Giuseppe Berto was a novelist, a film critic, and a playwright. His writings express a compassionate concern for the human condition as he sought to find causes for such universal evils as injustice, poverty, war, and personal despair. The uneasiness of his protagonists mirrors a society afflicted by a pervasive universal evil--"il male universale," as Berto calls it. In this regard he can be linked to Italo Svevo, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Alberto Moravia, and other Italian writers who have focused on existential and psychoanalytic themes. A religious longing is a cohesive element in Berto's seemingly uneven literary production. His tormented quest for God, which can move us to laughter and sadness and from exuberant hope to the deepest despair, is apparent in many of his works. At once humorous and compassionate, Berto's descriptions of people unfold in simple yet lyrical prose that often has biblical overtones. Berto...