In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu

Tony Ardizzone's novel, In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu, is an abundant collection of magical stories and magnificent language woven together to create a extraordinary loving novel about not only Sicilian Americans but also the heartbreak and hope of common people who leave a home to begin again somewhere else. In Ardizzone's case the people are poor Sicilian farm laborers who endure backbreaking work in the rocky fields of oppressive baruni. The place they migrate to is La Merica. The story begins as the character's father, Papa Santuzzu and his wife Adriana, push their sons and daughters, one by one, to the land of opportunity and promise. Rosa Dolci, Gaetanu, Luigi, Assunta, Salvatore, Rosaria and Livicedda Girgenti, Teresa Pantaluna, Ciccina Agneddina, and Carla and Gerlando Cavadduzzo all bribe their way out of the poverty of their island--one disguises herself as a man; another gains the help of enchanted eels. In La Merica they each settle in different cities and wait for their father to arrive. He never does. The children find jobs where "everyone is made to kneel down before Big Business and its creator, Capitalism." One brother becomes a baker, another a hobo, another participates in the formation of a union in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The child Anna experiences visions of a Black Madonna in a Chicago orphanage. Each of the siblings, in their own way, runs up against the barons of industry--not much unlike the tyrannical landlords in Sicily--who comment that if the garlic-reeking, "black-eyed and swarthy" Italians who have "an inborn inclination towards criminality" falls incapacitated beside his machine, "there are over a hundred others willing to take his place, often at a lower wage." The family truly becomes American--and the new world becomes not new anymore--when one of them dies. They cry so much as they drop his flesh into the ground that they realize a passing stranger might think they were crude. Yet more than that, as they stand at gravesite, they already know that "we had come to a land that would stunt and shame and silence us." This seems the wise impetus for Tony Ardizzone's novel. Each chapter of ...Papa Santuzzu tells whom an immigrant---Sicilian, Italian, Mexican, Korean--might be. It is a story about the divine within gentle, valuable souls; it is family story; it is a story that makes you feel as if you are being held by a loving grandparent. Most importantly Tony Adrizzone's novel echoes the past more loudly than the present so that future generations will not forget where they have come from.

This book satisfies that part of me that loves short stories, the part that loves novels, and the part that loves series--for it is all of those things wrapped in one. With it's intertwined, yet distinct stories told in the voice of each of Papa Santuzzu's family members, you learn all about this vibrant Sicilian family's trials and triumphs both in Sicily and "La Merica." I especially enjoyed the perspective that one family member would sometimes give to another's story. Some sections are stronger than others, but most surely hit their mark. The book is written in a fable-y style that reminded me a bit of some of Salman Rushdie's work (especially Haroun and the Sea of Stories), while the intertwined story structure reminded me of another wonderful book, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, by Sandra Benitez. Enjoy this book, and pass it on.

This book made me laugh and cry at the same time. It is filled with lyrical prose and folklore that glitter like jewels.

It always amazes me when a male author can cross the gender line and write from a profoundly feminine point of view. Using the voices of husbands and wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, Tony Ardizzone teaches us the simple wisdom that underlies all the folktales and traditions heard since childhood at family feasts and gatherings. Now you will know why we pray to St Anthony when we lose something, or why we "make the horns"just so.But what was most surprising and unexpected was Mr. Ardizzone's feminist take on the goings on in Heaven. Who doesn't know that Mama is the power behind the throne? Because this book is written as a series of vignettes, it can be read straight through or chapter by chapter. Whichever route you take, you will return to it again and again. A keeper.

As a first generation Sicilian/American, I found this book to be the most wonderful learning tool I have ever found to explain what my heritage is. I would very much like to thank Mr. Ardizzone for his invaluable contribution to this cause. Sicilians are arguably the most misunderstood people on this planet. I am recommending this book to all my family members and to all seekers of learning.