Marcelina D D itibaren Holcomb, MO 63852, Birleşik Devletler
This is just not my usual flavor. I picked it up at a friend's recommendation, and I was hooked from the first page. I was in no way prepared for the ending. No way.
I really like this series. Too bad it's over now.
I knew nothing at all about this book when it jumped off the New Books shelf of the library into my hand. It stayed in my hand because I saw it was set in Sicily. My father came from Sicily when he was a boy, just a few years younger than the boy in this story. Okay, so I was sucked in by the biographical connection. But that’s not the reason I stayed. This is a delightful little book. The year he turns 13, a Sicilian boy is tricked by his jealous brothers, ala Joseph of the Bible, and ends up captured by bandits. The bandit/cook/housekeeper in their hideout in the hills takes him under her wing and he becomes her helper. Her nurturing kindness is vividly portrayed by descriptions of the rough, yet delicious-sounding Sicilian peasant food she cooks up. Our boy is nothing if not wily and intelligent. Watched over by the housekeeper, who guides him even when he doesn’t know he’s being guiding, he manages to extricate himself from this situation filled with violence. It’s beautifully written. A joy.
Sometimes I liked his writing a lot. Sometimes it was annoying or unsatisfying. Either way, it was pretty weird. Here's an excerpt! "In the parking lot, I met a man carrying a basketful of laundry. He explained that he had just washed his clothes but there was something unutterably troubling and unfinished about what had happened. His laundry was not done, he said; it was in error. He set the basket down and tugged a pair of washed-looking pants from the tangle and shook them out in my direction. 'Vouch for me,' he said." And that's the end of a story.