Book Clubbing: Sicilian Settings

Recently, my book club made a reading voyage to 19th century Sicily. We read Guiseppe di Lampedusa’s classic novel The Leopard. Set during the reunification of Italy in the late 1860’s, the novel charts the destiny of a decaying aristocratic Sicilian family, the Corbera’s, whose fortunes are forever changed by Garibaldi’s invasion of Sicily. The head of the family, Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, whose family crest is a leopard, has a particular vision of the Sicilian soul:

“This violence of landscape, this cruelty of climate, this continual tension in everything, and even these monuments to the past, magnificent yet incomprehensible because not built by us... All these things have formed our character, which is thus conditioned by events outside our control as well as by a terrifying insularity of mind." … Our sensuality is a hankering for oblivion, our shooting and knifing a hankering for death; our languor, our exotic vices, a hankering for voluptuous immobility, that is for death again."

Exotic, languorous, voluptuous, insular, violent, immobile? Did Don Fabrizio sum of the essence of Sicily?

In many ways, Sicily is the least insular of places. Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, has been ruled and fought over of conquered by the ancient Greeks, the Roman empire, The Goths, the Byzantine Empire, Arab powers in the 10th and 11th centuries, medieval Normans, Angevins, the Spanish, French Bourbons, and finally, Garibaldi. Delve into this incredibly complex, rich history of possibly one of the most conquered regions on earth with Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History by Sandra Benjamin.

Or do you hanker for the more personal slice of the enormous panorama of cultures leaving their mark on the Sicilian landscape? Pick up the biography of a 14th century queen: The Lady Queen: the Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone. Queen Joanna of Naples (1326-1382) survives (for awhile) bloodthirsty 14th-century politics and violent family politics.

Or if you like your history served up with fiction, we have The Ruby in Her Navel: a Novel of Love and Intrigue in the Twelfth Century by Barry Unsworth. A tale of the Norman dominance of 12th century Sicily, where Christians and Muslims attempt to live in some kind of harmony. But there is also, in the stew, Nesrin, the Anatolian belly dancer. Very multicultural. Perhaps this covers the voluptuous, languorous and exotic aspect of Sicily.

One of the more modern aspects of Sicilian life is the mafia. Reunification of Italy did not end poverty, exploitation, and inequality in Sicily. Perhaps just the opposite. The Sicilian Mafia emerged as a major force in modern times, used by powerful interests, to repress Sicilian labor organizations and worker unrest and to assassinate state officials. David Lane, a journalist for the Economist, has written an in-depth study in MAFIA: Into the Heart of the Mafia: a Journey through the Italian South. And in Blood Washes Blood: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun, Frank Viviano, a descendant of Sicilian immigrants to the U.S., returns to Sicily to learn truths about his ancestral home Terrasini, the origins of the Mafia, and violent death his great-great-grandfather met there.

And for something rather off the traditional beaten path, check out Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily by Theresa Maggio. This is a portrait of the difficult lives of Sicilian fishermen who catch bluefin tuna, an occupation that involves a ceremonial springtime slaughter, the mattanza, whose ritual origins go back thousands of years.

And no portrait of Sicily can leave out food. Scholars think that the Arabs in Sicily diversified the agriculture - introducing cotton from Syria, pistachios from Persia, and sugar cane – and perhaps even inventing ice cream and spaghetti!

In Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood, Maria Grammatico tells of her difficult childhood in a Sicilian orphanage run by nuns. But at the time, these convents were known for specializing in baking pastries, a traditional craft now almost lost. Gramatico grew up to be a famous pastry chef and cook and has revitalized the lost arts of marzipan confectionary and biscotti. For food and immobility, there is Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa, Matthew Fort, decided to explore Sicily's history on the plate, not in the museum or at a ruin. He takes in the Sicily countryside and its food, by zipping about the island on his Vespa scooter, enjoying cannolis, almond ice cream, bitter lemons, coffee granita. And picks up a lot about the culture, the history, the people along the way.

And to close with a Sicilian proverb: Non essiri duci sinno tu mancianu, non essiri amaru sinno ti futanu.

Loosely translated: Do not be sweet lest you be eaten, do not be too sour, lest you be shunned

- Karen S.

Cannoli photo from Wikipedia