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Title: Stolen Figs: And Other Adventures in Calabria by Mark Rotella ISBN: 0-86547-627-6 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33
Rating: 5
Summary: perfect union of writer and subject
Comment: In a perfect union of writer and subject, Publisher's Weekly editor, Mark Rotella, returns to his grandparents' homeland of Calabria. "Spurred" by Gay Talese's book, "Unto the Sons", to explore his southern Italian heritage, the author, an unabashedly, and self-admitted "romantic", provides an excellent introduction to this often overlooked region, conveying his own passion for familiarizing himself with it in the process. Largely untouched by tourism, and writers, for that matter, Calabria is both financially depressed and culturally rich, with large emigrant populations in Niagara Falls, New York, Toronto, Canada, and Danbury, Connecticut (though Rotella grew up primarily in Saint Petersburg, Florida). Whether traveling solo, with his father, wife, or postcard salesman, Guiseppe, Rotella captures the unique personality of each village he visits, with a superb eye for atmosphere, setting, and aesthetically outstanding visuals. Political and historical background, including foreign influences on the region, and effects of the Mafia, provide a framework and understanding to current situations. Rotella intersperses snippets of other writers' experiences, local legends, folktales, proverbs, customs, and traditions, lending an uncommonly expansive insight to Calabria. Combining past and present also lends a certain fascination for the reader, and includes the author's reunions with relatives, relationships formed over his several trips there, his dad's poignant remininsces, a visit to the church his grandparents were married in, and the elaborate Easter celebrations he attended. Though not without a sense of humor, Rotella's writing is most impressive for its unaffected style. Descriptions of the rugged, yet beautiful landscape, and harsh geography have a cinematic quality, and his writing becomes completely poetic over the mouthwatering cuisine he abundantly partakes of. In the end, and seeming to mirror the author himself, what emerges is an enticing picture of a gracious, highly social, and charmingly "masculine" society. Woman reader from New York
Rating: 2
Summary: Big on Heart, Poor on History
Comment: Rotella's touching account of an Italian-American returning to his roots in Calabria mirrors the experiences of many Italian-Americans, but falls far short when it comes to providing the historical underpinnings of the region.
Not to seem petty, but when you purport to publish any book whose goal is "to acquaint the reader a given geographical locale," Step One is getting its history right.
In one telling passage, Rotella describes a town's Carthaginian roots - a town that he notes, was founded in the 8th Century AD. This blatant anachronism (Carthage ceased to exist 1000 years before this town's foundation) is one of many historical innacuracies in the book.
But Rotella's pseudo-science does not stop there. He attributes Southern Dialect (notably, the ending of "o" words with "u" - as an Saracen-influenced phenomena. Really? Every single mainstream linguist simply thinks Southern Italian evolved from Latin slower. Rotella's speculation is parituclarly disappointing since in other parts of the book he notes the slow evolution of the South that buttresses the mainstream linguists' view.
Rotella also uses the collective word "Mafia" to describe ALL Italian Organized Crime - this despite the fact in Italy, "Mafia" is an exclusively Sicilian term, with "'Ndrangheta" being used in Calabria, and "Camorra" in Campania. This sloppiness seems strange - again - since at other points in the book, Rotella clearly demonstrates he knows the correct terms.
At various points in the book Rotella seems to attempt to compile a list of famous Italians from the region. He mentions Tony Bennett and Gay Talese, Pythagoras and Phil Rizzuto. But again, more thoroughness would be welcome. Rotella leaves off several of the famous (Pontius Pilate, Lucan, and most of the philosophers of the Risorgimento) and ALL of the notorious (Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia).
Lastly, how could a book purport to paint a picture on Calabria without mentioning the fact that its Ancient Name "Italia" and its first tribal inhabitants, the "Itali" provided the name for the entire peninsula and ethnic group?
When all is said and done, Rotella falls victim to the same "search for exotic influences" that befalls NON-Italian writers. We would expect something a little deeper from an Italian-American with roots in the region.
And, after all his research, doesn't Rotella realize Italy is no different than any other country in the world - it's myriad conquerors are more accurately chronicled and hence well known in our collective consciousness simply because Italy has a flourishing written history going back 2500 years?
The book contains many heartwarming stories and brings attention to a region of Italy, Calabria, that Rotella accurately intimates is the true Tuscany (unspoiled villages, rustic mountains, agrarian lifestyle) but utterly fails when trying to make the reader understand the region, because of all the historical, scientific and sociological innacuracies.
Proofreading, accuracy, background and thoroughness are not too much to ask from a book purporting to acquaint the reader with Calabria. On the contrary, they are absolute musts.
Rating: 4
Summary: The secrets of Calabria
Comment: Mark Rotella, grandson of Calabresi immigrants, travels with his father to the toe of Italy, to their ancestral home. Giuseppe, their guide, introduces Rotella to the secrets of the region, including how to steal the proverbial fig of the title without ending up in court.
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Title: Calabrian Tales by Peter Chiarella ISBN: 1587900300 Publisher: Regent Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Under the Southern Sun: Stories of the Real Italy and the Americans It Created by Paul Paolicelli ISBN: 0312287658 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Old Calabria (Marlboro Travel) by Norman Douglas, Jon Ewbank Manchip White ISBN: 0810160226 Publisher: Marlboro Pr Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Dances With Luigi: A Grandson's Search for His Italian Roots by Paul E. Paolicelli ISBN: 0312283806 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: By the Ionian Sea: Notes of a Ramble in Southern Italy (Marlboro Travel Series) by George Gissing ISBN: 0810160102 Publisher: Marlboro Pr Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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