il-ktieb tas-sibt figħaxija (the book for saturday evening)
Except for three short poems inspired by Mifsud's trip to Budapest, the second
publication of 1993 is also a book of short stories entitled, Il-Ktieb tas-Sibt
Filghaxija (The Book for Saturday Evening). Here the characters are more
down to earth, more rounded and the focus lies on the common man in the street
rather than the drop out. The time scale has remained the 1980s, so much so
that in his foreword (Mifsud always writes a foreword to his books) he states
that he shifted focus to people he sees and meets at cafes, schools and other
public places. However, the stories relate these people's private lives, what
happens to them every Saturday evening. The mushrooming of private radio stations
in Malta after the liberalisation of the media (prior to the early nineties
radio and tv were State owned and controlled - sometimes in the worst sense
of the woord) paved the way to public confessions of lonely people who sought
refuge in throwing their woes on air in late night talk shows which suddenly
became very popular with the Maltese. Liberalisation had this effect, which,
inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, Mifsud saw them as yet another
form of power subjecting the individual to public confessions.
The Book of Saturday Evening is populated with characters who are trying to
make sense out of the boredom of every day life. Saturday night fever seems
to take hold of them, but then Sunday morning follows and after that, alas,
it is always Monday which dawns full of promises of yet another boring and monotonous
week.