El libro infierno

"I felt no surprise whatsoever when I realized Hell is a Library. Permitting one access to words, but not their meaning, is surely the finest version of Tantalus' punishment."

About ten days ago a book found its way into my shopping basket at Ex Libris: Carlo Frabetti's El libro infierno (translated into Greek by Achilleas Kyriakidis). I admit buying it for its title echoeing Borges and Eco. It's a thin book, less than 100 pages of story-text, but surely a rewarding one. While the theme apparent is Literature and the 'plot' is firmly based on Dante's Divine Comedy, the literary questions implied demand mathematical answers (or is it vice versa). It would be extremely premature of me to attempt any sort of critical introduction: besides re-reading it a good many more times, this would require venturing into Wittgenstein (whom I can glimpse at between the lines). The book forces one to ponder on Religion, Language and Ethics as synecdoche's of one another. So, I am merely presenting it here so that I may get an offer to write a paid review or perhaps even get a job as a translator.

Alas, I am not the only one to present Frabetti in unpaid, amateurishly translated English in our blogosfera. This very morning I discovered another Greek blogger, Anatomy of Melancholy, has been preoccupied with Frabetti's Los jardines cifrados. Since this (Italian-born but Spanish-writing) author is now doubly blessed with blogofame, I should hope a proper English translation of his books is to be expected soon.