Rating: 
Summary: Discovering Sicily
Review: For many Sicilian-Americans the connections with the time before emigration have been long lost or forgotten. Yet Sicily haunts many families with its traditions, food and oral history. The roots of these traditions remain unknown or at best cloudy for most Sicilian-Americans.
Frank Viviano's book "Blood Washes Blood: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun" paints a picture of the unknown Sicily in vivid detail.
Terrasini, the fishing village west of Palermo near Punta Raisi, is the setting for the beginning of a quest that winds its way through New York, St Louis, Boston and Detroit. It's a path that tens of thousands of immigrants took, leaving family members and their stories along the way.
While somewhat autobiographical, Viviano spins this tale of his journey of discovery regarding the mysterious murder of his great-grand father Francesco Paolo (the Monk) Viviano in nineteenth century Sicily. Viviano studies Sicily during his visits in the mid 1990's. At the same time he is researching his family another passion play is being played out with the sensational mid-1990's trial of Sicilian mafia don Toto Riina for the murder of Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife and fellow magistrate Paolo Borsellino. Viviano weaves his modern quest with Sicily's historic past.
Viviano briefly touches on his work as a wire service reporter dashing from war in Bosnia to the struggle of the Kurds along the Turkish and Iraqi frontier. He notes the worldwide struggle of the under dog against the oppressor, like Sicily and it's millennia of wars against invaders. Sicilians as a people struggle for an identity; just as author Viviano struggles for his identity as a Sicilian through the long forgotten truth that permeates his family.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating detective story!
Review: Frank Viviano is a 40-ish foreign correspondent who lives his life in hotel rooms, sublets & war zones. Much to his surprise, he discovers he is not the first in his family to be afflicted with rootlessness; his grandfather tells Frank before he dies of a great-great grandfather, The Monk. "He was always alone. He never stay in one place. You too much like he was, Franky". Then the grandfather goes on to say "The boss tell his men to kill him. The boss, Domenico Valenti." These words simmer in Frank Viviano's consciousness for years until he finally goes to Sicily to discover the story behind them.But "Blood Washes Blood" is much more than a personal family history. The reader is taken on a tour of Sicily, both it's history & it's present. For the average American, raised on the Godfather movies & the Sopranos, this tour is a revelation. For example, we are told that half of all Sicilian villages were not even accessible by road 100 years ago. According to an Italian government study in 1910, many Sicilians had never even seen a wheeled cart! It is into this self-contained universe, this amalgam of 1000 years of invasions that Viviano leads us. Viviano's writing is precise & unadorned, as befits a news reporter, but it is never lacking in descriptive power. He can pull the reader right into a scene, allowing us to picture the characters & surroundings vividly. This is lucky, for although a few pictures are included, there are not nearly enough. If you have been watching "The Sopranos", "Blood Washes Blood" will flesh out many of the relationships & background characters. If you've read Frances Mayes "Under the Tuscan Sun", this book will show you the flip-side of Sicily that tourists seldom see. Either way, you'll definitely enjoy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Having come of age in St. Louis, and marrying into a Sicilian American family, all the "old stories" and legends were the makings for any family get together. Blood Washes Blood brought so many of the old stories to life and was even more compelling to read than The Godfather because it was a family with a familiar name. On his deathbed, Frank Viviano's grandfather whispers an old family secret to him. The secret leads Mr. Vivano, back to Sicily and to a search for answers that seem to elude him. His curiosity as a foreign correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle well prepares him to do the research and fuel his interest in exploring what happened to the great grandfather known as The Monk. My husband and his brothers recently traveled to Sicily and spent several days in Terrasini and Cinisi looking into old records of their ancestors. Unfortunately their trip took place before we discovered Blood Washes Blood. Mr. Viviano turns the old stories into living history. Thanks for the book, our family all enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Having come of age in St. Louis, and marrying into a Sicilian American family, all the "old stories" and legends were the makings for any family get together. Blood Washes Blood brought so many of the old stories to life and was even more compelling to read than The Godfather because it was a family with a familiar name. On his deathbed, Frank Viviano's grandfather whispers an old family secret to him. The secret leads Mr. Vivano, back to Sicily and to a search for answers that seem to elude him. His curiosity as a foreign correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle well prepares him to do the research and fuel his interest in exploring what happened to the great grandfather known as The Monk. My husband and his brothers recently traveled to Sicily and spent several days in Terrasini and Cinisi looking into old records of their ancestors. Unfortunately their trip took place before we discovered Blood Washes Blood. Mr. Viviano turns the old stories into living history. Thanks for the book, our family all enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I highly recommend Blood Washes Blood. While it may be a bit dark and heavy for a summer read, it is definitely worth any time or money spent in the endeavor.
Mr. Viviano has a gift with non-fiction unlike any other writer of this genre I have ever read. His story unfolds like a novel, fascinating in its characters and settings and yet all the more immediate because it is true.
Mr. Viviano traces his family's history and his own journey of self-discovery through the winding streets of Sicily, uncovering a few secrets and finding even more along the way.
At times his prose is almost too real, too painful and private, but it creates an intense bond with the reader.
In short, don't pick up this book expecting a quick read. Yes, it is riveting, but at times a little overwhelming as well. The highest praise I can give Blood Washes Blood was that it left me with plenty to think about once it was finished, and a lingering interest in Sicily and its history.
Mr. Vivano has had articles recently in publications such as National Geographic, and I highly recommend readers to search out more of his work. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Digging into Siciliy's Culture of Secrecy
Review: The remarkable aspect of this book is that in his search for details of his great-great-grandfather's life and death, Frank Viviano goes beneath the surface of officially recorded facts to follow the trail of family secrets. Anyone who has searched for information about their Sicilian background knows that much is untold. Parents and grandparents carry their secrets to the grave. In order to discover the truth, it is necessary to read between the lines. Patience and a knowledge of Sicilian history and culture is essential. Frank Viviano has carefully gathered a wealth of background material that is revealing and useful for the reader who is trying to pursue a similar inquiry into family history. This is fine non-fiction writing. The story unfolds with a certain drama, using the craft of writing to keep us reading well past bedtime! Perhaps the only weakness, in my opinion, is that more is revealed than need be about the author's own personal torments. Any information about an old girlfriend, for example, is irrelevant to the story. This is a minor flaw however. This book is superior to anything I have read about Sicily or searching for Italian roots.
Rating:
Summary: Digging for the truth in a land of secrets
Review: This book is more than a Sicilian-American version of "Roots," more than a detective story about a vicious crime, more than a cultural and political history of a complex island. Journalist Frank Viviano set out to uncover the truth behind the murder of his namesake, his great-great-grandfather, who was a revolutionary in Sicily and a bandit in the vein of Robin Hood. However, for reasons that become clear in the shocking end of this tale, Viviano is compelled to weave descriptions of what he uncovers and the process he must undergo--the difficulty he has finding the genealogical and journalistic information he needs, and the even greater difficulty he has getting the persons controlling this knowledge to share it with him--with portraits of his family members and depictions of life in Sicily now and during thousands of years of conquest by varying outsiders. As one man Viviano asks for help tells him, "Sicily is the book you must study." Sicilians have not known much freedom from oppression, so they have developed ways of protecting their communities, harboring secrets, and speaking in code that are difficult for outsiders to comprehend. As the book's title indicates, in Sicilian tradition, a crime against a family member makes the victim's relatives assume the inescapable obligation of redressing this wrong. In the town Viviano's family came from, one man avenged the death of his mother by killing not only her murderer, but every living male relative of the murderer. However, this is not the only means to settle the score. Because my husband's family came from Sicily, I was eager to read about the island's past and the experiences of the families who left it for America. I was not disappointed in this. It was a surpise to learn that a large proportion of Sicilians have never been more than a half-day's walk from their villages. (However, this may explain why some of my husband's relatives crossed a big ocean to get to Boston, but once there found no reason ever to go outside the city limits.) I also appreciated the information on how the Mafia developed and the role it plays today. What I did not expect, and was enchanted by, were Viviano's hints about the sensual aspects of Sicily, such as how the island smells of lemon blossoms. The book is weakened when Viviano dwells on his failed marriage and subsequent relationships, his regret over not having children, and many of his experiences as a foreign correspondent. He tries to link these discussions with his namesake's reputation for wandering and unhappy second marriage. However, this doesn't work, and merely provides an annoying distraction from an otherwise gripping story that compelled me to stay up too late until I finished this book.
Rating:
Summary: Digging for the truth in a land of secrets
Review: This book is more than a Sicilian-American version of "Roots," more than a detective story about a vicious crime, more than a cultural and political history of a complex island. Journalist Frank Viviano set out to uncover the truth behind the murder of his namesake, his great-great-grandfather, who was a revolutionary in Sicily and a bandit in the vein of Robin Hood. However, for reasons that become clear in the shocking end of this tale, Viviano is compelled to weave descriptions of what he uncovers and the process he must undergo--the difficulty he has finding the genealogical and journalistic information he needs, and the even greater difficulty he has getting the persons controlling this knowledge to share it with him--with portraits of his family members and depictions of life in Sicily now and during thousands of years of conquest by varying outsiders. As one man Viviano asks for help tells him, "Sicily is the book you must study." Sicilians have not known much freedom from oppression, so they have developed ways of protecting their communities, harboring secrets, and speaking in code that are difficult for outsiders to comprehend. As the book's title indicates, in Sicilian tradition, a crime against a family member makes the victim's relatives assume the inescapable obligation of redressing this wrong. In the town Viviano's family came from, one man avenged the death of his mother by killing not only her murderer, but every living male relative of the murderer. However, this is not the only means to settle the score. Because my husband's family came from Sicily, I was eager to read about the island's past and the experiences of the families who left it for America. I was not disappointed in this. It was a surpise to learn that a large proportion of Sicilians have never been more than a half-day's walk from their villages. (However, this may explain why some of my husband's relatives crossed a big ocean to get to Boston, but once there found no reason ever to go outside the city limits.) I also appreciated the information on how the Mafia developed and the role it plays today. What I did not expect, and was enchanted by, were Viviano's hints about the sensual aspects of Sicily, such as how the island smells of lemon blossoms. The book is weakened when Viviano dwells on his failed marriage and subsequent relationships, his regret over not having children, and many of his experiences as a foreign correspondent. He tries to link these discussions with his namesake's reputation for wandering and unhappy second marriage. However, this doesn't work, and merely provides an annoying distraction from an otherwise gripping story that compelled me to stay up too late until I finished this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: This book is the most evocative, brilliant book I have read in years. (And as an English professor , I have read a lot.) First, it is an autobiographical story of a first generation Sicilian American who can find no peace in our restless, rootless culture. He goes to Sicily to find his roots, and more to find the answer to a family mystery of murder. But that is just the skeleton. The book moves on several levels simultaneously: the personal quest; the nature of Sicilian culture described with a spirit of place that would have done D.H. Lawrence proud; the historical origins of the systema or Mafia told without bias, realistically and sympathetically and the story of the modern destruction of folklife everywhere. All of these strands are woven more brilliantly than any novel I have read in years. And this is not a novel; it is truth. If I may add on a personal note: I am the widow of a first generation Sicilian American whom I loved and tried to understand for over 40 years. This book has helped pull together some of the puzzling pieces of the Sicilian character. Please Mr. Viviano, please use your enormous talent to write more books of this type.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: This book is the most evocative, brilliant book I have read in years. (And as an English professor , I have read a lot.) First, it is an autobiographical story of a first generation Sicilian American who can find no peace in our restless, rootless culture. He goes to Sicily to find his roots, and more to find the answer to a family mystery of murder. But that is just the skeleton. The book moves on several levels simultaneously: the personal quest; the nature of Sicilian culture described with a spirit of place that would have done D.H. Lawrence proud; the historical origins of the systema or Mafia told without bias, realistically and sympathetically and the story of the modern destruction of folklife everywhere. All of these strands are woven more brilliantly than any novel I have read in years. And this is not a novel; it is truth. If I may add on a personal note: I am the widow of a first generation Sicilian American whom I loved and tried to understand for over 40 years. This book has helped pull together some of the puzzling pieces of the Sicilian character. Please Mr. Viviano, please use your enormous talent to write more books of this type.
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