Sciascia Leonardo — The Day of the Owl [16]

Only an outsider can disturb this immemorial inertia. Captain Bellodi, formerly an antifascist partisan, is a cultivated man and a dedicated professional. A native of Emilia, one of Italy’s best-governed regions, he finds himself assigned to one of its worst-governed ones. His courtesy and impartiality confuse ordinary Sicilians, for whom authority has never had anything to do with justice or public service. — Sciascia Leonardo, The Day of the Owl, 16

Note

‘Immemorial inertia’ and the compression of ‘for whom authority has never had anything to do with justice or public service’ economically establish the entire moral geography of the novel.