Blurb
An Italian Canadian woman recounts her annual summer trips with her husband to her ancestral village of Supino, Italy, in this heartwarming hybrid of travel guide and memoir. Written with humor and heart, it describes her process of adjusting to life in her father’s hometown, as well as the eccentricities of its people. Supino’s colorful landscapes and citizens make for vivid stories, from pizzerias in sheep pastures and fish restaurants hidden in the woods to village-wide celebrations of figs, watermelon, azaleas, and artichokes. The book goes on to explain how with every trip, the budding Italian gains a deeper understanding of her connection to Supino and comes to more fully embrace her cultural heritage. Filled with brilliant stories about a fascinating land, this engaging narrative explores notions of identity and the restorative power of community.
My Perspective
This is the first book I read from my post Credit Where Credit’s Due. I read about Summers In Supino: Becoming Italian by Maria Coletta McLean from Ionia at Readful Things Blog. You can read her thoughts on the book here.
Summers In Supino: Becoming Italian is a true story of Maria’s memories of her summers in Supino, Italy from when she and her husband bought a house there.
The story was written in an unusual format. It was in chronological order however apart from that it kind of was just written as a continuous memory. Some parts was almost summarised and other parts were intrinsically detailed. Sometimes it flowed beautifully and other times it was jolted. The style didn’t bother me majorly however I did find that sometimes I was taken out of the story because of it.
Supino sounds like a truly fascinating place and I was actually reading this while we traveled through Italy on our European adventure. I was sad that it was not near where we were visiting because I would have liked to have visited and seen what I read about.
I loved reading about the Italian way of life. The comparisons between the Supinese culture and the North American culture were so different and it was sad to see how the North American culture started influencing the area and changing it.
I loved reading about the food too – it all sounded so delicious!
The humour was subtle and I really enjoyed it. It was also quite a sad book.
I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys memoirs and reading about other cultures.
Reading For The Masses 