Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily [Paperback]

Gioia Timpanelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1999

Winner of an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation

"No one in the world . . . can tell a story better than Gioia Timpanelli."--Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

"Gioia Timpanelli's novellas . . . offer simple lessons about the nature of beauty and the beauty of nature . . . in rich, incantatory language." --The New York Times Book Review


A renowned storyteller who has beguiled audiences around the world offers these mesmerizing novella-length fables about two young women and the transformative power of art. In "A Knot of Tears," a baroness locks herself up in the Green Palace, only to have her seclusion interrupted by a parrot that flies through the window. When a sailor arrives to retrieve his companion, the young man and his pet delight her with three inspiring stories, while an unscrupulous suitor schemes to lure her out of her house and into his arms. In "Rusina, Not Quite in Love," Timpanelli recasts "Beauty and the Beast" as the tale of a loving young heroine who escapes her poor family to live at the estate of Signor Sebastiano. A devastatingly ugly man who prefers plants to people, Sebastiano leads Rusina to the true meaning of beauty. Lyrical, enchanting, wise, these timeless stories are, in the words of the baroness, "simple, but not so simple," as they enlighten readers about the virtues of love, solitude, and art.


"Gioia Timpanelli's stories . . . are dreams . . . and these dreams, in the skill of their telling, lead us back to ourselves." --The Boston Globe

"This is brilliant writing . . . [that] changes tales into fresh literature . . . by the passion of an educated person for the great things in life: plants, works of art, talk at dinner, and devotion." --Robert Bly

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For many years Gioia Timpanelli has crisscrossed the country (and the globe) collecting and then telling stories. In a world that is becoming increasingly dependent on information coming from the computer, television, and satellite dish, Timpanelli continues to communicate universal themes the old-fashioned way--through the oral tradition. In her first formal foray into the written word, Sometimes the Soul, she draws on the stories with which she has mesmerized audiences for years and crafts two fine novellas that explore within a traditional framework the lives of two highly untraditional women.

"Si cunta e si recunta"--"It is told and retold," begin the old Sicilian folktales. Both of Timpanelli's stories take place in Sicily and weave Sicilian fairy tales into the fabric of her modern-day sensibility. In "A Knot of Tears" the heroine, Costanza, has locked herself away from the world in an old villa in Palermo to give herself time to pick up the pieces of a life that has been shattered. Her beauty and her mystery touch the hearts of two very different men who glimpse her through an open window: a young man of wealth and his worldly lawyer. They make a bet as to who will speak to Costanza first. The youth consults an actress who promises to arrange a meeting; the lawyer bribes a sailor to insinuate himself into the house to find out more about the lady--a feat the sailor achieves by allowing his parrot, Nello, to fly through an open window.

"Si cunta e si recunta" the parrot repeats time and again. When the sailor comes to reclaim him, he is invited into the house where he satisfies both the parrot's and the lady's desire for stories. As the sailor tells three tales of a young princess with the magical power to heal, Costanza gradually begins to heal as well: "In a year of Good Fridays, a small resurrection of spirit was stirring. Well, as usual, the old tales had uncanny truths in them, and Costanza had often seen this princess rescuer in the everyday world, not a worldly princess, but one of the heart."

In "Rusina, Not Quite in Love," Timpanelli takes a more straightforward approach, retelling Beauty and the Beast, but even here the author's interest is less in the old fairy tale itself than in the purpose of storytelling: "It is true," said the Uncle. "These old stories are like the parables, they tell us what we know but have strangely forgotten, until we hear it again and we say, 'Oh! Yes. Of course."

Like one character's tale of an old woman who went out without her shawl, Timpanelli's stories are "simple but not so simple"; in telling them, she is advocating fiction's power to shape and transform our lives. As with all the best old stories, the two novellas in Sometimes the Soul are entertaining, charmingly told, and leave you with something to think about when they're done. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Two rich, witty novella-length fables feature women struggling to develop their artistic and intellectual voices against the colorfully rendered backdrop of traditional Sicilian households. The first novella, "A Knot of Tears (Un Gruppu di Chiantu)," is set in Palermo around the turn of the century and features Costanza, a baroness who has hidden herself away at a friend's house and turned into a virtual hermit. Her life begins to change when a parrot flies through her window and its owner, a charming, storytelling young sailor (a male Scheherezade) comes looking for the bird. Timpanelli's considerable skill as a professional storyteller shines as she effortlessly guides the reader through her nested-box narrative?each level illuminating the others in a delicate and tangled pattern that gives the story a quiet elegance. The second novella, "Rusina, Not Quite in Love," retells the Beauty and the Beast tale, once again in a not too distant past. Poor Rusina, a landscape painter, marries rich, ugly but sensitive Sebastian to pay off her father's debts; then she finds in Sebastian both the inspiration she needs for her art and a version of love that she had not known. Despite their brevity, these tales bewitch the reader with their intelligence and warmth. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Contemporaries ed edition (August 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375707220
• ISBN-13: 978-0375707223
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #293,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes the Soul waits - This book is worth the wait., April 26, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily (Hardcover)

Sometimes the Soul is one of the most literary, mythological, and magical books I have ever read.

The two old Scilian tales are given a contemporary and yet, timeless treatment, spun expertly into a web of colorful characters surrounded by surprise, love, nature, and eternal truths. Written by a 'supreme' storyteller, author Gioia Timpanelli gives us a fresh look at some very worthy, old stories.

Sometimes the Soul is a triumph of the oral story tradition set onto the written page by Timpanelli's artful prose.

These are not just fairytales but reminders to us all of the value of a 'worthy' tale. There are lessons to be learned on these pages, and reminders of what we have lost in our too-fast contemporary lives...myth and soul.

I was enchanted by both stories as a result of Timpanelli's unique and powerful feminine voice carrying the reader into unfamiliar worlds, just as in the second novella, "Rusina, Not Quite in Love" sweeps young Rusina far from the comfort of her family to meet her special destiny.

At first, Rusina agrees to leave, simply so that she can fulfill her father's debts. As Rusina says with the wisdom of anyone accepting their fate..."do not judge my father too quickly...for what child does not inherit parents debts? Debts from character and disposition. Debts from unlived life, sickness, unremembered dreams, poor work, hungry stomachs, stingy imaginations, or little love. It is a rare and blessed child who comes into this world without debt. Besides, when duty and love are two sides of the same coin, then payment is not a burden." And so, off Rusina goes to live with the Beast, and in doing so, discovers who she really is, and what really matters in life and in love. Ah, there's the beauty of this new twist to the Beauty and the Beast tale.

This week, I shared Rusina's story with a group of Kosovo refugees now living in Vienna, only two short subways stops from my flat. English is their second language, so they welcomed reading the story, and it brought up their own recent, sudden, and violent move away from their own homes and all that is familiar to them. It was a gentle way to allow them to open up, share their personal stories with me and the others in the group; beginning the process of sorting out just what this change means to them, and the challenges and even, opportunities that such a change offers..if looked upon correctly.

18-year-old Manika from Pristina added at the end of Rusina's story, "Like Rusina, I've got to keep looking for the good in all of this, and not be bitter, not be filled with hate...hating is easy...it's forgiving that's hard...and loving...even people who kill my people."

This then is a worthy story just as A Knot of Tears is as well. This little volume is packed with the simple truth of life...all in 185 pages!

Sometimes the Soul is a masterful piece of literature written by one who is well-acquainted with life's mystery and magic. It is deep and moving.

I also write and produce the book reviews for Blue Danube Radio, an English radio station in Vienna. You can be sure this book will find its way onto my summer recommended reading list! It's a great find.

Good luck Ms. Timpanelli on a brilliant new career as a writer based on the most ancient of all art --the art of oral storytelling--which you are obviously, a master. Thank you for telling a wider audience your stories, and thank Norton Publishing for having the wisdom to recognize your talent.

Beverly A. Davis writer Salmgasse 1/7 A-1030 Vienna, Austria

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book reaches into your heart and captures you., November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily (Hardcover)

It has been a long time since a story was able to reach inside and grab my heart, but Sometimes the Soul by Gioia Timpanelli did just that. I found myself in both novellas, in Costanza and Rusina... When is the last time you neglected to love someone deeper because you were focused on thier outer self? Have you ever felt isolated from the outside world and had one person change it all for you? Do you enjoy viewing "the unseen world", alive in "the world's details"? If you do, this book is for you. It's a special relationship, sentence by sentence, between you and the finely woven tale... ENJOY!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adult fairy tales-beautiful, August 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily (Hardcover)

In Palermo, Italy at the turn of the century, Baronessa Costanza Patane has imprisoned herself inside the Green Palace in order to avoid contact with the world except for her perplexed housekeeper, who wonders if her employer is a lunatic. However, everything changes for the two women when a sailor with a parrot on his shoulder walks past the house. The parrot flies through a window and the sailor follows (through a door). The two visitors begin to tell stories to Costanza in an effort to break her "Knot of Tears" even as a shady gentleman makes efforts to trap the Baronessa in his clutches.

Rusina is ill-treated in her home by her father and her sisters. However, the worst thing they do to her is trade her to an unknown individual in exchange for writing off a large debt. At the beautiful estate of her father's former creditor, Rusina meets the ugliest man in the world, wealthy Sebastiano. Will "Rusina, Not Quite In Love" see the inner beauty of her beastly host?

These two novellas are extremely well-written adult versions of classic fairy tales. All the characters are intriguing and the plots are filled with depth, rarely seen in a transformation of a child's tale into an adult story. SOMETIMES THE SOUL consists of two great novellas. Anyone who enjoys a soulful adult rendering of childhood favorites will want to read Gioia Timpanelli's latest masterpiece.

Harriet Klausner 8/11/98