Customer Reviews

Sicilian Tragedee: A Novel

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Well, this isn't literature, and there isn't much of a story here either, but "Sicilian Tragedee" is hilariously funny, some parts of which I've not enjoyed so much since portions of Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2001). People around me at my favorite Italian coffee shop in Larkspur, California, often asked me why I was laughing while reading. At times, the writing resembles that found on www.dickipedia.com.

In a nutshell, "Sicilian Tragedee" is all about small-minded people dealing with the world in their small-minded way, unable for the most part to get out of their small-minded rut of talking ONLY about other small-minded people. The story is 100% small minded. There is not one shred of an important notion in this novel put forward by the author or its characters. The people are so ordinary and so consumed by their pettiness and their low-brow contrivances that they sink well below what might otherwise be merely a caricature of modern life, even in Sicily. As to Sicily, bless its woeful and long-suffering inferiority complex, that fabled island is at all times is presented to you by Cappellani in such a way as to never allow you to let go of your own, often irrational, prejudices about Sicilian people and its culture. Pity.

I found myself totally uninterested in "who done it," that is, the solution to the three "Mafiosi events" that dominate the end of the story. For a much more engaging and truer mystery (just as funny, too), read anything by the wildly popular and acclaimed (deservedly so) Andrea Camilleri, author of serial Sicilian-based novels, such as, "The Shape of Water, "The Snack Thief" and others. But, "Sicilian Tragedee" is not a mystery story, no, not at all. It is much less than that.

I had trouble finishing the book, taking about a week of on again off again attempts to push myself to the end. Finishing it was a chore. And, the end was greatly disappointing. The interesting characters all vanish, and the story sort of just dribbles off into inanity, with no sense of finality or cohesion. Why do some modern authors, many of whom are outstanding writers, have such trouble bringing a story to a satisfying end? Cappellani is certainly not the first. He is joined by very famous writers in this predicament, including Arturo Perez-Reverte.

So what's good about this book? 1. Spot-on translation, simply fantastic and immaculate, as if the original had been written by someone who grew up on slum streets of Newark, New Jersey. 2. Words, lovely obscene words, written by a wordsmith who knows the workings of perfect put-downs, scathing sarcastic observations of people, and crude, gutter-like dialogue and even worse inner thoughts. 3. Outrageous personalities, crisply drawn and extraordinarily consistent, populate this book. There is no cookie cutter in use here. Not that I want to personally know any of them, but being at one of their parties would be an awfully entertaining experience.

Page 45, Betty, "....who for her lunch has put on the sort of bright pink vinyl mini-dress that only a turbocharged "b-j" specialist would wear." Page 131, "When she thinks about what's going to happen tonight (the party at her villa), the Contessa is as close as she can get to remembering what an orgasm is like."

[..]

In many ways, the book presents itself as an outline for a movie, but it's better than film, because the reader is forced to imagine everything - the people, their interactions, their weird thoughts and their silly predicaments. Thus (with apologies to Leavitt's review) it feels more like a radio broadcast -- as in the good old days when radio presented such tales on the air, with sound effects and dramatic readings, requiring your imagination to fill in the gaps. However, it would also make a great movie, independent or foreign, if cast with character actors who are not Hollywood or Italian stars.

[...]

If you are an Italo-American,(and even if you're not) it's a great read. If you are an American (as I am) married to an unbridled Italian woman from Milan, it's even more fun. Who but the Italians could conjure up a travelling drama troupe playing Shakespeare in front of an assortment of small town comic uber-politicos and principessa wannabes hell bent on destroying each other before the curtain rises on Act IV. The book gives new meaning to the phrase "laugh-riot".

(3.5 stars) Organized in three acts, this contemporary Italian comedy is easy to imagine as a film filled with sight gags, pratfalls, and mugging by rubber-faced actors. Short scenes, with "asides" by the characters, set up much of the comedy, some of which is a satiric look at Sicilian society--its social levels and mores, its paralyzing political and cultural bureaucracy, and, of course, its Mafia wars.

Beginning "two months later," with an assassination in a theatre during an experimental production of Romeo and Juliet, the novel quickly switches back to "two months earlier," with the introduction of more than twenty characters, all of whom are involved, somehow, with the production of this Shakespearean tragedy. Tino Cagnotto, the director, must figure out a way to get the local minister of culture to sign off on it and to provide funds, but political realities being what they are, the minister is unwilling to do that. He must also find a place to hold the production, but no one seems to want to provide that, either. Taking matters into his own hands, and making connections as he can, Cagnotto manages to bring the play into being. The production is bawdy, and the line "Why, then, is my pump well-flowered," is played to the hilt by an actor sporting a codpiece.

Love stories, gay and straight, abound--between Cagnotto and Bobo (a male salesclerk and aspiring actor), between Romeo and Mercutio, between the daughter of a Mafia money-launderer and the head of another Mafia family with oil interests, and between various other characters, their mistresses, and wives. "How perfect it would be to be able to resolve matters of the heart the same way you resolved business matters," the men believe. "A little bomb, a nice explosion, and you never had to worry about it again." Before the play is over and the novel finished, two more deaths have occurred.

It is not until the halfway point that the action really gets going, and the scenes from Romeo and Juliet, complete with adlibs and asides are hilarious. The reader must use a great deal of imagination throughout the novel, however, since it reads like a screenplay, lacking the description and the transitions between scenes and events which give flow to novels and make them come alive. Some of the humor and satire seems geared to an Italian audience, and the large cast of characters and their interrelationships are sometimes difficult to keep straight without notes. An amusing novel with a huge scope, this novel would benefit greatly from the visual imagery provided by film. Here it is dependent on the reader's own imagination. n Mary Whipple

Who Is Lou Sciortino?: A Novel About Murder, the Movies, and Mafia Family Values

I don't get it. This book is supposed to be funny, and perhaps it would make a funny movie (??), but I thought it was pretentious, overdone, and just plain boring. I have so many other books to read that I just gave up about 1/3 of the way through. If it gets better later on, it's not worth the wait. Sorry.

When I read the synopsis of this book, it made me think of The Godfather, The Birdcage, and a humorous attempt at staging Romeo & Juliet. But when I signed up to win this on First Reads I really had no idea what I was getting into: a 340 page struggle to read and finish this book.

I found myself being confused by the numerous characters and the writing itself, whom some have said reminded them of the bare bones of a screenplay. I graduated with a degree in Literature, I enjoy books of all sorts. But I was lost most of the time, and each time I was ready to give up, I resigned myself to keep going.

In short--a lackluster group of actors keep attempting to put on a sometime improvised production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. However, Death keeps stealing the stage. You'd think this would be a murder mystery but with so many characters to lose track of, and so many barely-there plot additions, what could have been a great book was turned into a "dear God let me finish this so I can review it and swap it out".

I suppose if you are Italian, are in Italy, or have great interest in the Italian Mafia, this book may be for you (don't go for the Shakespeare, that's where I got sucked in).

I had moments of amusement, and even the end made me stop and think (no spoilers here!) With all due respect to the Author and translator of course, the only Tragedee I found was having to spend the time reading this.

Tino Cagnotto is the stereotypical vain, extravagant, gay experimental theater director taking anti-depressants and stimulants, trying to find inspiration and funding for his next production as he is running out of money to support his lifestyle. It could be so very sad, but set him in Sicily, surround him with stereotypical small-time Mafia, small-town government, small-time aristocracy and star-crossed lovers and you have grand and "laugh out loud funny" farce.

Poor Cagnotto has run out of ideas, he has no current lover, and the doctor cannot get his medication straight. (Never mind that he frequently mixes the meds with a little alcohol!) The local cultural commissioner needs a new production to attract tourists to the town, and is pushing him to come up with his next production.

Turi Pirotta is a local mobster whose position is being usurped by Alfio Turrisi. "Mister Turrisi" owns a bank in London, drives around in an Aston Martin with a right hand wheel and is enamored with all things English. He is buying up land all around the island because it has oil on it.

Pirotta started out driving a cement-mixer--that his how he wooed his wife, Wanda. Now he just "fixes" things and launders money, and Wanda and his daughter, Betty, just "bust his balls".

But hark! Alfio catches a glimpse of Betty and falls in love--he writes to Pirotta to ask his permission to court the lovely Betty. Pirotta sees a way out of his business and family problems. Betty is out of the house and the enemy is part of the family.

Hark again! Cagnotto meets the charming young and innocent Bobo, who loves him. Bobo inspires Cagnotto to produce a new interpretation of "Romeo and Juliet" using "dialect street actors"--the young and beautiful Romeo, Mercutio and Juliet all played by down and out and aging Sicilian street actors.

The fun really begins when one of the commissioners is shot at the opening night production and it rolls on from there. There is much "ball-busting" and "f**king" going on, but no sex. An entertaining story from murderous start to happy ending!

Tino Cagnotto needs to produce a play. He has burned through the income from his last production and, more importantly, he needs to make a good impression on Bobo, ("I'm a salesclerk, not an object,"), who he met at a Sicilian buffet. But Cagnotto has no project in mind, no script, no ideas and, worse, no patron.
Betty Pirotta, daughter of Mafia boss Turi Pirotta, is suffering from a broken heart brought on by a newspaper article about her best friend's party that did not feature a single photo of Betty. The only cure for her agony, Betty tells Turi, is an E-Class Mercedes with television monitors installed in the headrest. Meanwhile, rival Mafiosi Alfio Turrisi is suffering cardiac palpitations over Betty, who he saw knocking down a waiter at a local bakery. Despite his rivalry with Betty's father and despite the 20-year gap in their ages, Turrisi simply must marry Betty. His surprising ally in that quest turns out to be Betty's father, eager to get his overly dependent dependent out of the house and pleased with the thought of inflicting her on his adversary.
These romantic entanglements form the nucleus of Ottavio Cappellani's breezy and inspired farcical novel, Sicilian Tragedee. Capallini, a Sicilian journalist, appears to be using the cover of fiction to skewer the people he writes about in his columns, but without an intimate knowledge of Sicily's culture and politics, one can never be sure. Nonetheless, it is significant that the characters who meet untimely ends in Sicilian Tragedee could have been plucked from a Gilber and Sullivan satire. After one perfectly timed killing, the victim's mistress is offended because his widow hasn't called her to express her sympathy "after everything I've done for her."
When Cagnotto does get an idea for a new production, it turns out to be a reworking of Romeo and Juliet featuring actors from the "dialect theatre" (a term for plays that focus on everyday people using street language, as opposed to the formal, classical Italian theatre). The highlight of the play is to be the unveiling of Romeo's - brace yourself - codpiece.
In the working out of his story lines, Cappellani has succeeds in keeping the reader guessing, but one feels that much has been lost in the translation by Frederika Randall. Too many local references go over the American reader's head but, even with the occasional pause for a quick look-up, the whirlwind visit to the Mafia's home ground is worth the trip.

The theme is star-crossed lovers, but Shakespeare would be a bit startled at the casting. It's not in fair Verona that we set our scene, but hot Sicily. And the households are alike in their lack of dignity.

Take: Tino Cagnotto, theatre director, who is trying to stage an unusual production of Romeo and Juliet, while battling depression and wooing his younger inamorato, Bobo. Add: Alfio Turrisi, mafioso, in love with Betty Pirotta, daughter of a rival, said rival being all too happy at the prospect of getting the spoiled brat off his hands.

Mix in: various aristocrats, dueling cultural commissioners, and actors (never forget the actors!)

Result: plots, counter-plots, confusion, hilarity and un libro molto divertente!

This book was filled with vivid imagery of a majestic place. The storytelling is fluid and dynamic. There were no narrative stalls, though the use of certain peeks into character consciousness were overused. The end of the story, though it is a cryptic event, is also written cryptically. The reader, who was privy to incredible levels of intimacy with all previous events and persons in the story, is suddenly lacking in enhanced knowledge and perspective. The path to that event, however, is worth traveling on.