Volume 29, Number 10 · June 10, 1982
Godfathers and Sons
By Luigi Barzini
Sicilian Lives
by Danilo Dolci, translated by Justin Vitiello, with the collaboration of Madeline Polidoro
Pantheon, 304 pp., $6.95 (paper)
When a Sicilian speaks of going across the Strait of Messina, he may unguardedly say, 'I'm going to Italy,' rather than 'to the mainland' or 'to the continent,' somewhat as Englishmen often think and speak of the lands across the Channel as 'Europe.' Sicilians are offended, however, when an Italian from another region says, 'I'm going back to Italy.' They are likely to ask brusquely: 'And what is this? A foreign country? Africa?' In fact, traditional Sicilians embedded in their own ancient customs and codes and beliefs are clearly different from continental Italians. They seldom gesticulate or show emotion, for one thing; they are laconic, critical, and courtly ('I kiss your lordship's hands,' or 'Bacio le mani a Vossia.') They are stoics who, when honor-bound, sometimes cause death or face death without hesitation, like Homeric heroes or medieval knights. With the growth of the urbanized middle class since the end of the war, the old-fashioned rural Sicilian, who wore ribbed velvet clothes, leather leggings, and a cloth cap, is getting scarcer. Nevertheless, even the sophisticated modern city dweller secretly preserves some of the old ways under his North European or American appearance and almost always reveals them in a tight spot or a serious crisis.
Review, 2967 words
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