On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal [Paperback]

Mary Taylor Simeti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1995

An American woman residing in Sicily for the past twenty years portrays the Sicilian landscape and customs--both rural and urban--from the perspectives of both a "foreigner" and a resident.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mary Taylor Simeti arrived in Sicily in 1962 to do volunteer work. Freshly graduated from Radcliffe College after growing up in a distinguished and privileged New York City family, the last thing she expected was to fall in love and marry a Sicilian. On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal is the ambivalent love story of an intelligent, complex, and self-reflective woman. The book recounts the events of 1983, the year Simeti turned 42. Her narrative alternates between Palermo, where her children attend school and her husband Toninno is a professor of agricultural economy, and Bosco, in eastern Sicily, where she shoulders demanding responsibilities on the working farm that has belonged to her husband's family for three generations.

Simeti feels the isolation of being an expatriate and outsider, although she claims to welcome this perspective when faced with frustration and disgust at the pervading political corruption and corrosive effects of the Mafia on everyday life. Despite her natural diffidence, she shares personal insights that makeOn Persephone's Island as compelling as her prose. Simeti intersperses rich helpings of Sicilian history and culture with mundane events and insight into what motivates the peasants essential to the survival of the family farm. And she makes pessimistic observations about the complexity of changing times in a society where the persistent reliance on feudal relationships and agriculture is finally crumbling.

An academic manqué, Simeti researches and ruminates on the mythological underpinnings of the many holidays and festivals that punctuate the rhythm of Sicilian life. She focuses particularly on the Greek goddesses Persephone and Demeter, who held Sicily under their protection. She eventually discovers a correlation between her own situation and the story of Persephone, who alternately inhabited the worlds of light and darkness.

From Publishers Weekly

An American married to a Sicilian professor and ancestral farm owner, Simeti with her family divides the year between Palermo and the countryside. In a beautifully written journal covering one year, she records with an artist's eye the rhythm of the seasons, the extremes of climate and contrasts between the lush coastal region, wheatlands and the mountainous, more barren interior of the island. With a useful historical perspective on Sicily's blend of civilizations, she also provides lively insights into the character of its people, their social and burial customs and festivals, some of them of Greek, Arab or Norman origin. The author appears to have retained an American independent spirit while immersing herself in an alien society and mastering the practical demands of rural existence. That her sensitivity to the charms of her adoptive land does not blind her to its shortcomings makes her a most reliable guide. Illustrations.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Departures Ed edition (September 26, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679764143
• ISBN-13: 978-0679764144
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > History > Europe > Italy
  • #77 in Books > Travel > Europe > Italy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sicily we don't know...., September 6, 2000

By 

Richard Caldarone (Danvers, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal (Paperback)

Wanting to learn more about my family's place of origin, and to expand my knowledge of the island gained in a two-week visit several years ago, reviews of this book led me to buy it. The author, a graduate of a prestigious American college and a person not of Italian background, proves to have written an almost poetic journal of her family's life over the course of the four seasons on this enigmatic island. She combines a beautifully descriptive knowledge of the infinitely varied flora of Sicily with a close acquaintance with the political and social mores of its inhabitants. Moreover, her many references to the Greek origins of the island give the reader a perspective not commonly found. Her marriage to a middle class Sicilian university professor and her approach to raising two children in this unusual environment gives the book a personal slant not always available to one trying to get a handle on life in this ancient land.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn about the real Sicily.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully descriptive portrayal of Sicily, June 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal (Paperback)

This is one of the loveliest books I've read in a longtime...so much so that I ended up travelling to Sicily, dog-eared bookin tow, to taste the pasta reale (marzipan) and arancini di riso (rice croquettes), stay at Villa Igiea in Palermo, visit the temple of Segesta, and meet the warm, friendly Sicilian people. This is a book to be savored. It is full of humor and tenderness. It is about living in Sicily, it is about Sicilian food and culture, and it is for folks who wish they could travel there and never will, as well as for those who vow that now, they really must see this phenomenal Italian island.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book., September 29, 1999

By 

[e-mail] Lucia D'Angelo (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal (Paperback)

Mary Simeti and I are star-crossed. We both had the exact experience with some notable difference. She married an Alcamese and stayed in Sicily. I married an Alcamese and brought him to America. I believe she made the wiser choice as her book clearly demonstrated to me that while an American can become a Sicilian, a Sicilian can never become a true American. I was impressed by her use of language and how she managed to masterfully depict Sicily. It is obvious that she has been seduced by the Sicilian way of life but still clings to her American origins. I had the pleasure of meeting her in person and she is as lovely as her book would convey. This is not just a book about Sicily--it is an intelligent, scholarly work from a writer mesmorized by a mysterious but wondrous culture. Although I had a special interest in this book, anyone who enjoys poetry and history disguised as prose will adore this book.