La casa del callejón

There was a time, not so long ago, whose shadow perhaps extends further into our own day than we can imagine, when the head of the family was the king of the house, the prince, the lord, the master of the will, the time, and even the thoughts of the women who made up his family. This is the case in the story that the Sicilian writer Maria Messina narrates with delicacy and concision: the story of a family living under the yoke of Don Lùcio, an insensitive and despotic usurer who delights in the submission and helplessness he inflicts on those he supposedly loves. A predictable and meticulously planned monotony organizes the days of Antonietta—his wife—and Nicolina, her younger sister, in the gloomy house on the alley. Very close at first, they lead a cloistered life in constant service to the master of the house. In this stifling atmosphere of apparent immobility, both women struggle between their yearning for freedom and their devotion to Don Lùcio, while harmful love, resentment, and jealousy pollute the air they breathe.