Cutter S Island: Caesar in Captivity

Cutter's Island is one of the most brilliant, fascinating novellas I have ever read, an extraordinary portrait of the making of the Western world's most influential political figure. Panella begins with a portrait of the young Caesar as the aimless offspring of one of Rome's wealthiest families, en route to study rhetoric in Rhodes. He is soon captured by a one-armed pirate named Cutter, who is wrecking his personal vendetta on Rome for having been forced to fight as a gladiator years earlier by kidnapping and ransoming its wealthiest citizens. During capitivity, we see Caesar's indulgent young life in a series of flashbacks: his sexual awakening with an older mistress, the visual and emotional images that may have been created by Caesar's bouts of temporal-lobe epilepsy. What we see is a Machiavellian evolution of an aimless young man into a powerful and decisive leader under the tutelage of a most unlikely mentor: his shrewd, filthy captor, Cutter. Vincent Panella's writing is the sparsest, leanest, most electrifying work I have encountered in a very long time, poetic and insightful as a Virgil epic poem. The final scene, between Cutter and Caesar, is dizzying in its emotional power and deftness. I have now read Cutter's Island three times. This is poetry at its finest. This is not something to plow through like the latest Patricia Cornwell novel: this is heady work that is literate, visual, emotional, and unforgettable. Bravo, Vincent Panella. More, please. James Dalessandro, author, 1906

Two historical novels on Julius Caesar were recently released, Vincent Panella's first-person account, Cutter's Island: Caesar in Captivity (Academy Press, Chicago, 2000, 197 pages, ISBN 0-89733-484-1), and Patricia Anne Hunter's omniscient third-person narrative, No Other Caesar (Authors Choice Press, 2001, 224 pages, ISBN 0-595-15778-5). Short but rewarding is Panella's first-person account of a small but critical stage in the life of Julius Caesar, the time he spent in 75 BC as a captive of the pirates on their secluded island. The telling is vigorous, the characters of Caesar and of the head pirate, Cutter, are well-developed, and the concentration on a single sequence of events is tailored to keep the reader's interest and understanding growing in tandem. Hunter begins with Caesar's famous intereview with Sulla ("In that boy there's many a Marius") in 81, when the dictator tried, unsuccessfully, to get Caesar to divorce Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, and she follows him through the rest of his political and military career, right up to the closing scene in the hall of Pompey's theater on March 15, 44, taken from Suetonius's Life of Julius Caesar. The penultimate line of the novel is "Even you, boy?" - rendered by Shakespeare as "Et tu, Brute?" Both authors are concerned with historical fidelity to Whereas Panella concentrates on character, Hunter emphasizes historical events. Both novels are well worth reading. Choose Panella's lively work if you prefer more depth and, through Caesar's experiences with the pirates, a foreshadowing of Caesar's character as it will eventually be revealed. Choose Hunter's tightly-packed account, if, instead, you wish to follow the development of that character all the way from the bold defiance of Sulla's wishes that could have gotten him killed, through the full realization of that very boldness and decisiveness in the heat of battle and chill of politics, right up to the careless indifference about his own death that led him to ignore all the portents and warnings and on the very Ides of March to make himself the object of "the most senseless crime in history" (Hunter quoting Theodor Mommsen). A cautionary note: neither book is overly violent or pornographic, but both contain sexual passages (auto-erotic in Panella) that might warrant a PG-13 rating. Be sure to read them first before assigning them to a high school class. Fred Mench, Professor of Classics, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

An exciting look into young Ceasar's psyche. Mr. Panella's inventive prose does justice to the subject material. A quick read, but well worth it. Highly recommended.

AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE HE SAILED FOR RHODES >AND WAS CAPTURED BY PIRATES OFF THE ISLAND OF >PHARMACUSSA. THEY KEPT HIM PRISONER FOR NEARLY >FORTY DAYS. TO HIS INTENSE ANNOYANCE. >With this quote from Suetonius, Vincent Panella begins his story >of Julius Caesar's encounter with a band of pirates in the Aegean >Sea. This is not the Caesar of Mr. Beehler's second period Latin >class. We left that room with the taste of dust and chalk in our >mouths. Tedious accounts of endless coming, seeing and conquering. >Cutter's Island represents something completely different. What we >have here is: a gull's little blue eye, pirates sleeping in the sand, >swords(both long and short), poetry readings, body parts, many >body parts(some attached, some not), foot-massaging kings, boasting, >dreaming, mocking, blood(quite a lot of blood), feverish fits, vinegar >rubs, twelve thousand gold coins, auguries, power struggles, invoking >the gods, screaming crowds, the smell of roasting lamb and goat, the >smell of roasting humans, smells of shellfish and seaweed, treachery, >nobility, vengeance and compassion. The story alone is compelling >and offers insight into Caesar's character. What drives the story,however, is the beautiful, forceful and lyrical language which >echoes the past but could not be more alive. > The book is a feast and when you push away from the table, >amazed at what you have just tasted (and as in any exquisite meal >there is no hint of all the preparation) and you call to the cook who >is at the sink washing dishes and you try to compliment him on the >meal and he waves you off, muttering something- maybe you see >his funny half-grin and a look of delight in his eye and you hope >that you will be invited back to this table soon. Very soon.>

This is a sparely written yet illuminating account of an incident in the early life of Julius Caesar. Caesar was kidnapped and held for ransom by pirates. After his release he returned with an army, captured those who had captured him, and executed them. It is the author's premise that Caesar's captivity was the making of the man who would later lead armies, conquer nations, and eventually become master of Rome. The story is in effect about the final journey of a boy into manhood. I highly recommend this novel for anyone interested in ancient history or the life of one of history's great statesmen and generals. (...)