Sicilian Odyssey

Francine Prose might well find herself on one of those lists of oddly appropriate congruency between name and occupation. Indeed the prolific writer has demonstrated an enviable versatility in her witty fictional works and journalistic forays. Yet at her best, her voice is far from prosaic, conveying the distilled, sympathetic wisdom of the unfaltering observer. That characteristic pervades her treasurably evocative, literary travel memoir Sicilian Odyssey--part of the ongoing National Geographic Directions Series. A few months after the trauma of 9-11, Prose embarked with her husband on a trip to Sicily "partly to discover what this island has learned and can teach us about the triumph of beauty over violence, of life over death." She colorfully invokes the profuse legends and myths linked with Sicily (Homer's "Island of the Sun" where Odysseus washed ashore) as a classical backdrop to her own odyssey, which at times in fact assumes the character of a trip back to a timeless, pre-modern way of life. Prose is especially effective at threading into her narrative fascinating items of reference--artistic, historical, and sociopolitical--without appearing didactic. She packs an extraordinary amount of information into her account: art historical observations (including a trenchant interpretation of Caravaggio's disturbing "The Burial of St. Lucy"), the spectacle of religious ecstatics, accounts of culinary traditions, political intrigue, and memorable character sketches of people engaged in everyday habits, with the novelist's touch for the telling detail. Throughout, Prose is keen to capture Sicily's vacillating moods--its cheerful colors as well as its melancholy strain--as a place that "has seen countless cycles of violence and peace, of poverty and prosperity, of horror and beauty"--and yet embodies humanity's will to survive. As the ultimate travel guide, her prose conveys the sights, sounds, smells, and sense of the place with vicarious finesse. --Thomas May