Sicilian Shadows eBook Francesco Scannella
Download As PDF : Sicilian Shadows eBook Francesco Scannella 
Aged seven, Francesco Scannella’s world turns upside down when he is uprooted from his English suburban home, and sent to the heartland of the Cosa Nostra. He quickly forgets that he ever spoke English and survives by the sharpness of his wit and the strength of his fists, adopting the machismo ways of his elders. Every day is a fight for survival, gang violence is the norm, and the Mafia rules.
In this compelling memoir, the author throws open a window on the true nature of Sicilians, explains how and why they turn to the Mafia and how desperate life was at the time. He tells with wry humour and brutal honesty of tragic young love; of how a school friend became an assassin; of politics and philosophy, cookery and cryptozoology. Frank Sinatra makes an appearance, as does the father of the modern Mafia, Don Caló Vizzini.
Sicilian Shadows, Francesco Scannella’s first book, is an absorbing story of the loss of innocence, a homage to a homeland, and a history lesson about one of the most misunderstood societies in the world light years away from cosmopolitan Palermo and the paparazzi glitz of 1960s Italy.
No-one from that region with the author’s connections or perspective has ever written about what it was really like. Names, times and places, for obvious reasons, have been altered – he has a family and a life.
Sicilian Shadows eBook Francesco Scannella
Great book on the history and cultural practices of 1960s Sicily. This man is a master storyteller. He uses the life of a little boy, much like "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and "The Little Prince", to convey much more profound ideas. Not enough dialetto though for me unfortunately, and since the author points out that he really has to make a special effort to keep the language alive by speaking it to his kids at home (he says people under a certain age don't even speak it anymore in Sicily), it would probably be a great idea for the author to get together with Arba Sicula and have it translated into Sicilian as a special Sicilian language preservation project. He states how TV did in a few decades what the Romans couldn't in 7 centuries: get Sicily to adopt their culture and language. Too bad southern Italian languages don't get the same esteem as the northern ones, and legal status like say Catalán or Galego along with Spanish in Spain. But the book is a cultural treasure of times, customs and ways of speech long gone in his mother Sicily.Product details
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Tags : Amazon.com: Sicilian Shadows eBook: Francesco Scannella: Kindle Store,ebook,Francesco Scannella,Sicilian Shadows,Medina Publishing,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Criminals & Outlaws,TRUE CRIME Organized Crime
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Sicilian Shadows eBook Francesco Scannella Reviews
An gripping insight into the beliefs and culture from the eyes of a small child, but so much more to it than that. The book is extremely well written, a joy to read, it brings a fuller understanding of the mind set behind the Mafia and the concrete family life that underpins everything. Fantastic I look forward to more.
This is a very good and interesting book about growing up in Sicily in the 1960s. Not only stories about kids, but many shrewd observations and much history and lore. I know the area as I've been in nearby Serradifalco many times. Sicily is not Italy. I wish the book had a glossary, though.
I got Sicilian Shadows because I was interested in reading about Sicily, about the people, about the island, about the Mafia. BUT what I got was a book that delivered a whole lot more!
I've read some of the reviews on the UK version of and there the reviewers seem to be just commenting on the book's main focus; a seven year old child being thrust into an alien culture and a 'sink or swim' situation.
No one in the UK seems to have worked out that the book is so much more.
The Author gives clues to the true nature of the book in the last chapter (I won't spoil it) and basically invites the reader to reevaluate everything they have just read. No one it seems (who has reviewed the book) have understood this.
I've now read the book three times and I must say that it just gets more and more interesting. Yes, it's a wonderful delve into the 'real' lives of Sicilians and the culture that gave birth to the Mafia but I've also come across the Author's argument for and against evolution, his thoughts on religion, on race, on belonging. Mythology and history permeate every chapter and there are some fascinating facts to do with film.
And although I know that the events in the book are based on fact - at times a dirt real, brutal truth - an incident in a later chapter seems to point at something much more spiritually based...and is there a Dante, 'nine circles of hell' thing going on?
It's all very clever and very revealing and well worth the time in reading.
Could not connect with the character. The day to day adventures of a nine year old did not get me involved with the story. Would not recommend this book.
I read this before a trip to Sicily and it gave me a rich sense of what it was like to grow up in rural central Sicily after ww II and the cultural heritage that lives on in pockets in Sicily and the US among other places. It is beautifully written and real.
It is a well written story of how our roots never leave us and how much it actually shapes our lives as we go through life.
It is intense and you can feel his pride and his fear in growing up in both Sicily and then England.
It also describes the abuses Sicilians have always suffered at the hands of other people, including
Italians, who always need to have someone below them on the social latter of life.
Great book on the history and cultural practices of 1960s Sicily. This man is a master storyteller. He uses the life of a little boy, much like "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and "The Little Prince", to convey much more profound ideas. Not enough dialetto though for me unfortunately, and since the author points out that he really has to make a special effort to keep the language alive by speaking it to his kids at home (he says people under a certain age don't even speak it anymore in Sicily), it would probably be a great idea for the author to get together with Arba Sicula and have it translated into Sicilian as a special Sicilian language preservation project. He states how TV did in a few decades what the Romans couldn't in 7 centuries get Sicily to adopt their culture and language. Too bad southern Italian languages don't get the same esteem as the northern ones, and legal status like say Catalán or Galego along with Spanish in Spain. But the book is a cultural treasure of times, customs and ways of speech long gone in his mother Sicily.
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