This much more than a recipe book--tho it is that as well. It is principally a social history of eating norms and the impact of successive cultural invasions: Norman, Arabic, and the like. It explains why Sicilians of various classes eat as they do, and it is fascinatingly well-written and researched. A real treat that explains why this is the best cuisine that modern Italy has to offer.

I found this book years ago in a vendor book sale...At the time I never imagined what a real treasure I had found. Being of Sicilian heritage I found that many of the recipes handed down to me came from way back into the 11th century. That along with all of the wonderful stories made me realize that my grandmothers left me with such a rich treasure. All the stories blended to gether with the history in the book. It made me so proud to be of Sicilian heritage...
My grandmothers left me the richest treasure of all...Love, Great Food and a wonderful sense of worth.

This book not only provides some great old old receipes, but also a wonderful look at the past. If your Sicilian its a must
read and own book.

Although it sometimes seemed padded, I enjoyed Mary Taylor Simeti's journal of the changing seasons and their festivals in northwestern Sicily (Palermo and her husband's ancestral estate southwest of the city) in 1992-93. In the year covered by the book she also makes or recalls visits to a number of other sites, mostly in western Sicily, and draws on many earlier accounts of how festivals were celebrated in ancient Magna Grecia and in 18th and 19th century Sicily.

Although preoccupied with ancient Greek celebrations, particularly their botanical foci, and with the disappearances and revivals of Sicilian folk culture, Simeti's account does not ignore the Mafia. 1992 was the year in which General dalla Chiesa and his young wife wereassassinated. Outrage at that marked the beginning of public condemnation of the Mafia and the violence that culminated in the 1996 assassinations of the magistrates investigating the Mafia was escalating. (And 1993 was the year that a lava flow from Mt. Etna was diverted by dynamite.)

Focusing on Demeter and Persephone has a clear feminist agenda. Simeti expresses eloquently her ambivalence as an expatriate American (of 20 years standing at the time), alternately enchanted and infuriated by Sicilian ways. I was particularly struck by the more widespread (than Sicily) resentment at "living in a world where rite and tradition are becoming ever more a private affair that has fallen squarely into the woman's lap" (66-- I know that ancestor worship is similarly being increasingly dumped on wives in Taiwan, for another instance).

The characters are not as clear as those in _Out of Africa_ or _Cross Creek_, but in writing engagingly about residence in a land that is strange to the author, Simeti deserves a place on the shelf with those much-loved classics.

Wanting to learn more about my family's place of origin, and to expand my knowledge of the island gained in a two-week visit several years ago, reviews of this book led me to buy it. The author, a graduate of a prestigious American college and a person not of Italian background, proves to have written an almost poetic journal of her family's life over the course of the four seasons on this enigmatic island. She combines a beautifully descriptive knowledge of the infinitely varied flora of Sicily with a close acquaintance with the political and social mores of its inhabitants. Moreover, her many references to the Greek origins of the island give the reader a perspective not commonly found. Her marriage to a middle class Sicilian university professor and her approach to raising two children in this unusual environment gives the book a personal slant not always available to one trying to get a handle on life in this ancient land.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn about the real Sicily.

Picked this book because of its previous rating and read it prior to visiting Sicily. I found the book a delightful read and Simeti's images to accurately describe the Sicily we saw four weeks after finishing the book. She describes well a beautiful and complex island as enjoyable to visit as her book is to read.

I have just returned from Sicily where I visited Maria's shop and saw the convent where her childhood was spent. I wish I would have read the book before my visit. The smell of almond pastries led me right up the narrow street and to the pastries and candies in her shop, and they are marvelous. The convent is just a short walk up the street from her shop, in the square. The recipes she shares in the book are uncomplicated and simply delicious. Her story is not embellished. There is no polished prose. It is as she saw it and lived it and has told it with her unique Sicilian expression. I enjoyed reading it and I will continue to enjoy her recipes.

I believe this is one of the most underrated cookbooks in terms of awards (Child, Beard, etc.) and public attention. I LOVED the story, and I feel like I was allowed to have something very personal, special and unique in the recipes which are exquisite. Had I not known a wonderful Italian lady (Carmel Anthony) and tasted her special cookies, however, I may not have known enough to get this book. You'll love it!

I'm glad somebody found this to be a quick read. I found it to be hard going with a lot of " maybe -this -happened" in the text, which the author acknowledges. It seemed to jump from one year to another and back to the first year and if you were not familiar with the characters became very confusing. Parts of it were interesting, mostly the last 50 pages. The pictures were nicely done. There was a small error in the Family Tree at the beginning. Eleanor of Aquitaine did not die the same year as Richard the Lionheart.

I am an academically trained and practicing medieval historian who has written some "serious" stuff on medieval queens, and I was enchanted with this author's approach. It isn't a traditional biography -- it isn't supposed to be...it's part travel journal, part memoir, part tribute to the marginalized women of th European past; part talented amateur engagement with the middle ages.
The author's attempts to engage with and appreciate Constance of Sicily are wonderfully narrated, and I think very effective over all. I am giving a copy to each of my female grad students to read over spring break.

It's a daunting task to attempt to write a biography of someone when few primary sources exist. Constance, the last child of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily was an intriguing woman whose personal story teased, eluded and captivated author Mary Taylor Simeti for years, as she states in the pages of this biography-cum-travelogue-cum-personal memoir, but with whom she felt a strange kinship. Both were strangers in a strange land---Constance in her 10-year exile from her Sicilian homeland when she married Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI---Simeti when she married a Sicilian, settled there, and raised her children far from America. Simeti happily found a home in Sicily (and this is her 4th book dealing with Sicilian subjects); Constance finally returned, in triumph, to the land of her forebears, having borne a child along the way (a first child, at the age of forty!), the infant who would become Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and Sicilian King. Simeti flatly states that she did not know if she had enough material to write a biography. She then takes the daring chance of fleshing out her thin material by musing about a fictitious (though likely) Arab nursemaid, a possible (though unlikely) relationship with a German courtier, and a close friendship (most plausible) with an Italian abbess, and sets out to reconstruct Constance's final trip home to Palermo, using logic, old documents, and intuition, to guess the actual route of the journey south. Simeti takes the further leap of relating to Constance as a woman and mother whose hopes, fears, and ambitions for her child were not so different from those of any other mother, despite the yawning chasm of centuries and cultures. Not a traditional biography, or history, by any means, and some points are surely controversial, but this is a compelling narrative that makes this little-known queen come alive as a personage in her own right. Simeti freely admits that although she was a history major, she is not an historian, but she shows great powers of empathy with Constance. Moreover, living in Sicily for 40 years has made her quite knowledgeable about and sensitive to the people, the land, and its ancient history. (I wish only that Simeti had taken more time in her journey to visit more sites and take more photographs!) The story of the Norman conquest of Sicily, when the House of Hauteville wrested control of this rich kingdom from Arab control, and what happened when Teutons from the North stepped in two centuries later at the death of Constance's young nephew, William II, after the throne was claimed by an illegitimate grandson of Roger II, isn't well-known, but it is highly dramatic, replete with colorful characters, intrigues, and adventure. I look forward to more explorations of Sicilian history from this talented writer, someone who loves what she does and has the ability to make otherwise dusty history come alive for her readers. A final note---Simeti talks about her own life and experiences in this unusual book but never in a jarring manner---which makes one wonder at the disturbing ad hominem remarks addressed to the author in the previous reviews---rather, the contemporary travelogue-cum-memoir has its own charm and nicely brackets the trip and experiences of Queen Constance, who becomes ever more human to us as she makes her crucial life's passage from the cold, monochromatic German castle of Trifels to the warmth and beauty of the colorful Mediterranean island her heart never really left. And there is never any question of where Simeti's heart is.