Fiction review: "The Islands of Divine Music"
Posted by Miriam Wolf, special to The Oregonian October 24, 2008
At the dawn of the 1900s, in Naples, precocious 11-year-old Rosari is sweet-talked into writing a ransom note for an illiterate gangster. That small moment sets in motion a chain of events that alters the course of her life. Forced to flee Italy, her family ends up in San Francisco, where Rosari meets Giuseppe Verbicaro, a ferociously determined laborer who will eventually become her husband.
Their story, and the stories of their children and grandchildren make up Corvallis writer John Addiego's sprawling first novel, "The Islands of Divine Music."
Unfolding across the panorama of 20th-century America, the novel has the intimate feel of a short-story collection. Each chapter zeroes in on a family member, usually one who has arrived at a crossroad in life.
These poignantly drawn character studies reveal the essence of each son or daughter. There's sharp-dressed Narciso, Guiseppe and Rosari's first son, who loves cars and women -- all of whom are so besotted by him they rarely notice he's slow-witted. Nicknamed "Lucky Pants," he's the embodiment of the fool who is smiled on by God. There's Maria, a young Latina hooker who Giuseppe takes as a second wife (without bothering to divorce his first one) and her son Jesus, who end up living a tragic and hardscrabble lives as migrant farmworkers and who resurface in the lives of the Verbicaro family in surprising ways.
And there's Paulie, whose dreams of baseball glory grow dim when he becomes nearsighted. Adrift, he ends up as a soldier in Vietnam and comes back as one of the many lost souls who seemingly left an essential part of themselves behind in that country.
They're all searching for clues to their identity, and while the family members may wander in and out of each other's stories, in the end, each character faces his or her own fate and future alone.
An Italian American family novel like this could feature characters straight out of central casting, but Addiego's lyrical prose and eye for detail bring Rosari's family to life in a way that feels rich and multidimensional. Reflecting the significant events and social movements of the past century through the lives of the Verbicaros adds yet another layer to this satisfying saga.
Details: THE ISLANDS OF DIVINE MUSIC
John Addiego, Unbridled Books, $24.95, 241 pages
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