Capri and No Longer Capri

This is a fine written book by Raffeale La Capria.. It delves into the history in Homar's time and take you to the Capri of today. I was especially interested in reading this book because it was on the reading list of one of my favorite authors, Francis Mayes. Also, because I will be visiting Capri next year.

Capri and No Longer Capri is not a guide book, nor is it a history of the island: it is the reflections of the author, novelist Raffaele La Capria, on his long relationship with Capri. Mr. La Capria has a summer home on Capri but has visited the island, on and off, since he was a teenager. The book consists of chapters that were, for the most part, published elsewhere first. The book begins with Capri's past with chapters on the imperial period, the Blue Grotto, Fersen and the creation of his famous villa, Krupp and his sad end and how Norman Douglas and other writers related their experiences. These are informative chapters that provide the author's perspective and relate his own experiences. The chapter on the Blue Grotto is marvelously descriptive and Mr. La Capria provides his own experiences on visiting the famous tourist site as he waits for all the boats to depart so he can have the place to himself. The concluding chapters of the book relate the changes that have come to Capri over the years; the hoards of tourists that descend on the island in huge groups, the speedboats and huge yachts that anchor off the island and spread their garbage into the sea. More serious is the disappearance of the fish for pollution and over fishing. This is so serious that sea gulls can not longer feed themselves from the sea any longer. It is the consequences of these unwelcome changes that Mr. La Capria is most eloquent about: the beauty of Capri slowly being eroded by over development and environmental degradation. I have visited Capri twice with my wife, going by ferry to the island and preferring to see the natural beauty of the place instead of shopping. It had always seemed to us that Capri was a small paradise but from this book one understands that this is merely an appearance and that environmental disaster is also looming over such magnificent places. This is a very well written book that has been translated from Italian and it offers a different perspective of Capri that a visitor is usually exposed to. The book will appear most to people who have visited the island since I doubt that it would make much sense to someone who has not been there and knows nothing about the places and people described. For those who have seen Capri this is an invaluable book that also serves as a warning: we are destroying the places we love and need to be aware that our actions, such as uncontrolled building, over fishing of the seas and polluting the land an sea all come with a terrible cost.