If asked to pick the "one quality that seems dependable, immutable, endlessly available" in Sicily, novelist and essayist Prose would choose intensity. It is difficult, she admits, to resist the superlative when describing such a place—an inclination that often gets the better of her as she recounts her month-long sojourn on the island. Thankfully, her descriptive excesses are eclipsed by the overall strength of this absorbing travelogue, which melds observation, anecdote, history and myth—the last a subject that formed the framework of Prose's previous work, The Lives of the Muses. The author and her companion traveled to Sicily in February 2002, partly to experience its pleasures but also, as a New Yorker in the wake of the September 11 attacks, "to discover what this island has learned and can teach us about the triumph of beauty over violence, of life over death." Prose's fatalism is well suited to an island that has lived with death—at the hands of foreign invasions and internal brutality—for centuries without forgetting how to celebrate life. Driving through Sicily, Prose explores both its beauty and ugliness; facing the grief that so often underlies Sicilian gaiety allows her to come to terms with her newly fragile world. This process enriches Prose's varied, engaging musings on subjects ranging from the simple wonders of Sicilian cooking to the craziness of Carnivale in a culture that can party with the best of them. Her slim but dense volume is a perfect traveling companion for those planning to visit Sicily and an excellent surrogate for those staying at home. B&w photos by author. (Apr.)
