Reviews for The stone boudoir

The average rating for The stone boudoir based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-18 00:00:00 Chris Williams For me this travelogue over many years and numerous trips to Sicily was absolutely stunning. Not revealing most information about herself in the process, Theresa Maggio still manages to relay the connections and the identity cores of Sicilian towns and Sicilians themselves in exquisite depth. And her own pure love of Sicily! It's as if she can interpret the rock itself. Different from each other as granites, limestone or lava, but still Sicilian rock. And in a pivotal place with immense, often secretive, history. History which in nearly ever spot grooved that Sicilian rock- in myriad ways of either deeply cleaving or scoring a breath-taking or complex design- but all breaking the surfaces of rock, spirit, attitude and quite alternative reaction and cultural habits. The ground shifts, and eventually much of it fruitful or wheat field- it burns and grows with lava crust upon crust- and turns to soil/stone of other kind eventually. BUT always mixed, always multiples of origin. Never purebred in any factor. All components of this land, people, animals and plants- mutts. All are mutts. Like Theresa, this intrinsically reveals and echoes the wells of self. In her ancestors she finds their patterns of habits/ answers to questions (hers AND theirs) both the asked and unasked during her Sicilian trips. This is why this book is 5 star for me, as well. So much explained from and about those who left and never returned to the glorious and fruit laden hills and sparkling stone and sand beaches. And those who stayed- that reveals too! But why not the visiting return? How could they go from so much beauty to so little? The culture of quirks! If you have never witnessed the custom of "prendere cinque" explosion of that plate of food hitting the wall- I don't know how I can explain this core to you. "She's just nervous." Beyond the emotive, there is such detail of cultural connotation here too. Theresa Maggio knows to recognize the world of the cloistered and self-home imbedded spinster, as well as the shepherd or goat keeper who lives with a recluse celebration of the surrounding beauty without any need for a salutation for a morning or an evening or any pertinent declaiming for any measure of time. Trust completely betrayed and yet belief in a possible luck and spiritual connection to a subsequent rescue so very real at the same time. The ability to take that extra tax and robbery too in silence to live another day. That takes a strength beyond defining. In this book, I had reflection for at least 10 "different" slants to habit and custom that I have always questioned since literally babyhood. Why covering the mirrors? Why newspapers put on the floor so you don't walk on the clean tiles? Why the complete objection to staring or "giving me eyes"? Why the humongous pinch that really hurts on the cheek, instead of a hug? Why the precise preparation of perfect and completely fresh fruits and vegetables of the earth as central, every single day? Why is stone always far better than wood- even for furniture? Why do wax figures of body parts play such a part in ritual? Ten more things I could list- questions answered in this book. Lovely, lovely read. But especially for me. Just as Theresa's parent and grandparents- mine never went back either. And answered quite similarly too. "Nothing there." For mine it was not an earthquake but it was just as true. They were completely poor peasants, but they were never stupid. Like so many others who exited, they continued the immersion in produce. Fruit truck to store. And he even made a fig tree grow in Chicago, although he needed to bury the entire within a huge mound for long months' sleep every winter. She gave an entire chapter here for several of the Mt. Etna mountain towns. Those were the best but I loved every part of this book. Dialect to dialect- Sicilian is strong and surviving within a mixed land of magical extremes.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-21 00:00:00 John Smith Just at the end of this wonderful book and I am having withdrawal symptoms..It was an experience reading. I wish there were pictures in the book to relate with the cities and towns the author visited.