An Irreverent Curiosity

by David Farley

In December 1983, a priest in the Italian in the Italian hill town of Calcata shared some hocking news with his congregation: Their beloved relic, the pride of their village, had been stolen. And this was no ordinary relic - it was the foreskin of Jesus Christ. According to legend, this relic had passed from an angel's hand to Charlemagne to the papacy to a marauding German soldier before finally ending up in Calcata in the sixteenth century, where miracles occurred that made the sleepy town a pilgrimage destination.

Journalist David Farley spent a year in Calcata in search of the holy foreskin, and in 'An Irreverent Curiosity' he sifts through the relic's long history of myths and legends, popes and princes, armies and emperors. He also tells the story of Calcata, a hamlet just thirty miles from Rome but largely untouched since the Middle Ages and now filled with those whom the Italians call 'frichettoni': freaks. In search of the relic, Farley encounters everyone from the doddering village priest to an Egyptologist who lives in a cave with her flock of crows. He also infiltrates the Vatican, learns the mystical power of Calcata, and shares homebrewed wine with the local fascist. Bringing together centuries of history, a forgotten corner of Italy, and a search for a remnant of the divine, 'An Irreverant Curiosity' is a weird and wonderful tale of conspiracy and misadventure.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Italy, Religion, Humor, Christianity

291 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2009

About the author

David Farley is the author of "An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town" and the co-editor of the essay collection "Travelers' Tales Prague and the Czech Republic: True Stories." He's a Contributing Writer at AFAR magazine and his writing appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Conde Nast Traveler, New York, and Slate.com, among other publications. His stories have been anthologized many times, including in The Best American Travel Writing 2013. He teaches writing at New York University.

Reviews

[Bob Schnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"An Irreverent Curiosity" is the story of author David Farley's search for the "Holy Foreskin of Jesus" relic in the remote Italian town of Calcata. Mr. Farley has a bit of an obsession with reliquaries and the possibility of solving the mystery of the disappearance of the foreskin proved too tempting. He moved his family to Calcata and spent the next year or so investigating various theories about who has the shriveled bit of skin and where. These include shady relic collectors, Satanists in Turin and, of course, the Vatican.

Along the way we meet the colorful characters of Calcata, a town overtaken by "hippies" when the original denizens were forced out to Neuvo Calcata by the Italian government. We learn a lot of history of the town, the relic and the Catholic church, all told from an amusing, slightly snarky, American viewpoint. I enjoyed the book very much and recommend it to anyone who enjoys quirky European history and travelogues. Catholics may be a bit offended, but there is no malicious intent.

[Candice Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED this book! Entertaining, funny, and one heck of a quirky story. I usually find aaaaany book about Christianity boring as heck, but not this one about Jesus's foreskin. Dunno what this says about me.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has to be one of the quirkiest and most interesting books I've read in a long time. A food critic/travel writer decides he wants to go somewhere exciting and somehow tie it into work. So, him and his wife pick up and move for a year to Calcata, a medieval looking town 30 miles outside Rome. The town is infamous because its claim to fame for centuries was that its church contained the Holy Foreskin of Jesus Christ. This most holy relic disappears in the 1970's and the author is determined to find out what happens to it.
A fascinating (and totally irreverent) look at the rise of the worship of relics (who hasn't been to a church in Europe that has the sacred pinkie bone of St. So and So who was matryred by the Romans?). Europe is filled with such relics and I was usually the person standing by the display case gawking. I've always been fascinated by this seemingly bizarre practice.
The book is laugh out loud funny yet still very informative. The setting is one of the zaniest places on Earth. Just as a disclaimer there are maybe 4 or 5 pages in the book sprinkled throughout where the reader is inundated with a non-stop barrage of names of Saints and villages (just keep reading, you don't have to keep it all straight). Highly entertaining!

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea there was such a thing as "The Holy Foreskin," a relic which may or may not be authentic (I am guessing not). Located in a church reliquary in the hill town of Calcata, Italy since 1527, the story of its disappearance in 1983 seems to be well known in Italy. The author, who happens to be somewhat of a "relic buff," takes up the challenge to find out if it was stolen and where it may have ended up.

Although I learned a lot about relics in general and some Catholic church history, the jacket sold me because the inhabitants of Calcata have to be among the more eccentric collection of people anywhere. In the 1930s the town was condemned because it was likely to collapse in an Earthquake. However, it wasn't until the 1970s that the initial settlers were relocated to bland "new" community known as "America on the Hill." That's when hippie squatters bought the vacated houses cheap and fixed the place up (much to the dismay of the original inhabitants who saw their formerly worthless property skyrocket in value).

The residents of the old town are almost all artists of some sort (and one woman is believed to be a bonafide witch because she lives in a cave with her birds with whom she claims she can converse). Even the new town up the hill is filled with some real characters like Capello, the Fascist who drinks homemade wine in his cave with his cronies because it is cheaper than the local bar. As idyllic as it all sounds, it starts to get a little claustrophobic and at least one woman in the town resents the author's incursion into her territory. After all, she was known far and wide as the "foreskin expert" before the author showed up. And almost everyone in the town has an opinion, yet are fearful of talking about it because the Vatican wants to bury the subject.

It's pretty obvious that, after a few years, the whole situation started to make the author a little crazy too. As he digs further and further beneath the surface, he discovers a lot of tensions he didn't see when he first arrived. As for the mystery of the disappeared relic? That's a story in itself.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love books about holy relics. That I would enjoy this was a given. But I really enjoyed it. The book did focus a lot on life in Calcata, Italy, which may be seen as straying from the main topic, but considering how much trouble the author went through to find the information he was seeking, it makes sense. The only criticism I have is the author's outdated language and depictions of people with mental disabilities. I cringed a few times throughout the book, especially considering it's not that old of a title. Still, the story of the relic concerned (the foreskin of Christ) is fascinating and the mysteries the author seeks to solve are likewise very enjoyable to read.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came onto my radar because last month, on a vacation to Rome, I stumbled quite by accident on the weird, wonderful village where most of this book takes place: Calcata, a medieval cliff-top oddity that's now a home to bohemian artists. I was enchanted by the place during my visit, but had no idea until looking it up later that for 450 years it was the home of one of the weirdest of all Catholic relics: the purported foreskin of Christ. When I found out there was a book about the town and the relic, I dropped everything to read it.

So let me say, the fourth star here is due to my own particular passion for the source material - having been to Calcata, I was able to imbue the sections about the village with the passion that Farley obviously feels for them. If I was coming to the book cold, I think it would have been tougher going. Farley sure did his homework on the relic - and on relics in general - and the historical sections of the book are great, sweeping fun. The chapters about Farley's own life and adventures in the village, however, wear after a while - they help create context, and they introduce a few indelible characters, but I think the book would have been a lot stronger with much less of them. Still, the whole thing felt like it was tailor-made for my interests, so I was grateful to read it.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Bill Bryson meets Dan Brown deep in the heart of Italy, this book chronicles one man's quest to find a strange holy relic - Christ's foreskin. It's witty, sceptical, yet somehow still respectful of the people in the area and their passion or lack of same for the oddest of many odd holy pieces. Does it exist or not exist - we never really find out - but the trip he takes to research and document is well documented and a delight to read.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think someone said it on the back of the book in a blurb, but it really is true: if you're going to only read one single book about the foreskin of Jesus Christ, then you really want to read this one.

Yes.

You read that right.

Join me, will you, in this particularly weird history of the Catholic Church as we discover the silliness that is the world of relics. For the uninitiated, relics were bits from the lives of various saints and others deemed holy by Rome. These bits had a hierarchy and differing statuses. For instance, there were bits of saints bodies -- St. Valentine's head, for instance -- and these were primo relics. Then there were, just a little bit lower on the totem pole, bits touched by the saints, such as the ax that beheaded St. Valentine. Finally, at the lowest level were relics that were relics by their proximity to actual relics, such as the bag that held the ax that beheaded St. Valentine.

Of course, though, there were hierarchies within those hierarchies, bigger named saints having better relics. St. Paul being better than St. Valentine; Mary Magdalene better than St. Paul; Mary, mother of Jesus, better than Mary Magdalene; and, of course, the big magilla, Jesus. Anything that could be claimed to be something connected with the life of a saint, the bigger the saint the better, was venerated and placed in an honored spot in churches throughout Europe.

Of course, with the relics market being a hot property through the Middle Ages -- and during and post-Crusades -- it wasn't long before tons of folks were jumping on the bandwagon. Relics like splinters of the "True Cross" on which Jesus was crucified were quite the thing, so revered and accepted without reservation that John Calvin once quipped that if all the pieces of the so-called "True Cross" were collected in one place, they would form a whole ship's cargo.

These big ticket items were obvious draws, as were pieces of the table from the Last Supper, the spear that pierced Jesus' side, and so on. But, with the bodily ascension of Jesus, as the story goes, there was no tomb and no chance of nailing a sweet chunk of his body to tout around as a sign of how special you were. Nothing like some random skull could be toted around and claimed as Jesus' head. To be sure, there were relics of Jesus' hair and fingernails, but those were pale substitutes. Besides, even though one could logically extrapolate divine haircuts and nail clippings, there was nothing specifically Biblical to back that up.

Well, cue up your Luke 2:21, because we have straight from the horse's mouth confirmation that Jesus was circumcised which means --yes! -- Holy Foreskin left behind. We can never be sure exactly who figured out this crackerjack scheme, but times being what they were, it went over big. All that was needed was the story of Charlemagne being vouchsafed this particular bit of flesh from an angel and him handing it over to Pope Leo III (though there is a competing story that Charlemagne actually received it as a wedding present from the Byzantine Empress Irene).

Pope Leo III did what anyone else would do when handed what was reputedly an 800 year old piece of baby cock: he put it in the Vatican's most inner sanctum. And there it reputedly remained for seven hundred more years until Rome was sacked by the Germans in 1527. Apparently a soldier found the prepuce, which was little more than a couple chickpeas in size, thought it worth keeping, and took it with him. He was later apprehended in the nearby town of Calcata, where he was locked in a cave jail cell. He hid the foreskin there, was released, and thirty years later, miracle of miracles, the foreskin was discovered and became a centerpiece of the small town's church.

Celebrated by official church dogma, pilgrims who made the journey to the town to view the Holy Foreskin were granted ten years off their stay in Purgatory. And there the foreskin stayed for the next few hundred years.

This bit of dainty old flesh was deified practically, though it wasn't without competition. In the 12th century, an abbey in Charoux, France, decided to horn in on the action, claiming they had the real Holy Foreskin. They claimed to also have received it from Charlemagne, though they apparently lost it for an odd century or two. Theirs disappeared again, after Pope Innocent III declined to rule on its authenticity, only to be "rediscovered" in 1856. Ultimately, there were something like seventeen other competing foreskin claims. Yes, once one town had themselves a claim to some mystical Jesus dick, other towns wanted in on the action.

With a little prepucial sword fighting going on following the Charoux "rediscovery," Rome had to step in, and it did so, deciding in 1900 that anyone who even mentioned the Holy Foreskin would be excommunicated. They modified their approach in 1954, by deciding that plain old excommunication was too soft a decree and pronounced mentioning it would be punished with a harsher degree of excommunication that included shunning by all Catholics. This for even mentioning a relic they'd spent the last several hundred years talking up as grand and great.

The small town of Calcata was allowed to keep their relic. They were even allowed to conduct an annual parade through the town featuring the relic, but only once a year and never discussed any of the remaining 364 calendar days. The going consensus was that relic veneration had pretty much died out, Calcata was a fairly small town, what was the harm in leaving it as it was after setting up their penalties?

Then, in 1983, the priest of Calcata made a shocking announcement to his parishioners. The foreskin had apparently been stolen. It was gone once again, this tiny little bit of flesh supposedly from the end of Jesus' penis, which the priest, Dario Magnoni, had kept, of all places, in a shoebox in the closet of his home

Well, as you can see, this is quite a story. And this history is entertainingly told by travel writer, David Farley in his very amusing, highly enlightening An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town. The title takes its first three words from a papal condemnation of the relic and interest in it. It's hard not to see the church's point. What else could provoke a twenty-first century person to want to learn about what was clearly a faked bit of church lore, especially one so preposterous as this one?

To learn more about it, to study the Vatican records and try to piece together the lore and the current whereabouts of the relic, Farley moved his wife and his dog and himself to Calcata, Italy, where he lived for several months, digging into the history as well as plenty of Italian food. The book, when not discussing ancient bits of revered dong, comes off as a kind of slightly whacked love letter to the strange town of Calcata, a refuge for outcasts from the country itself, but also from other places.

Farley describes the village as commonly referred to as a "paese di fricchettoni" which is to say village of freaks. With two actual Calcatas on the map, the old medieval town and the newer Calcata Nuova, the history doesn't make it difficult for a reader to understand those who call the residents freaks. New Agers, old hippies from across the continent, and wanderers from all around flocked to the old town. This sets Calcata apart, as something like 70% of Italians live within 1 mile of their childhood homes.

The older part of town had once been condemned by the Italian government after earthquakes earlier in the century destroyed a village elsewhere in Italy. All the old residents moved to the new government built Calcata Nuova, selling off their homes in the sixties to a bunch of hippies and artist types. In a place filled with Belgians, Americans, Italians from all over, Dutch, Spaniards, etc., Farley can only find freaks to befriend, including an old actor who appeared in Italian soft-core porn and who gives the author a book of nude photography of himself, sometimes in a state of arousal; fascists still dedicated to Il Duce; an old Contessa with bad gas who has been writing a history of the Holy Foreskin for ten years; and other assorted quirky characters.

The book generally trades back and forth being about the historical accounts of the foreskin and Farley's day to day life trying to research it and get answers while living in Calcata, traveling to Rome and Turin, and finding himself stymied at nearly every turn. He acts as a beard for the local foreskin expert, Patrizia, who claims the Vatican is blocking her research, asking for reference works they've denied her, while being fed the basic lore by her in return for his services. The lore itself proves almost as bizarrely entertaining as Farley's misadventures in Italy, a kind of slapstick antidote to the tendentious sturm und drang of Dan Brown.

For example, what will seem beyond absurd into a kind of grotesquerie was how much debate centered around this particular relic. Theologians through the ages spent much candlepower and brain juice formulating statements such as this head scratcher from Saint Anastasius Sinaita in the seventh century: "And as Christ's immaculate blood, mixed with water, trickled on and purified the earth during the Passion, the cut and lost foreskin bestowed holiness on the same earth. In any case He, who let it be cut off freely, saved the foreskin, so that He could assume it again at his resurrection, and He, uncorrupted and whole, could possess every sin of every body. Because our bodies will be complete at the resurrection, and stand by his side."

So, did you get all that? Jesus, at the age of eight days, saved his own foreskin, which he kept with him all his life, so he could have it after his body ascended into heaven and was resurrected millennia later. Let us further note that the author of this particular piece of nonsense ran an abbey

Further, in the sixteenth century, at least one Spanish theologian, Francesco de Suarez argued that Jesus' body could easily, after his resurrection, have regrown his foreskin. Unfortunately, neither Farley or de Suarez fail to go into any detail as to how specifically this is supposed to have taken place. One imagines that Jesus could have likewise as easily have healed the holes in his hands and side, rendering the story of Thomas and his doubt a moot one, but, alas, the record does not touch on this bit of supernatural healing.

So, ideas and hypotheses about Jesus' foreskin percolated throughout the centuries, and were hashed over at later points including by the seventeenth century Greek theologian Leo Allatius. This learned scholar's fantastical contribution to the argument about this Holy Foreskin was not only did it ascend into heaven with Jesus, but that it also traveled through space to become the rings of Saturn. Keeping that in mind, how much will it surprise you when I tell you that Allatius also wrote the first medical treatise on vampires?

Farley is, of course, by no means exhaustive in his accounts. We are spared the dull parts of the history and given just what the papacy feared, irreverence. And, honestly, what should a sensible person's reaction be when learning that certain bishops argue for the foreskin's authenticity by citing the message delivered by Saint Catherine in the fourteenth century that the Popes should move back to Rome from Avignon, France, and that Jesus himself put his foreskin on her finger as a wedding band? Or how can you react with anything but irreverence when you read the story of Saint Agnes of Vienna who claimed that every time she took communion, the wafer was transformed in her mouth into the "sweet" meat of Jesus' foreskin?

Let me remind you. I'm not making any of this up.

Farley's book is too good for you not to read. Irreverent? Absolutely. Entertaining? Just as much so. Fascinating? Your mileage may very, but such hidden nooks and crannies of the past can't help but draw me in. Farley paces everything wonderfully and delivers a gently funny travelogue and history that is both laugh out loud hysterical and stranger than just about any book of fiction you could find.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Da Vinci code of holy foreskin relics.....

[East Bay J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not and have never been a religious person but you add a religious relic, some history and a little archaeology and I’m tickled pink. With An Irreverent Curiosity, David Farley introduces us to the most bizarre religious relic of all, the foreskin of Christ. Seriously. The foreskin went missing in the 80’s, supposedly stolen. Years and years later, Farley and his wife moved to Calcata, a tiny town in Italy and former (or possibly current) resting place of this holy foreskin, so he could try to find out what happened to it. Now that is a story!

Farley’s writing is engaging enough as it stands but he goes the extra mile by being very honest and adding a very human element to his tale. He does a fine job of communicating what it was like for him as a newcomer to a small, close knit town, barely able to speak the language, looking for a holy relic no one wanted to talk about and the church specifically forbade anyone to discuss. His writing makes it fun for the reader to follow along on the quest through all the whacky hi jinx, interesting characters and hard won clues.

The history Farley shares in An Irreverent Curiosity is just as fascinating as the people he met. He touches on holy relics, Catholicism, politics, popes, economics, geography and more throughout the course of Italy’s history. Farley does his research and the results are awesome.

SPOILER ALERT!!! I don’t like how the book ends. Like Graysmith’s Zodiac, the mystery doesn’t get solved. That’s not Farley’s fault but the trite way he handles it is. I’d appreciate it if he’d get his ass back to Calcata and finish the job. Then he can write a sequel. Are there sequels in non-fiction?

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one who was reasonably entertained by the "DaVinci Code," I found it interesting to consider how much different Dan Brown's books would be if his characters ever stopped running long enough to consider the utter absurdity of what they were "discovering." Maybe instead of encountering murderous zealots at every turn, they met a series of harmless goofballs with rather eccentric beliefs. The books might well resemble David Farley's charming "An Irreverent Curiosity."

The book tells the saga of a writer who goes in search of -- and finds -- a great story in a obscure place. In the process, Farley spins an often very funny tale about hunters of religious relics and how one particularly odd relic weaves a magical spell over a deeply bizarre Italian town. In this age of globalization, it is beyond refreshing to read about a dot on the map where people can still behave today like you imagine people might have behaved centuries ago.

The utter absurdity of religious relics -- and if you don't find them absurd, you will not find this book very funny -- is a great premise for any comic novel, but this story actually happened in the not-too-distant 1990s.

The author's mini-history of the carnival sideshow that is the relics business is worth the price of the book alone. But the weird relic mystery is sometimes only a backdrop for Farley's encounters with characters straight out of, well, I'd say a Fellini movie if I knew more about Italian cinema. Safe to say you won't soon forget these folks -- or their little piece of sham history.

[Tina Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wasn't sure if I was going to like this book or not but the title sure got my interest. Once I started it though, I couldn't put it down. I think this book is as much travelogue memoir as anything else & the search itself is as much of the story as the author's ultimate goal of actually locating the relic in question. The journey itself with all the interesting characters he meets along the way is a big part of the story. No, it's not a serious scholarly work, but it's my feeling that wasn't the author's intent. Instead he invites you along to share his journey as he fumbles along with very few clues & a very basic understanding of the language.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the book more than I thought I would at first. Foreskin hunt seemed a framework on which to hang tales of being an expat in a quirky Italian village. Author reminded me quite a bit of Eric Weiner (The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World), and while I wouldn't classify this book an outstanding must-read it was pretty good, and I'd really like to see more from Farley in future.

[Stephen Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved the way Farley blends the history and contemporary culture of Calcata, Italy with the irreverent mystery of the title. Taking on the role of a comically ersatz Robert Langdon, he unravels the tales of the Holy Prepuce with skepticism, glee and a healthy sense of wonder at the human race and its varying shades of zaniness. Never judgmental, always self-effacing, he comes off as a trustworthy narrator and a damn good storyteller. Highly recommend!

[Courtney Spoerndle · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading An Irreverent Curiosity, I want to move to Calcata! Starting this traveling piece, you get drawn in by the obscurity of the objective of David Farley's quest. Can this really be a whole book? But as he takes you throughout Italy, you fall in love with the eccentric characters and welcoming Italian culture. The scenes of townspeople drinking wine all day long or gathering in the towns square on Sundays to catch up or even the crazy neighbors makes Calcata seem idyllic.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. Very much in the vein of "City of Falling Angels". Take-away so far: Small town people are weird (duh), Small town Italian people are really weird, Catholic tradition of relic worship is really, really weird, and Jesus's foreskin is one such relic. It only can get better...And finished. Definitely recommend this quick read. Fun and informative!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! The strange relic of the title is the foreskin of Christ, but you're not allowed to use the term or you will be excommunicated by the Catholic Church! It disappeared (was stolen) from a church in a small town in Italy and travel writer David Farley tries to track it down. Definitely a strange relic, certainly a town full of odd characters, and without a doubt an entertaining read.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

some weird grammar mistakes for a literature professor, ex. "his quaffed hair", instead of coiffed! and one he keeps repeating is a "couple blocks", a "couple miles", etc. Shouldn't that be a "couple of". Bottom line is I did enjoy the book, the quirky characters and topic (must find Jesus' foreskin) make it worth the weird writing errors.

[Kerry Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of history, humor and human interest, I found Farley’s extended travel article intriguing and inspiring. An investigation into the disappearance of the Holy Foreskin from a church in off the beaten path Calcata, his exploration was redolent with Italian bureaucracy, personalities, and interest.

[Eoin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between travelogue, memoir, detective story, and participatory history, this book is genuinely funny. I'm a sucker for esoterica, but the speed and ease of the prose makes it a solid general recommendation. Not perfect, but with enough enthusiasm to hold it together.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This historical travelogue is quirky, funny, informative - a story within a story. The amount of research that went into this book was astounding -- truly creative nonfiction. I don't know how David Farley did it, but I'm so glad he did!

[Mark Schroeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about a crazy little town, their church, town drunk, celebrity, cat lady and shifty priest in Italy. Makes we want to visit. The look at the inner workings of the church however and the formation of early Christian dogma was the real point here.

[Mary Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing, very weird type of travel book. It would be very funny if it all wasn't so true. And it's funny anyway.

[Marcia Stauber · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the most boring books I have read lately. Save your money and skip this more. If I had not been on a plane I would have trashed it out the window.

[David Simonetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very interesting and well worth reading, particularly for anyone who is interested in Italy and the Catholic Church.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this. You will learn a lot about church history, relics, contemporary Italy, culture shock, and food.

I can't tell you where the particular relic in question is though. Spoilers!

[Becky Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly engrossing! Farley moves to a hill town north of Rome and sets about unwinding two millenia of Christian history, myth and legend, surrounded by a group of helpful eccentrics.

[Scott Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book. I was more interested in the material about the history of Catholic relics than the details of rural Italian life, but well worth reading for either subject.

[Tracy Graziani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't tell you the last time I had this much fun reading a book. The characters, the story, the adventure--absurd and wonderful!

[Mike Wigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I can say is I'd like to visit the town of Calcata, Italy. It sounds as though it would make a great venue for a sitcom. As for the sacred foreskin...