One of the greatest charms of Robb's book is his evident delight in southern Italy, particularly its food, which is recorded with such intensity of memory that one can almost taste it... As an introduction to post-war Italy, to the country as well as its politics, it can have few equals Caroline Moorehead, Times Literary Supplement One of Letitzia’s pictures later came to national attention. At his trial in 1993, a photo taken of Andreotti standing next to Nino Salvo, a high-ranking mobster associate, was the sole piece of concrete evidence that Andreotti knew Salvo, which Andreotti flatly denied. Readers hitherto unaware of Andreotti and his fate can turn to Midnight in Sicily for further information, but can expect no comforting answers at the end of their reading. Only partly about Sicily; more an exploration of the corrupt dynamics of Christian Democracy enlivened by digressions into the art, literature and gastronomy of the Mezzogiorno. Ideally read in conjunction with Paul Ginsborg’s masterly History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943-1988. A fascinating insight into Sicily and the Cosa Nostra, particularly the political influence of Andreotti. The extreme violence of the 1970's and 80s reads like fiction. Chronicles the relationship of Italy's high-ranking politicians with the Sicily Mafia from the end of World War II to the present

Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb | Waterstones

A look at the post-war rise of Cosa Nostra and its intertwining with Italian politics (what with most of the Government’s ministers apparently being either a part of or closely tied with the group), this was an interesting although sometimes confusing book. A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. Peter Robb is an Australian author. He was born in the Toorak, Melbourne in 1946 and has lived in Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Brazil. His first book, Midnight in Sicily, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for non-fiction in 1997. Rocca di Capraleone is an ugly, mostly industrial city near the coast famous for being the birthplace of Maria Grazia Cucinotta, a well known Italian model and actress. Not Messina, as she often tells the press; I wonder why she would lie about this? I guess because Rocca isn’t as beautiful or romantic as Messina.Midnight in Sicily is an English-language book on Italy written by Peter Robb. [1] The book was first published in 1996. [2] Synopsis [ edit ] Where else in Europe do you find an organised crime syndicate like the ‘ndrangheta, which uses rites that are grotesque parodies of Roman Catholic liturgy? Or a town such as Matera where, until the 1950s, much of the population lived in caves? Or a dish like pajata , made from the only partially cleaned intestines of milk-fed calves? Where but in Italy could an entire sentence-worth of meaning be conveyed with a single hand gesture?

Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb - Publishers Weekly Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb - Publishers Weekly

This book is one of the very best I have read on an aspect of Italian life and politics.(The other is Christ Stopped At Eboli) I am going to read it again, as some of the detail is fading from memory. Robb, a long-term ex-pat writes seriously about the underbelly of Italian life, but also conveys hislove and respect for the country, its traditions and food especially! Spending fourteen years in southern Italy, Peter Robb recounts his journey into the Italian mezzogiorno - chiefly Sicily, but also Naples, and reveals its culture, history, art, literature and politics. The book also explores the dysfunction and impunity that intertwined with the organised crime world or Mafia world of the area from the post World War II era up to the 1990s, and the role of seven-time prime minister Giulio Andreotti. The train ride along the coast from the seaside city of Capo d’Orlando is comfortable, and with my window seat, I see many other places I’d like to visit in Sicily. The island is some 25,707 square kilometres; its mountainous landscape makes it hard to negotiate. The same harsh landscape has created hundreds of small towns, cities and villages, each with its unique language and culture, which would take a lifetime to explore. The beauty of Sicily is there is always something new to experience. Overlapping words: Peter Robb's Midnight in Sicily and Leonardo Sciascia's Detective Stories in Italics". Swinburne Research Bank . Retrieved 6 May 2015. Off the southern coast of Italy lies Sicily, home to an ancient culture that–with its stark landscapes, glorious coastlines, and extraordinary treasure troves of art and archaeology–has seduced travellers for centuries. But at the heart of the island’s rare beauty is a network of violence and corruption that reaches into every corner of Sicilian life: “La Cosa Nostra,” the Mafia.In an intoxicating mix of crime and travel writing, Peter Robb, a writer who lived in Southern Italy for fourteen years, sets out to understand both the historical roots of the Mafia and its central place in contemporary Italian politics. And whether he’s touting the gustatory pleasures of Sicilian ice cream, unveiling the Arabic origins of pasta, or unraveling the criminal history of a bandit, Robb seductively brings Sicilian culture to life. Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb – eBook DetailsStill in print 50 years after publication, outdated in parts, yet full of insights into the Italian psyche, which are as apt today as they were in 1964: “Dull and insignificant moments in life must be made decorous and agreeable with suitable decorations and rituals. Ugly things must be hidden, unpleasant and tragic facts swept under the carpet whenever possible.” Or, more sardonically and pertinently in the context of Italy’s current economic plight: “free competition, this selection which heartlessly favours only uncouth and rough persons whose only merits are those of passing tests, doing their job well and knowing their business, is naturally resented by most Italians”. Fiumara d’Arte is an outdoor sculpture park located out in the hills of Castel di Tusa after Cefalu’. Mostly I was left with a vague sense of how corrupt it seems Italian politics are, that ex-Prime Minister Andreotti was extremely dodgy (to say the least – Berlusconi seems a choirboy in comparison) and that I need to look elsewhere if I want to read about Sicilian food.

Midnight in Sicily: on Art, Food, History, Travel and La Cosa Midnight in Sicily: on Art, Food, History, Travel and La Cosa

urn:lcp:midnightinsicily0000robb_l6k9:epub:f5af38b2-b7b4-42d3-93b8-176a8cb81290 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier midnightinsicily0000robb_l6k9 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t87j4734c Invoice 1652 Isbn 9780312426842 Midnight in Sicily is a fantastic and frustrating book, written by Peter Robb an Australian with a deep abiding love for the Mezzogiorno and its people. A complex subject at the best of times, the vast array of names (whether they be the many organisations like the Demochristians, the Red Brigades and the Cosa Nostra, the criminals and the politicians - who are often one and the same, the prosecutors or the people met by the author either during his past or along this journey) along with a habit of jumping around chronologically and wandering geographically sometimes left me a little befuddled as to who, when and where I was reading about.The case of Giulio Andreotti is an example well explained by the author, with overwhelming and detailed evidence. urn:lcp:midnightinsicily0000robb:epub:499dd689-fa41-49f0-895c-77da96ff9562 Foldoutcount 0 Grant_report Arcadia #4117 Identifier midnightinsicily0000robb Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t6n105182 Invoice 1853 Isbn 1860465978 I’m not entirely sure that the book’s byline (On Art, Food, History, Travel and the Cosa Nostra) really fit, as the parts that weren’t about the Cosa Nostra mostly took on the form of brief tangents or reporting of what Robb ate when he met such and such a person, and didn’t really bring anything particularly illuminating to the subject. The book may have even been more successful at getting across the huge amount of information delivered on the Cosa Nostra had these little distractions not been included. Robb weaves Sicilian history, the Mafia, food, culture, politics and intrigue into a heady brew. None of these themes are explored in real depth, so if you want a recipe book or a detailed history of Cosa Nostra then look elsewhere.

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Italy may seem like the most European of countries. Its capital was that of an empire that encompassed all but the remotest corners of the continent. Italy gave us the Renaissance and the foundations of modern western culture. Rome was the city chosen for the signing of the European Union’s founding treaty. I enjoy travelling by train, it is comfortable, reasonably inexpensive and easy to do, especially in Italy. It’s a good idea to travel in Sicily by train as you can see a fair amount of the countryside as the line takes a coastal route, but for a few moments in the odd tunnel, you get primarily uninterrupted views. It’s a little slow, but today I’m not in a hurry, so I’m happy to look out the window and soak up the sunshine. Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Old_pallet IA18206 Openlibrary_edition This is an excellent insight into Sicilian life. I read this as 'research' just before I went to live there in 2000. The family I lived with were amazed of the things I knew about because I had read about them prior. Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”

That being said, it cannot be doubted that the detailed narrative shines a very illuminating light on a host of figures who deserve opprobrium. Robb centres on Giulio Andreotti, several times Prime Minister of Italy and his associations with various corrupt, murderous ‘Men of Honour’ from Michele Sandona who caused the largest banking crash in Italian history, to Shorty Riina, a corpulent brutal butcher of a man, who all but waged war against the Italian state in the early 1990s as he attempted to bend the entire Mafia and Italian government to his will. The central place of Andreotti in the book works very well, once one becomes used to the way the narrative jumps around, providing an insight into how interlinked with crime key political players were. I was happy to get the opportunity to journey to Palermo by train and walk around for a few hours to give me my first taste of the city.