Sicilians explained to tourists

by Augusto Cavadi

Who are the Sicilians? How do they live, how do they interact, how do they treat foreigners? If someone wanted to give a scientific and exhaustive answer, they should take into account the hundreds of volumes piled up over the centuries; if they should answer briefly, they would risk just recalling a few common jokes and a lot of clichés. So we tried a difficult middle way between a scholarly speech and an occasional conversation in an airport.

This book, even with an easy and sometimes funny language, provides some useful information about Sicilians as they were and moreover as they are now.

80 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Walter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ein kleines, dünnes Buch über ‚die Sizilianer, den Touristen erklärt‘. Wahrscheinlich muss jedes kurze Buch an einem solchen Thema scheitern. Und doch gibt es dort genug zu beobachten und zu interpretieren. Aber vielleicht richtet sich das Büchlein, das zu einem nennenswerten Teil schon in Form einzelner Artikel erschienen war, an Touristen, die es nicht so genau wissen wollen.

[Becky D'ugo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quirky book I picked up from a lovely book shop in Trapani. A light, but somewhat clunky read. I found the translation from Italian to be generally poor and too literal. The language doesn’t flow and Italian idiom doesn’t translate well unless completely reworked into English. Having said that, the anecdotes provide some relief. Coming from neighbouring Malta, I found myself nodding in agreement throughout, as this could very well have been written about my fellow compatriots.

[Bruno Assaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sono due anni che vado regolarmente in Sicilia e ho deciso di leggere questo libro nella speranza di conoscere un po’ meglio l’anima siciliana e i suoi abitanti. Purtroppo la lettura mi ha deluso, anche se sapevo che, essendo un libro di meno di 80 pagine, tanto di approfondimento non ce ne sarebbe. La seconda metà del libro, fatta di piccoli articoli pubblicati in diversi giornali e siti, è particolarmente disinteressante, mentre la prima, che propone effettivamente spiegare i siciliani ai turisti, non offre granché. Un peccato, perché essendo la Sicilia ciò che è, un libro del genere potrebbe offrire molto di più.

[Gus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, short read that's a good companion for your trip to Sicily. It gives you an overview of Sicilian culture and its idiosyncrasies, while trying to explain their causes. The book can be quite humorous and the author is obviously self-aware (being Sicilian himself). I'm deducting stars because the last 4 essays are recycled from newspaper articles the author published somewhere else; they also didn't quite fit with the rest of the book.

I can nonetheless recommend it.

[Aizirtap]

Fino alla metà del libro per me potevano anche essere 3 stelle, ma dopo partono le schede di approfondimento che non sono riuscita proprio ad apprezzare.