The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily [Hardcover]

Theresa Maggio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2002

A remarkable collection of intertwined stories about the unknown hill towns and villages of Sicily, from the acclaimed author of Mattanza.

In this sparkling book, Theresa Maggio takes us on a journey in search of Sicily's most remote and least explored mountain towns. Using her grandparents' ancestral village of Santa Margherita Belice as her base camp, she pores over old maps to plot her adventure, selecting as her targets the smallest dots with the most appealing names. Her travels take her to the small towns surrounding Mount Etna, the volcanic islands of the Aeolian Sea, and the charming villages nestled in the Madonie Mountains. Whether she's writing about the unique pleasures of Sicilian street food, the damage wrought by molten lava, the ancient traditions of Sicilian bagpipers, or the religious processions that consume entire villages for days on end, Maggio succeeds in transporting readers to a wholly unfamiliar world, where almonds grow like weeds and the water tastes of stone. In the stark but evocative prose that is her hallmark, Maggio enters the hearts and heads of Sicilians, unlocking the secrets of a tantalizingly complex culture.

Although she makes frequent forays to villages near and far, she always returns to Santa Margherita, where she researches her family tree in the municipio, goes on adventures with her cousin Nella, and traces the town's past in history and literature. A beautifully wrought meditation on time and place, The Stone Boudoir will be treasured by all who love fine travel writing.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Maggio opens her tale with a memory of sitting under her grandparents' grape arbor in Carldstadt, New Jersey, wondering if their memories of Sicily were hard-wired into her consciousness. These essays, written over many visits, illuminate tiny Sicilian towns with glorious names: Polizzi Generosa (Martin Scorsese's father was born there); Catania, where men celebrate the feast of Sant'Agata, who was martyred by having her breasts cut off; Sperlinga, where generations have lived in apartments cut in caves that Maggio compares to hobbit-holes. Maggio writes pristine prose unsullied by prettiness or sentimentality. She finds a number of women unencumbered by marriage--like the twin pharmacists, Antonietta and Rosaria--who accompany her, stay with her, or simply allow her to view their lives. She writes of the clothed, dessicated corpses in a crypt in Palermo; of watching Etna's lava flow engulf a flowering pear tree in Zafferana Etnea; and of Santa Margherita, her grandparents' town, destroyed in an earthquake in 1968. She adores Sicily, taking as her metaphor the living stone from which the island takes its building material, the taste of its water, the color of its contours. With Mary Taylor Simeti's On Persephone's Island (1994), this memoir offers an austerely voluptuous pleasure for anyone seeking the heart of Sicily. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A compelling meditation on Sicilian culture." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A luminous portrait of a time and a place, interspersed with a wonderful cast of characters." -- Chicago Tribune

"Curious, lighthearted, and enthusiastic..." -- Publisher's Weekly

"Maggio is a compelling writer who can render even the simplest moments into sheer poetry...The Stone Boudoir is delightful." -- Los Angeles Times, 4/18/02

"Maggio's tales of Sicily's hidden villages reveal her own deep love and gentle understanding of her ancestors' homeland." -- Boston Globe, 6/16/02

"Maggio's writing is clear and straight-forward...the telling is rooted in poetry and human emotion." -- Bloomsbury Review, September/October 2002

Maggio has a wealth of knowledge to share, which she does in a lively, eminently readable style." -- Santa Fe Reporter, 6/12/02

[The Stone Boudoir] is an engaging overview of Sicilian culture...The prose is delightful." -- Washington Times, 7/1/02

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Publishing; First Edition edition (March 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738203424
• ISBN-13: 978-0738203423
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #880,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of a Book on Sicily its People!, September 3, 2002

By 

Fafa Demasio (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily (Hardcover)

THE STONE BOUDOIR is a collection of stories about author Theresa Maggio's experience in the unnoticed mountain towns of Sicily. It's about the people she meets, their customs, stories and the island's rich and fascinating history (involving the Greeks, Romans, Arabs and the Normans).

At the start of the 20th century, Maggio's grandparents immigrated to America from Santa Margherita Belice, a small Sicilian mountain town. In 1973, Maggio makes her way to Sicily for her first visit. She finds the island so alluring that she returns for many more visits.

Not only does Maggio visit her grandparents' hometown, she goes further to explore other Sicilian towns. The writer describes them as, "Tiny jewels, remote and isolated, these are places tourists seldom see. But they are the island's hidden treasure and the secret spring of Sicilian endurance." After reading THE STONE BOUDOIR, I have to agree - what riches these places and people have to offer, indeed!

Maggio's descriptions of these villages are priceless - like her first visit to Polizzi Generosa, a town on the peak of the Madonie Mountain in north-central Sicily or sleeping in a cave home in Sperlinga, an ancient mountain town in Sicily's center. But it is the natives and their stories that make up the most pleasurable part of the book. My top three favorite stories are of Signora Maria, a 71-year-old woman with an amazing childhood who liked to memorize and could still recite folk poems by heart; Enza Dolce who has accomplished many firsts as a single woman in Sicily despite adversity and Nunzio Putrino, an old Sicilian bagpiper who met and wooed his wife over his music-playing without saying a word.

There's an excellent chapter on the 1968 earthquake that affected many of the towns. Margherita Cacioppo, who was nine when the earthquake occurred, shares her account. The images of what happened during the earthquake and what her family did to survive are very vivid.

There are many more fantastic stories, each one is unique but all contain the similar characteristic trait of a resilient people.

There are no photos in the book but you can find a nice collection highlighted on the writer's web site...Some of my favorites are: Maletto Bagpipes, A Sperlinga Cave dweller, Love on a Plate, The Stone Boudoir, Sheep Sleep in Palaces, Locati Wash on Line and many more. The photos are exactly the way I imagined them from Maggio's narrations. But is it definitely nice to see the real thing.

Reading THE STONE BOUDOIR is like having a cup of coffee/cappuccino/espresso/ tea (insert your beverage of choice) with a friend as she shares, with you, stories about her visit to a special place. What a wonderful look at Sicily and its people. You won't regret reading this book.

Fafa Demasio

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tour through Sicily, yesterday & today, April 20, 2002

By 

Anna K "annoula_k" (Queens, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily (Hardcover)

Theresa Maggio is a talented writer & story-teller. In this book, she travels through the small villages of Sicily and presents to us her impressions as BOTH an outsider (her grandparents immigrated from Sicily and she was born and raised in NJ) AND an insider (she made numerous trips to Italy, had several extended stays, and had many local friends).

She is well-suited to play this dual role because of her intimate understanding of local customs and her ability to listen to the locals. Listening to "old-timers" and allowing them to tell their stories about "the way it used to be" is a lost art; very few have the patience or interest to do that anymore. Luckily, Maggio had the patience, interest and courage to talk with many locals--young & old--from numerous villages, and presents what she learned quite eloquently. Her descriptions of many of the villages are enough to strike up wanderlust in any reader!

There are some flaws, however. First, a line drawing map of Sicily showing the location of the villages would have been nice. Likewise, a few photos of the villagers and/or villages (even if not in color) would have added greatly to the overall effect of her writing. Also, when she attempts to write about the history of certain locales, it comes across as a passage form a history text (I happen to be a historian, so I'm familiar with historical texts). In these few parts, her writing becomes more bland & structured; a big contrast to the rest of the book which has a more fluid writing style. Believe it or not, it IS possible to present history in a fluid writing style. My final complaint with this otherwise good book is that some of the chapters are disjointed. Some chapters flow beautifully together, others just don't. Also, it is sometimes difficult to determine during which of her many trips she visited some villages. You may ask, "Does it really matter?" In a way it does because then you also know in what stage of life she was in, what she already had visited/knew, what was the purpose of her visit, etc.

Other than these few flaws, however, "The Stone Boudoir" was an enjoyable and easy read. Certainly recommended to everyone and anyone interested in Italy and in travel, in general. I walked away with a greater appreciation of the "hidden villages of Sicily", and the importance of immersing oneself in local culture whenever possible.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evocative descriptions of life in rural Sicily, March 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily (Hardcover)

In her book The Stone Boudoir, Theresa Maggio shares with the reader, descriptions of rural culture in the mountain villages and towns on the island of Sicily. Having traveled to Sicily initialy to explore the birthplace of her grandparents while in college in 1973, she returned again and again, at times living with Sicilian friends and absorbing theirs and others stories and experiences.
One of the most striking aspects of this book is to realize that this rural culture exists litttle changed over the centuries, in spite of it's proximity to modern Italian/European culture. The description of the celebration of the Feast of Saint Agatha, celebrated every year in Catania is fascinating and one of the high points in this collection of essays/stories.