Let the Games Begin

Bumbling Satanists, celebrity murder plots, rampaging elephants, subterranean former Olympic athletes—this is not a subtle book. The setting is contemporary Rome —"Rome appeared like an enormous dirty blanket encrusted with diamonds"—and the cast is large. A working-class real estate magnate has purchased Villa Ada, once a public park and now a large private home, and is celebrating by throwing a party for the rich and beautiful. Members of the Wilde Beasts of Abaddon sect pose as caterers at the party in order to kill a pop star. Meanwhile, an anxiety-ridden author attending the event thinks he will find salvation there. Italian novelist Ammaniti (I'm Not Scared) gleefully sets the stage and then lets things go hilariously awry. The story moves at a manic pace, with much sex and food strewn throughout; the depiction of women is absurd (and occasionally cruel) but fits with the satirical tone. What keeps this work from being mere spoof is how Ammaniti tempers the caricatures with quotes from Hamlet and plants believable existential pain in his character's lives.