Publisher's Synopsis
Mr. Deane's novel is an insightful study into the wonders of the autistic superman, a craven anti-hero who is an endearing, self-contained scoundrel, a constant contradiction who is truthful even when he lies, though he has no time for constancy. He lives for the annihilation of every moment, having no concern for fidelity or loyalty or the conservation of any social contract. He is a supreme villain who is ubiquitously loved and admired, until there is a suspicion bruited about by an unrequited lover that he is virtuous. Mr. Deane's ingenious creation, Gregorio il Glorioso Codardo Agitalancia, is a hilarious inversion of the heroic stereotype, glorious for his amorality and his poetic creativity. Identified as a high functioning autistic at an early age he was banished by his family who thereby denied themselves a claim to his renown reflected in his fame as a scientist, a sorcerer and magician all in one; that there would be brazen statues in his likeness throughout the Mediterranean uttering his verses and sing his praises; that there would be philtres and curing chalices emblazoned with his name found in hundreds of cathedrals, churches and chapels. Architectural projects built in his name would be found in every town and city and in many villages. However, there was a good likelihood his family would be embarrassed by his distinctive garb, which they would see as marking him out for his eccentricity rather than his creativity or superior abilities: a purple robe, tied with a golden girdle. He wore bronze slippers on his feet and a wreath of laurel crowned his head. However, thanks to the spiritual support Gregorio Agitalancia finds in self-sufficient solipsism, erotic promiscuity, inveterate, rabelaisian drunkenness, and the demiurge that drives him on to fulfil himself as a divinely inspired wordsmith, he is untroubled by the disregard and despite of his family and others whom his peculiarities disturb. Mr. Deane's paradoxical anti-hero, Gregorio Agitalancia, is a magnificent failure despite his contrary and antisocial successes. He is a thinker he seeks to flee the servitude of popularity. He becomes a philosophical thinker, expecting that the world will desert him, in keeping with the teaching of Nicholas Malebranche. He hopes that pedantic erudition will free him from the importunity of the multitudes that hear him talk rationally, but instead his eccentricity becomes a magnet to those who cannot understand him but like to think they do, though in the end they condemn him as a saint and call for his crucifixion. The poetic irony of such an outcry, reminding the reader of the mob's demand to Pontius Pilate for the execution of Christ, is all the more poignant given Agitalancia's willingness to cite saints in support of his mentoring of mendacity. The perverse hilarity of his interpretation of St. Thomas Aquinas' doctrine regarding truth, outrageously travestied by Agitalancia: "truth is posterior to understanding, certitude being possible without a divine light. If we understand something we can decide whether we use it to deceive or guide benignly those with whom we deal. But it is a sin against chicane to refrain from abusing the trust of a dupe." Though Agitalancia may alarm and amuse Mr. Deane's reader, he is an inspiration to his own disciples like Guglielmo who tells his own rabbi, with spontaneous if culpable honesty, "You are the wisest of mountebanks, Gregorio, so far as I am able to identify a wise man". Far from believing this is the best of all possible worlds created by Leibniz's omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God, Gregorio Agitalancia remains convinced that he could regenerate a better world, or at least a better Venice by mandating chicanery and charlatanism rather than pretending to condemn behaviours that are inevitable.
