Sicilian Tragedee

by Ottavio Cappellani

Book Overview

Balding, forty-something Mister Alfio Turrisi, an up-and-coming mafioso in Catania, has the deep pockets that London's financial world loves. He, in turn, loves Betty, the spoiled young daughter of Turi Pirrotta, a rival Catanian mobster. Alfio and Betty would seem to be the Romeo and Juliet of this poison-pen valentine to Ottavio Cappellani's native Sicily. That is, until we meet another pair of star-crossed lovers: gay theater director Tino Cagnotto...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374531048
• ISBN13: 9780374531041
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A farce for our times

Tino Cagnotto needs to produce a play. He has burned through the income from his last production and, more importantly, he needs to make a good impression on Bobo, ("I'm a salesclerk, not an object,"), who he met at a Sicilian buffet. But Cagnotto has no project in mind, no script, no ideas and, worse, no patron. Betty Pirotta, daughter of Mafia boss Turi Pirotta, is suffering from a broken heart brought on by a newspaper article about her best friend's party that did not feature a single photo of Betty. The only cure for her agony, Betty tells Turi, is an E-Class Mercedes with television monitors installed in the headrest. Meanwhile, rival Mafiosi Alfio Turrisi is suffering cardiac palpitations over Betty, who he saw knocking down a waiter at a local bakery. Despite his rivalry with Betty's father and despite the 20-year gap in their ages, Turrisi simply must marry Betty. His surprising ally in that quest turns out to be Betty's father, eager to get his overly dependent dependent out of the house and pleased with the thought of inflicting her on his adversary. These romantic entanglements form the nucleus of Ottavio Cappellani's breezy and inspired farcical novel, Sicilian Tragedee. Capallini, a Sicilian journalist, appears to be using the cover of fiction to skewer the people he writes about in his columns, but without an intimate knowledge of Sicily's culture and politics, one can never be sure. Nonetheless, it is significant that the characters who meet untimely ends in Sicilian Tragedee could have been plucked from a Gilber and Sullivan satire. After one perfectly timed killing, the victim's mistress is offended because his widow hasn't called her to express her sympathy "after everything I've done for her." When Cagnotto does get an idea for a new production, it turns out to be a reworking of Romeo and Juliet featuring actors from the "dialect theatre" (a term for plays that focus on everyday people using street language, as opposed to the formal, classical Italian theatre). The highlight of the play is to be the unveiling of Romeo's - brace yourself - codpiece. In the working out of his story lines, Cappellani has succeeds in keeping the reader guessing, but one feels that much has been lost in the translation by Frederika Randall. Too many local references go over the American reader's head but, even with the occasional pause for a quick look-up, the whirlwind visit to the Mafia's home ground is worth the trip.

Molto divertente!

The theme is star-crossed lovers, but Shakespeare would be a bit startled at the casting. It's not in fair Verona that we set our scene, but hot Sicily. And the households are alike in their lack of dignity. Take: Tino Cagnotto, theatre director, who is trying to stage an unusual production of Romeo and Juliet, while battling depression and wooing his younger inamorato, Bobo. Add: Alfio Turrisi, mafioso, in love with Betty Pirotta, daughter of a rival, said rival being all too happy at the prospect of getting the spoiled brat off his hands. Mix in: various aristocrats, dueling cultural commissioners, and actors (never forget the actors!) Result: plots, counter-plots, confusion, hilarity and un libro molto divertente!

Sicilian star-crossed lovers--beware!

Tino Cagnotto is the stereotypical vain, extravagant, gay experimental theater director taking anti-depressants and stimulants, trying to find inspiration and funding for his next production as he is running out of money to support his lifestyle. It could be so very sad, but set him in Sicily, surround him with stereotypical small-time Mafia, small-town government, small-time aristocracy and star-crossed lovers and you have grand and "laugh out loud funny" farce. Poor Cagnotto has run out of ideas, he has no current lover, and the doctor cannot get his medication straight. (Never mind that he frequently mixes the meds with a little alcohol!) The local cultural commissioner needs a new production to attract tourists to the town, and is pushing him to come up with his next production. Turi Pirotta is a local mobster whose position is being usurped by Alfio Turrisi. "Mister Turrisi" owns a bank in London, drives around in an Aston Martin with a right hand wheel and is enamored with all things English. He is buying up land all around the island because it has oil on it. Pirotta started out driving a cement-mixer--that his how he wooed his wife, Wanda. Now he just "fixes" things and launders money, and Wanda and his daughter, Betty, just "bust his balls". But hark! Alfio catches a glimpse of Betty and falls in love--he writes to Pirotta to ask his permission to court the lovely Betty. Pirotta sees a way out of his business and family problems. Betty is out of the house and the enemy is part of the family. Hark again! Cagnotto meets the charming young and innocent Bobo, who loves him. Bobo inspires Cagnotto to produce a new interpretation of "Romeo and Juliet" using "dialect street actors"--the young and beautiful Romeo, Mercutio and Juliet all played by down and out and aging Sicilian street actors. The fun really begins when one of the commissioners is shot at the opening night production and it rolls on from there. There is much "ball-busting" and "f**king" going on, but no sex. An entertaining story from murderous start to happy ending!

A terrific read

If you are an Italo-American,(and even if you're not) it's a great read. If you are an American (as I am) married to an unbridled Italian woman from Milan, it's even more fun. Who but the Italians could conjure up a travelling drama troupe playing Shakespeare in front of an assortment of small town comic uber-politicos and principessa wannabes hell bent on destroying each other before the curtain rises on Act IV. The book gives new meaning to the phrase "laugh-riot".

"This is Sicily, and no matter how ready the police are, if something is supposed to happen, it is v

(3.5 stars) Organized in three acts, this contemporary Italian comedy is easy to imagine as a film filled with sight gags, pratfalls, and mugging by rubber-faced actors. Short scenes, with "asides" by the characters, set up much of the comedy, some of which is a satiric look at Sicilian society--its social levels and mores, its paralyzing political and cultural bureaucracy, and, of course, its Mafia wars. Beginning "two months later," with an assassination in a theatre during an experimental production of Romeo and Juliet, the novel quickly switches back to "two months earlier," with the introduction of more than twenty characters, all of whom are involved, somehow, with the production of this Shakespearean tragedy. Tino Cagnotto, the director, must figure out a way to get the local minister of culture to sign off on it and to provide funds, but political realities being what they are, the minister is unwilling to do that. He must also find a place to hold the production, but no one seems to want to provide that, either. Taking matters into his own hands, and making connections as he can, Cagnotto manages to bring the play into being. The production is bawdy, and the line "Why, then, is my pump well-flowered," is played to the hilt by an actor sporting a codpiece. Love stories, gay and straight, abound--between Cagnotto and Bobo (a male salesclerk and aspiring actor), between Romeo and Mercutio, between the daughter of a Mafia money-launderer and the head of another Mafia family with oil interests, and between various other characters, their mistresses, and wives. "How perfect it would be to be able to resolve matters of the heart the same way you resolved business matters," the men believe. "A little bomb, a nice explosion, and you never had to worry about it again." Before the play is over and the novel finished, two more deaths have occurred. It is not until the halfway point that the action really gets going, and the scenes from Romeo and Juliet, complete with adlibs and asides are hilarious. The reader must use a great deal of imagination throughout the novel, however, since it reads like a screenplay, lacking the description and the transitions between scenes and events which give flow to novels and make them come alive. Some of the humor and satire seems geared to an Italian audience, and the large cast of characters and their interrelationships are sometimes difficult to keep straight without notes. An amusing novel with a huge scope, this novel would benefit greatly from the visual imagery provided by film. Here it is dependent on the reader's own imagination. n Mary Whipple Who Is Lou Sciortino?: A Novel About Murder, the Movies, and Mafia Family Values