Seasons in Basilicata

June 28, 2004
Intrigued by Carlo Levi's book on life in the Italian province of Basilicata, Christ Stopped at Eboli
, the author and his wife, Anne, decided to live for a year in Aliano, the village where Levi was kept under house arrest by Mussolini for seven months in 1935–1936. In Levi's day, Basilicata, situated in the instep of Italy's "boot," was a place of poverty. Unlike Levi, however, British travel writer Yeadon (The World's Secret Places
) was there to "live happily with Anne, learning, and generally have a spanking good time dining on all those gorgeous porky products and homemade olive oil and wines and wild game and pasta galore." In his entertaining book, he describes how he did just that, renting an apartment with a terrace overlooking the village square, making friends who enjoyed serving him sumptuous meals, learning how wine and olive oil are made and investigating the local superstitions. He tries to find out from the older inhabitants what life was like in the 1930s, but they are reluctant to talk about it, claiming that they are better off than they were. But Yeadon doesn't dig too deeply: finding it hard to reconcile his experiences with Levi's bleak portrayal of conditions in Basilicata, Yeadon concentrates instead on the comradeship and good food. Illus.

August 1, 2004
These two offerings could very well encourage tourists to seek the road less traveled. Virgile's Vineyard is the amusing and very personal account of Moon's adventures in the wine country of the Languedoc region of France and his efforts to restore a rundown house he inherited. Various characters weave their way through his life, but none is quite like Virgile Joly, a vineyard caretaker who becomes a major factor in Moon's efforts to salvage his olive and grape plants. Of course, we get an intimate glimpse into the everyday life of the colorful Languedoc and the lives of the equally colorful characters who inhabit it. A love of Italian hill towns those remote, walled-in places that are the devil to get to brought Yeadon and his wife to the Basilicata region, located in the arch of the Italian boot. An accomplished travel writer and skilled artist, Yeadon sketches rather than describes his adventures, infusing them with a warmth and personality that no photograph could capture. The Yeadons soon discover that residents of Italian hill towns enjoy their remoteness almost to a point of being wary of outsiders; once the couple accepts the limitations of life there, however, and the somewhat pagan practices of the inhabitants, they are warmly received, and the reader is left to bask in the incredible beauty of rural Italy. Both books would make great additions to a public library's travel section since they go beyond the typical attractions to focus on areas that are generally overlooked in tourist itineraries. Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2004
After his exile in southern Italy for anti-Fascist activities during World War II, Carlo Levi wrote " Christ Stopped at Eboli," in which he explores the "dark, ancient, and richly human ethos" of the south's Basilicata region. More than a half century later, summoned by the "siren calls" in Levi's masterwork, Yeadon, with his wife, retreated to Aliano, a tiny village tucked within Basilicata's remote, snowcapped peaks and the site of Levi's imprisonment. There, in a community dating back to at least the sixth century B.C.E., they found winding streets and a wonderfully eccentric populace, including Pietro, the town's geriatric parking attendant, and Viva, a spirited breakfast hostess, who, like many Italians, seemed to have "an inbred natural ability to express all [her] emotions instantaneously." Also evident was an ancient, underlining fascination with the occult, with frequent whispers of werewolves, sorcerers, and death curses. Yeadon's focus on the Aliano people gives this funny, surprising story its lifeblood, as does his avoidance of cliches. His illustrations are a nice touch, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)