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On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Taylor Simeti
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.20
You Save: $11.75 (79%)
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 45675
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Vintage Departures Ed
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0679764143
Dewey Decimal Number: 945.8092
EAN: 9780679764144
ASIN: 0679764143
Publication Date: September 26, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: book is in good used condition has some wear to cover edges and spine.small creases on cover.no writing great buy!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Mary Taylor Simeti arrived in Sicily in 1962 to do volunteer work. Freshly graduated from Radcliffe College after growing up in a distinguished and privileged New York City family, the last thing she expected was to fall in love and marry a Sicilian. On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal is the ambivalent love story of an intelligent, complex, and self-reflective woman. The book recounts the events of 1983, the year Simeti turned 42. Her narrative alternates between Palermo, where her children attend school and her husband Toninno is a professor of agricultural economy, and Bosco, in eastern Sicily, where she shoulders demanding responsibilities on the working farm that has belonged to her husband's family for three generations. Simeti feels the isolation of being an expatriate and outsider, although she claims to welcome this perspective when faced with frustration and disgust at the pervading political corruption and corrosive effects of the Mafia on everyday life. Despite her natural diffidence, she shares personal insights that makeOn Persephone's Island as compelling as her prose. Simeti intersperses rich helpings of Sicilian history and culture with mundane events and insight into what motivates the peasants essential to the survival of the family farm. And she makes pessimistic observations about the complexity of changing times in a society where the persistent reliance on feudal relationships and agriculture is finally crumbling. An academic manque, Simeti researches and ruminates on the mythological underpinnings of the many holidays and festivals that punctuate the rhythm of Sicilian life. She focuses particularly on the Greek goddesses Persephone and Demeter, who held Sicily under their protection. She eventually discovers a correlation between her own situation and the story of Persephone, who alternately inhabited the worlds of light and darkness.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 What a treasure! July 23, 2007
J. Lichtenberg (New York, NY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you are even remotely thinking about going to Sicily, you should read this wonderful book. Deep understanding of this unique, strange amazing island, seen also with an American's eye. I was reading it while I was there, and it opened up everything I saw in ways that would have been impossible. Like being with a Sicilian friend.
 Little Stilted and Hard to Get Through February 9, 2007
Vespa Rossa (NYC, USA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I had high expectations for this book, but I find that it's quite hard to get through. I am very passionate about Italy, and especially Sicily, so it's not a lack of interest, but I find Simeti's writing to be a little hard to wade through. There's a bit of a feminist/pessimistic slant to her writing and be prepared for long sentences with multiple adjectives.
Fantastic read August 14, 2005
Dr. James E. Purpura (New York City)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book really gave an insightful and intriguing depiction of Sicily, its traditions and its history. The story line carried it along very nicely without reverting to a guide book. I'm Italian American and throughly enjoyed it. This book is a must for those interested in the Island.
 Gorgeously written, informative and evocative March 31, 2005
Genevieve M. Ellerbee (Alexandria, Virginia, United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Simeti does a great job of talking about her adopted home. The story works well on two levels - discussing the mythology, history, and culture of Sicily, but also weaving in her responses, frustrations, fears, and joys about her life as an American woman turned Italian wife and mother. One of my favorite books about Italy.
 ON THE ISLAND OF DRECK June 27, 2001
Gerald J. Ross (Monroeville, PA United States)
11 out of 29 found this review helpful
It irks me that Mary Taylor Simeti is in possession of any of my money! That any publisher found ON PERSEPHONE'S ISLAND worthy of print astounds me! Be warned, you get exactly what is promised, a journal! Simeti's is a dry account, devoid of humor, insight and passion and is written with a lofty phraseology: a deadly combination that had better not be contagious! To be honest, I found the book so dull I was unable to read it straight through, so after eighty pages, I began skiping around in search of entertainment, since there is no story. I found none! If you're searching for an escape to another place, a glimpse into another life or culture, or just plain fun, look elsewhere! You will find none of the above here! Half a star-because the cover is very nice, if misleading!
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