Sicilian splendors : discovering the secret places that speak to the heart

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Keahey, John

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xiv, 284 pages : color illustrations ; 22 cm.

General Note:

"Thomas Dunne Books."

Genre:

Local histories.

Travel writing.

Summary:

A travel narrative that focuses on Sicily's little-known regions, from the author of Seeking Sicily and Hidden Tuscany. From Palermo to Castiglione di Sicilia to Alimena, Sicily holds great secrets from the past and unspoken promises. Tradition, in the form of festivals, the written word, photographs, and song, reverberates through village walls. Now, slowly shaking itself free of the Mafia, Sicily is opening itself up to visitors in ways it never has before. Sicilian Splendors explores the history, politics, food, Mafia, and people which John Keahey encounters throughout his travels during his return to Sicily. Through conversing with natives and immersing himself in culture, Keahey illustrates a brand new Sicily no one has ever talked about before. Villagers, eager to welcome tourism and impart awareness of their cultural background, greet Keahey for meals and drink and walk him through their winding streets. They share stories of well-known writers, such as Maria Messina, who have found inspiration in Sicilys villages. Keaheys never-ending curiosity as a traveler shines light on Sicilys mythical mysteries and portrays the island not only through his eyes but also through Sicilys heart. This picturesque travel memoir navigates Sicily today and seeks to understand Sicilys past. In lyrical prose and vivid dialect, Keahey paints images of the islands villages, people, and culture with careful strokes and a meticulously even hand. Keahey not only serves as a guide through the marvel of Sicilys identity, but he also looks deeply into Sicilys soul.

Contents:

Street of the pagan -- A "Friendly, inquisitive people" -- Greeks, Arabs, and Gebbie -- Literature and oranges -- A knife fight in the ruins -- An Orthodox Easter and a bandit -- Lives among the stone -- A day with the leopard -- Friendship and tobacco -- Maria Messina and the journey home -- Riesi, and Racalmuto's Serrone -- On tourism's Cusp -- Sicily meets its last conquerer.

Publication Info:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2018.

Subject:

Sicily (Italy) -- Description and travel

Sicily (Italy) -- History, Local.

Sicily (Italy) -- Social life and customs.

Local histories.

Travel writing.

Keahey, John -- Travel -- Italy -- Sicily.

Sicily (Italy) -- Description and travel -- To 1900

Sicily (Italy) -- Description and travel -- 1901-1945

Sicily (Italy) -- Description and travel -- 1946-1980

Sicily (Italy) -- Description and travel -- 1981-

Królestwo Sycylii (Italy)

Regione siciliana (Italy)

Sicile (Italy)

Sicilia (Italy)

Sicilian Regional Government

Sicily

Sikelia (Italy)

Ṣiqillīyah (Italy)

Sitsilyah (Italy)

Sycylia (Italy)

SAILS ISBN:

9781250104694

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Plympton Public Library	914.58 KEA	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

"A wondrously joyous account of travel as it should be." - Publishers Weekly

A travel narrative that focuses on Sicily's little-known regions, from the author of Seeking Sicily and Hidden Tuscany.

From Palermo to Castiglione di Sicilia to Alimena, Sicily holds great secrets from the past and unspoken promises. Tradition, in the form of festivals, the written word, photographs, and song, reverberates through village walls. Now, slowly shaking itself free of the Mafia, Sicily is opening itself up to visitors in ways it never has before.

Sicilian Splendors explores the history, politics, food, Mafia, and people which John Keahey encounters throughout his travels during his return to Sicily. Through conversing with natives and immersing himself in culture, Keahey illustrates a brand new Sicily no one has ever talked about before. Villagers, eager to welcome tourism and impart awareness of their cultural background, greet Keahey for meals and drink and walk him through their winding streets. They share stories of well-known writers, such as Maria Messina, who have found inspiration in Sicily's villages. Keahey's never-ending curiosity as a traveler shines light on Sicily's mythical mysteries and portrays the island not only through his eyes but also through Sicily's heart.

This picturesque travel memoir navigates Sicily today and seeks to understand Sicily's past. In lyrical prose and vivid dialect, Keahey paints images of the island's villages, people, and culture with careful strokes and a meticulously even hand.

Keahey not only serves as a guide through the marvel of Sicily's identity, but he also looks deeply into Sicily's soul.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Keahey (Seeking Sicily) is a congenial host in this sunny and inquisitive memoir of his three-month excursion to the least-visited parts of Sicily. He shows up in a town of a few hundred or a thousand people with a loose plan that is almost always guided by the locals ("I come into a village unannounced, ask questions, usually at a bar, where someone almost always knows the answers or knows somebody who knows"), who eventually show him around. Keahey interweaves Sicily's history of invasions (Greek, Roman, Norman, and Arab) and their cultural and culinary legacies into his story, between getting sidetracked by a conversation with a new Sicilian friend or a delicious local pasta dish (while visiting Calascibetta, Keahey ate "some twisted noodles I had never seen before with ricotta and a tomato sauce"). The book has an air of melancholy to it, as well: Keahey notes how emigration to northern Italy or abroad has left an interior filled with empty buildings, some of which are now being rehabbed into B&Bs by those trying to make a living off the growing tourism industry. This is a wondrously joyous account of travel as it should be. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A vivid Sicilian travelogue from an experienced traveler.If you believe Hollywood, Sicily is little more than the birthplace of the Mafia. Enter Keahey (Hidden Tuscany: Discovering Art, Culture, and Memories in a Well-Known Region's Unknown Places, 2014, etc.), who first traveled to Sicily in 1986 and is now an expert. "Despite my having no known ancestry here," he writes, "Italy and Sicily keep summoning me." In his latest book, the author takes armchair travelers on an enjoyable adventure through Sicily's back roads and tiny towns. At times it can feel like a diary, a play-by-play of a man roaming the countryside: "Afterward I honored the ritual of riposo. When I awoke, it was time for the evening service at the cathedral," Keahey reports of his time in Piana degli Albanesi. But for all the banal details of naps, espresso runs, trips to the bakery, the author packs the narrative with plenty of pro tips and pleasant insider tidbits a future traveler could use. For instance, Keahey is a strong advocate of getting off the highway and on to provincial roads. "Many times," he writes, "I have stumbled into a really small place with only a few streets lined with medieval structures and sat down to a remarkable meal in a tiny trattoria with perhaps three tables." At his best, the author makes a charming case for the benefits of travel. In the afterword, he writes of getting a bloody nose in a cafe in Santo Stefano di Camastra. Noticing his plight, women from another table jumped up to help, an older woman tilted his head back, and a third ran across the street to procure gauze to staunch the bleeding. "Sir, this is Sicily. We help," one of the women explained. "Tell people that Sicily is not the Mafia."Keahey provides a solid argument for seeing Sicily not for its stereotypes but for its surprising hospitality. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

In his latest Italian travelogue, Keahey revisits the land of his Seeking Sicily (2011), this time immersing himself in the history and culture of a diverse group of small villages not usually found on tourist maps. In the northeastern village of Novara di Sicilia, he is proudly shown Bronze Age structures dating to 1600 BCE. During Easter week, he visits two towns, one celebrating in the joyous Orthodox Greek tradition, the other with its somber Spanish influence. Keahey's goal is to connect with locals wherever he goes, learning their history, hearing tales passed from generation to generation, and tasting the local food specialties. He finds beauty everywhere, which makes one forget the sometimes awfulness of history. In Riesi, villagers opened up to him about the rough times when the Mafia was deeply entrenched there and how the population has decreased since WWII, when many townsfolk emigrated to the U.S., their children never returning. This insightful book, with its unique portraits of historically diverse small villages, should be a must-read for everyone interested in Sicily and Mediterranean Europe.--Deborah Donovan Copyright 2018 Booklist

Environs

Preface	p. ix
Map of Sicily	p. xvi
1 Street of the Pagan	p. 1
2 A "Friendly, Inquisitive People"	p. 24
3 Greeks, Arabs, and Gebbie	p. 38
4 Literature and Oranges	p. 59
5 A Knife Fight in the Ruins	p. 76
6 An Orthodox Easter and a Bandit	p. 104
7 Lives Among the Stone	p. 135
8 A Day with the Leopard	p. 148
9 Friendship and Tobacco	p. 162
10 Maria Messina and the Journey Home	p. 182
11 Riesi, and Racalmuto's Serrone	p. 209
12 On Tourism's Cusp	p. 221
13 Sicily Meets Its Last Conqueror	p. 237
Afterword	p. 261
Acknowledgments	p. 267
Selected Reading	p. 271
Index	p. 273

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Table of Contents