Owl of the Day Each Gets Its Own: Each Gets Its Own

Author: Xia Xia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: These are two outstanding mafia-themed novels by the renowned Italian writer Leonardo Xia Xia. The Owl of the Day tells the story of Captain Bellodi, a gendarmerie officer, who investigates a murder case amidst numerous obstacles. Just when he is on the verge of cracking the case, an invisible force derails his efforts. In Each in Their Place, the pharmacist Mano and the doctor Roscio in a small town are murdered, and the schoolteacher Laura, the sole investigator, is herself assassinated. Through these two works, the author portrays the relentless struggle between justice and darkness in mafia-ridden Italy, exposing the darkness of society and the apathy and indifference of its people.
The protagonist of The Owl of the Day, Captain Bellodi, is assigned to investigate a murder orchestrated by the mafia. Bellodi, a former guerrilla who participated in the anti-Fascist armed struggle, is upright, resolute, and perceptive. He faces countless hardships, overcomes numerous obstacles and the criminal underworld's carefully constructed alliances, and gathers evidence against the and their masters. He is on the verge of success when, upon returning to his hometown for a vacation, the situation takes a sharp turn. The mafia launches a massive counteroffensive, fabricates false testimonies, and completely reverses the verdict. Captain Bellodi fails. Evil triumphs over justice. The mafia's law prevails over the nation's law.
Bellodi's adversaries are not only the and instigators but also the informed and the widespread indifference and fear surrounding him, as well as the alliance between the mafia and political figures. All these form an impenetrable wall, an insurmountable barrier for him. He fights alone, with little hope of turning the tide. Yet, Bellodi firmly declares that though he is not Sicilian, he loves Sicily and will return there resolutely. He will continue to confront this formidable mafia force without hesitation. Through a murder case and the development of characters and settings, Xia Xia allows readers to witness the mafia's pervasive infiltration into all aspects of social life and to feel the horrifying depravity of their crimes.
Bellodi's character, revealed with immense artistic power, exposes that what is more severe and terrifying than Sicily's material poverty is its spiritual and moral impoverishment. He is not merely investigating a murder case but fighting to heal Sicily's spiritual and moral ills. Five years after The Owl of the Day was published, Xia Xia released another mafia-themed novel, Each in Their Place. In Each in Their Place, readers see no functioning judicial system but only a middle school Chinese teacher, Laura, who consciously or unconsciously fulfills her duty to investigate the murder case.
In Xia Xia's view, the judicial system has failed in its struggle against the mafia in Sicily because it desperately maintains the island's and deep-rooted problems. Laura seeks to solve the problems that the judicial system is too weak or unwilling to address. Her intelligence, derived from Italian literature and poetry, is her only weapon in this struggle, yet she is also too naive and pure. Almost from the moment of the murder, the people around her understand everything, either forming alliances or remaining silent, while Laura remains in the dark, delusionally pursuing her investigation. This silence amounts to tacit approval and encouragement of the mafia and its criminal activities. Naturally, Laura is powerless to break through the wall of silence, conspiracy, and alliances, and instead is crushed by it. This makes Laura's death deeply symbolic.
Laura's investigation fails to touch the mafia in the slightest, but it does strike at the social fabric that allows the mafia to thrive and flourish. The value of her character lies not in her actions as an amateur detective but in the fact that she represents a small world—a microcosm where deep-rooted conflicts between the individual and the state, personal actions and politics, and historical evil and new social contradictions are concentrated. Thus, Laura's death carries political, social, and metaphysical significance.
Xia Xia's narrative language is highly refined. The events he describes are often thrilling and shocking, but when narrated with a deliberate, detached tone, they appear composed and restrained, creating a strange and unusual artistic effect. The philosophical dialogues of the protagonists, the debates on good and evil, and the author's sharp critique of social reality all carry a sharp, biting, and profound meaning. They blend into the intricate and dramatic narrative structure, not only shocking readers with the facts themselves but also endowing the novel with deep reflective depth, thus distinguishing it from commercialized mystery novels and elevating it above other works of the same genre. It represents a development of literary tradition.