l-istejjer strambi ta' sara sue sammut (sara sue sammut's strange stories)
L-Istejjer Strambi ta' Sara Sue Sammut (Sara Sue Sammut's Strange Stories) is Immanuel Mifsud's most recent collection of short stories, published by Minima Publishers in November 2002. Humour, irony, violence and a number of people who have lost all sense of direction in life make the order of the day in this cynical publication.
Ranging from football hooligans to well off executive managers, Mifsud's characters in this book live life from day to day, without any realistic agenda on their minds. Typically ironic and angry, Mifsud pokes fun at the political situation of 70s Malta, as seen through the eyes of a factory girl turned Commie, Sara Sue Sammut. Despite the humour, the book recounts the sad tales of drug addicts across the social spectrum, without being judgmental.
"There is no reason for us," comments the author, "to feel shocked with the GENERATION X's loss of identity and ideology. It was all there in the making as far back as the 70s. Back in those years, local journalists, intellectuals, writers and the public in general had other items on their agenda. After these were somehow dealt with, they were faced with an overgrown baby-monster, and mistakenly they thought it was all new, when it wasn't. New items are now put on the discourse; however the problems themselves were present as far back as twenty years ago. We simply missed them or chose not to face them back then. We were more preoccupied with party politics of a State which was still in the making."
L-Istejjer Strambi ta' Sara Sue Sammut won the national literary prize for 2002.