The Islands of Divine Music

By John Addiego

The Islands of Divine Music is a novel of five generations of an Italian-American family finding its place in the New World. Against a backdrop of Immigration, Prohibition, the Cuban Missile Crisis,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932961542
• ISBN13: 9781932961546
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Unbridled Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Addiego's first novel is a poetic trip around the world, with a dash of magical realism.

Whenever a book starts with the diagram of a family tree, you know you're in for a lot of characters. Instead of trying to figure out how everyone connects, it's best to dive into the charm of The Islands of Divine Music. This isn't a jaunt into tropical magical realism, like the title suggests, but it does borrow from it and it lands there at the end. We travel with the Verbicaro family through cholera epidemics in Southern Italy, the big earthquake in San Francisco, Cold War paranoia, after-effects of the Vietnam War, Native American protests at Alcatraz, migratory farm worker life in the Western United States, and end with religious fervor in Mexico. Somehow, this works seamlessly in author John Addiego's capable hands. Corvallis, Ore., resident Addiego is the author of numerous stories and poems, and is the former poetry editor at the Northwest Review. The Islands of Divine Music is his first novel. It is one of those books you have to read to experience the nuanced details, the deft language, and the intriguing characters. Addiego's poetry background is felt in every page. Fortunately, he also has a novelist's knowledge of his characters. Even though The Islands of Divine Music is only 241 pages, it's a large story, but the scope of its characters is intimate. We start in Southern Italy with the matriarch, Rosari, as a child. Her father moves their family from their cholera-ridden village in Calabria to live in Naples. Rosari can read and write at a time when only one out of ten people in Naples is literate. A local criminal pays her to write a letter for him and his associate. She agrees because she has a crush on the handsome criminal and doesn't understand that she is writing a kidnapping letter. Once I read the letter, I knew I was in for an entertaining story: Esteemed Sir, Please excuse this intrusion into your private affairs. Financial difficulties, as well as recent illnesses in my family, have forced me into the position in which I find myself. My associate and I must come to your hotel this afternoon and kidnap you. Be entirely assured that no harm will come to you, and that your freedom will be immediately reinstated once a ransom of five thousand lire, or the equivalent in your British pounds, has been transferred to you by wire from your most highly esteemed family in Great Britain. It is my greatest hope that, once I have received this money, you will continue your travels in the sunny South. Perhaps you will see the ruins at Pompeii? Of course, that is your affair, not mine. I only wish you the least inconvenience during this kidnap, as well as many happy returns to our beautiful city. The British man finds the kidnapping to be a lark, but his father gives the police twice the ransom to hunt down the criminals. They are arrested in a bar where they are playing pinochle and sharing chianti with their victim. While the criminals await hanging in the town square, the police search for the third ac

atmosphere, and a ton of heart

. . . a great debut, with loads of wit, atmosphere, and a ton of heart . . . think middlesex with italians in san francisco . . . it's really pretty impressive how much ground addiego covers in these linked stories, and how fluidly he covers it-- from calabria to the s.f., from prohibition to the dawn of the new millennium . . . another great offering from an indie press . . .