I had some issues with Maggio’s other book, Mattanza, which was kind of a personal narrative set against a historical and contemporary consideration of ancient Sicilian tuna fishing rituals. Because of those issues, I was hesitant to read this book, but was pleasantly surprised.

Stone Boudoir is a lovely “travel journal” type book about the mountain towns of Sicily, and Maggio’s writing in this book, as opposed to in Mattanza, is personal without being self-absorbed, and has a lighter touch that gives a very fair but deep treatment to her real subject: Sicilians themselves.

The prose is clean and simple but very evocative, and the chapters, each a little snippet recounting a particular town or story, are short but rewarding.

If you have Sicilian family, you’ll find in this book the comforting sort of learning experience that you would hope to have by travelling to Sicily yourself.

If you just have interest in travel literature, or in Sicily or Italy, the book will do well to present to you an understanding of an ancient culture that, even in our day, is still poised on that brink between the past and the inevitable current of “the future.”

A suggested read.