is labyrinthine but he is capable of moments of blinding lucidity. The thing is, you can't help but love him. He is Vincenzo Malinconico, an underemployed lawyer whose wife has sort of left him ("he's the kind of man you marry not once but teice, and leave both times"), whose teenage children worry hiim to death, and whose profession mostly consists in appearing as if he has one. In this sequel to I Hadn't Understood, a Neapolitan mafia boss has been kidnapped by a mild-mannered computer engineer who holds the camorrista responsible for the accidental death of his son. The engineer plans to conduct an impromptu trial on... Malinconico Is A Neapolitan Lawyer Without A Single Case. He Goes Through The Motions Every Day, Leaving For The Office Punctually, Shuffling Papers When He Gets To The Studio He Shares With A Group Of Un-gainfully Employed Professionals Like Him. His Personal Life Is A Shambles: His Wife Has Left Him, His Two Teenage Children Are Rife With Adolescent Angst And Busy Screwing Their Lives Up Royally. And His Professional Life, As Noted, Is Nonexistent. But One Day A Miracle Occurs. Indeed, Two! The First Is That He Is Assigned A Case. And Not Any Old Case! He Has Been Named The Defense Attorney For A Member Of The Neapolitan Underground, Mimmo The Burzone. The Second Miracle Bears The Name Alessandra Persiana--the Most Beautiful Woman To Ever Grace The Neapolitan Courthouses--who, It Appears, Has Fallen In Love With Malinconico. However, The Real Miracle For Readers In This Rollicking Novel Is The Hilarious And Eccentric Voice Of Vincenzio Malinconico. The Novel Orbits Around The Bizarre And Irresistible Mind Of Malinconico, A Mind That Pauses To Contemplate Every Aspect Of The Life He Sees Before Him, The Life He Has Lived, His Memories And His Future; A Voice That Seduces, Entertains, And Moves The Reader From The First Page To The Last--from Publisher's Description. Diego De Silva ; Translated From The Italian By Antony Shugaar. This “sharp-edged comedic novel of a semi-hapless Italian lawyer” who finds himself employed by the mob was a finalist for Italy's prestigious Strega Prize (Kirkus Reviews). Vincenzo Malinconico is a wildly unsuccessful lawyer who spends most of his time at the office trying to look busy. His wife has left him. His teenage children worry him to death. And he suffers from a chronic inability to control his sentence structure. When he is asked to fill in as the public defender for alleged Mafioso Mimmo'o Burzone, Malinconico seizes the opportunity to turn his life around. Without dwelling too long on what it might mean to be employed by the mob, he rushes to re-learn the Italian criminal code. Soon, Malinconico's life becomes a comic battle to finish what he has started without falling further into the mafia's clutches. Diego De Silva's rollicking, Naples Prize–winning comic novel orbits the irresistible mind of one of contemporary Italian fiction's most beloved characters. Throughout his travails, Vincenzo contemplates every aspect of the life he sees before him in a wry voice that seduces, entertains, and moves the reader from the first page to the last. A hapless Italian lawyer is wrapped up in the mock trial of a mafia boss in this “rollicking novel”—a “hilarious and touching” satire of the digital age ( Minneapolis Star-Tribune ). A mild-mannered computer engineer has pulled off a seemingly impossible crime—kidnapping the Neapolitan mafia boss he believes is responsible for the death of his son. He plans to conduct an impromptu trial on live television during which he will list the various crimes of the accused, sentencing him before a captivated national audience and executing him accordingly. The standoff between law enforcement officers and the kidnapper quickly escalates into a tragi-comic reality show. The only hope of a happy ending rests with Vincenzio Malinconico, Neapolitan lawyer and walking mid-life crisis. Vincenzio hardly has a reputation for decisiveness, but now is called upon to resolve this drama with, hopefully, no loss of life—especially his own. In this hilarious sequel to his Naples Prize–winning novel I Hadn’t Understood , Diego De Silva revisits the hapless yet charismatic Vincenzo Malinconico—“the sort of man you marry twice, and leave both times.” Vincenzo Malinconico is a wildly unsuccessful lawyer who spends most of his time at the office trying to look busy. His wife has left him. His teenage children worry him to death. And he suffers from a chronic inability to control his sentence structure. When he is asked to fill in as the public defender for alleged Mafioso Mimmo lo Burzone, Malinconico seizes the opportunity to turn his life around. Without dwelling too long on what it might mean to be employed by the mob, he rushes to re-learn the Italian criminal code, all the while attempting to resist any further advances from his employers. Malinconico's life becomes a comical battle to finish what he has started without falling further into the clutches of the mafia. I Hadn't Understood is one of the subtlest and most cunning accounts of the mafia's influence on everyday life in recent decades. And it is certainly the most entertaining. Written with a neurotic's love of detail and wry humor, I Hadn't Understood is an engaging story of family, fatherhood, and the perils of navigating the Italian legal system. In this sequel to I Hadn't Understood, a Neapolitan mafia boss has been kidnapped by a mild-mannered computer engineer who holds the camorrista responsible for the accidental death of his son. The engineer plans to conduct an impromptu trial on live television during which he will list the various crimes of the accused, sentencing him before a captivated national audience and executing him accordingly. The standoff between law enforcement officers and the kidnapper beomes a tragi-comic reality show. The only hope of a happy ending rests with Vincenzio Malinconico, Neapolitan lawyer, poster-cliché for mid-life crisis Stuck in an unfulfilling legal career and mired in family drama, Neapolitan lawyer Vincenzo Malinconico is assigned to the defense of a member of the mafia at the same time he learns that a beautiful woman has fallen in love with him