Rating: Two Stars**
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: Set in 1860, Don Frabrizio is the Prince of Sicily who lives in luxury with his wife and many children. Outside of his lavish life of indulgences, women, and politics, the Giribaldi army is invading Sicily, which puts his governance and household in jeopardy. The book focuses on the rapidly changing political and social orders in 19th century Italy.
Evaluation: I was given a recommendation of this book which is why I chose to read it, but only made it through the first 90 pages. The pace was very slow and descriptive. The historical setting of Sicily is decent, but the translation bored me to tears. On that note here is an evaluation from an editor on Oprah.com. I think this is a valid reaction:
I wouldn't give a damn about the world of this book were it not for the fact that Lampedusa draws you into it in such an intoxicating fashion. The descriptions of 19th-century Sicily were written with such melancholy, honesty and lack of sentimentality that I found myself thinking this era was the most important thing. What blew me away, though, were the passages about death. Extraordinary. The prince, whose family is part of the dying aristocracy, says sleep is what the Sicilians want. They don't want anything forward looking. All their magnificent history and the things they worship—their cathedrals and castles and heritage—are things Sicilians love only because they're dead. It's a romance with sleep and death—a desire for what he calls voluptuous immobility.
— Colin Firth
Read-a-likes: Little Novels of Sicily by Giovanni Verga
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