California Italian Studies

Erri De Luca's literal translation and interpretation of the Book of Ecclesiastes/Kohelet reveals unique characteristics that shed light on this unusual author's opus in general and on the 2001 novel Montedidio in particular. The concept of "hevel" and its translation as "spreco" (waste) morphs in the pages of Montedidio into a discourse on the nature of writing and on language. The city of Naples, like Jerusalem "a city of blood", becomes a sacred vessel of sorts, which at its shattering on New Year's Eve gives birth to the book Montedidio as a leftover for the reader to use lest it should turn into "spreco." The writing of Montedidio is developed along horizontal and vertical coordinates at the intersection of which the novel takes shape. Its reading is informed mostly by Walter Benjamin, including the notion of "pure language." De Luca's voice can best be heard among those that conditioned what Yuri Slezkine called "the Jewish century."