Sicilian Tragedee: A Novel Review

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Sicilian Tragedee: A Novel ReviewWell, this isn't literature, and there isn't much of a story here either, but "Sicilian Tragedee" is hilariously funny, some parts of which I've not enjoyed so much since portions of Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2001). People around me at my favorite Italian coffee shop in Larkspur, California, often asked me why I was laughing while reading. At times, the writing resembles that found on www.dickipedia.com.
In a nutshell, "Sicilian Tragedee" is all about small-minded people dealing with the world in their small-minded way, unable for the most part to get out of their small-minded rut of talking ONLY about other small-minded people. The story is 100% small minded. There is not one shred of an important notion in this novel put forward by the author or its characters. The people are so ordinary and so consumed by their pettiness and their low-brow contrivances that they sink well below what might otherwise be merely a caricature of modern life, even in Sicily. As to Sicily, bless its woeful and long-suffering inferiority complex, that fabled island is at all times is presented to you by Cappellani in such a way as to never allow you to let go of your own, often irrational, prejudices about Sicilian people and its culture. Pity.
I found myself totally uninterested in "who done it," that is, the solution to the three "Mafiosi events" that dominate the end of the story. For a much more engaging and truer mystery (just as funny, too), read anything by the wildly popular and acclaimed (deservedly so) Andrea Camilleri, author of serial Sicilian-based novels, such as, "The Shape of Water, "The Snack Thief" and others. But, "Sicilian Tragedee" is not a mystery story, no, not at all. It is much less than that.
I had trouble finishing the book, taking about a week of on again off again attempts to push myself to the end. Finishing it was a chore. And, the end was greatly disappointing. The interesting characters all vanish, and the story sort of just dribbles off into inanity, with no sense of finality or cohesion. Why do some modern authors, many of whom are outstanding writers, have such trouble bringing a story to a satisfying end? Cappellani is certainly not the first. He is joined by very famous writers in this predicament, including Arturo Perez-Reverte.
So what's good about this book? 1. Spot-on translation, simply fantastic and immaculate, as if the original had been written by someone who grew up on slum streets of Newark, New Jersey. 2. Words, lovely obscene words, written by a wordsmith who knows the workings of perfect put-downs, scathing sarcastic observations of people, and crude, gutter-like dialogue and even worse inner thoughts. 3. Outrageous personalities, crisply drawn and extraordinarily consistent, populate this book. There is no cookie cutter in use here. Not that I want to personally know any of them, but being at one of their parties would be an awfully entertaining experience.
Page 45, Betty, "....who for her lunch has put on the sort of bright pink vinyl mini-dress that only a turbocharged "b-j" specialist would wear." Page 131, "When she thinks about what's going to happen tonight (the party at her villa), the Contessa is as close as she can get to remembering what an orgasm is like."
[..]
In many ways, the book presents itself as an outline for a movie, but it's better than film, because the reader is forced to imagine everything - the people, their interactions, their weird thoughts and their silly predicaments. Thus (with apologies to Leavitt's review) it feels more like a radio broadcast -- as in the good old days when radio presented such tales on the air, with sound effects and dramatic readings, requiring your imagination to fill in the gaps. However, it would also make a great movie, independent or foreign, if cast with character actors who are not Hollywood or Italian stars.
[...]Sicilian Tragedee: A Novel Overview

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