Blood Washes Blood : A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun

Rating:
Summary: emotional inheritance with suspense and honesty
Review: This book mesmerized me. It was good history, good literature, and good psychology wrapped into one. The author tries to understand himself by negotiating over crumbling Sicilian ledger books with tyrannical Sicilian bureaucrats. What he finds leads to the best analysis of Mafia history and psychology I've ever encountered.
Whether or not you're interested in the Mafia, you couldn't find better insight into how human beings are shaped over the generations by the interplay of culture and history. Yet you will read this book like a detective novel.
The author does not try to put a good face on himself, his family, or Sicilian culture. Nor does he push some re-tread theories to explain their shortcomings. He's just presenting the facts as he stumbles across them. How he puts the facts together make the book feel exciting yet absolutely true. He paints an honest picture of human psychology, human families, and human governments - but in such an entertaining way that I think it would be compelling whether or not this is your family culture.
As someone who is from this culture (Partinico), I can attest that he has nailed it perfectly.

Rating:
Summary: Blood washes Blood, an awful name for a great story!
Review: This is a true story. I was off-put by the name, fearing it
was going to be a mafia novel, full of shoot 'em up scenes and bad italian. I was really
wrong this time!
This book is as authentic as they come.
For anyone the slightest bit interested
in their family history, this book is a must read. Especially
if you are Italian, and Particularly if you are Sicilian!
The daily life of Frank Viviano while living in Italy gives
you an excellent idea of what one is up against trying to
search for roots in this vastly different country.
A novel couldn't be more satisfying, after one gets to the
end of Frank's book and we share his discoveries.
Read it.

Rating:
Summary: Sicily at its truth
Review: Yes, this is Sicily... at least at its least extents. Everybody knows but nobody speaks, trust noone, strange behaviour.... but a strong friendship, an enormous respect for elders... all inside one of the most hard but beatiful country in the world. And Frank replicates these feeling in his book, telling a true story that will keep you glued to the book up to the very last page. Also very educative on the historic side, will make you love to see Sicily more than ever.