Mattanza: The Ancient Sicilian Ritual of Bluefin Tuna Fishing

by Theresa Maggio

Book Overview

Maggio delivers a magnificent journey inside the world of a Sicilian fishing community and its thousand-year-old rituals. Part memoir, part natural history, Mattanza is a riveting narrative of one woman's journey into another world. 30 photos.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141001607
• ISBN13: 9780141001609
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

life, blood, and sweat...

this was a great read. this woman can really write well.I loved her descriptions of these fisherman. Made me wishI wasn't married. I'd go over there and get me one!great descriptions!

transcended

Maggio's words sent me to a time and place that my thoughts could not imagine without a guide to show the way. The startling contrast between the ritual of the tuna slaughter and life in my cozy home nestled by a roaring fire are apparent from the opening pages. A true adventure that reads like a fictitious novel of love for the life and life for the love of a bloody massacre few have witnessed. Sushi? Is it a non-fiction? Is it an advertisement for the gourmet market? Is it a traditon that will endure? Without Maggio's persistant journeys to the site of the tonnora and the substance of a writer without limits, this work would not have traveled to my hands and through my mind. Inspirational story-telling by an artist that paints through words and colors with the culture and rich tradition of a brutal ritual.Thank You Ms. Maggio for giving my dreams substance and a sicilian fantasy.jackie farrow

Fascinating and fun book!

Theresa Maggio has a beautiful writing style, which is very descriptive.The book, "Mattanza," begins with a bang, when Maggio describes the first time she views the trapping and killing of bluefin tuna. As I read her description of the mattanza, I found it awesome, fascinating and sad. I could actually visualize the fishermen and the giant bluefin tuna. I could envision both fishes and men struggling to win their own goal - life. The origins of the mattanza ritual are interesting. Maggio explains it in such a way that keeps you wanting to know more. I also enjoyed the fact that the book is not only about the mattanza. It is also about Maggio's stay in Favignana -- the people she met, her relationship with them and the fishermen. After reading the book, I felt as if I knew and understood the fishermen who perform the mattanza.If you're looking for a different book on Italy, a place where classical mythology is said to have occurred, a book filled with interesting natural history facts, culture, and sprinkled with a little romance, "Mattanza" is the book for you!

ROMANCE - HISTORY - CULTURE this book has it all.

This book was fascinating! Theresa's story will captivate you as you go to Sicily's Egadi Islands. She documents the history of the Mattanza and the people who live their life on the sea. This true story of love and death will make excellent reading on the beack or by the pool this summer.

A wonderful book which takes you on a trip with the author.

Mattanza Love and Death In The Sea of Sicily by Theresa Maggio pulls you into the world of the men and customs found only on this small island. Theresa Maggio not only tells a wonderful story, but she is able to paint the scenes and views she has seen into the readers mind. You can see the colorful boats owned by the fishermen, smell the drying nets as they hang in the damp cannery building, and feel the warm sun as she rides her bike from her tiny room into the piazza to wait for her voyage to the chamber of death out at sea.I am always looking in the NYT travel section for Miss Maggio's travel stories which have appeared over the years. Her photographs are wonderful and revealing of a time and tempo of the villages she visits and shares with us.Her book is scientifically accurate, honest and a very lovely read.