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Reviewed by Scarlett Jensen for Readers' Favorite
Shucking Capers: Small Stories From a Big Island is a memoir with roots in a walled hilltop town in the province of Agrigento, Sicily. Maria Teresa Agozzino’s father, Lillo, is the eldest son of a Sicilian patriarchal family. Pamela, her mother, is British, and as a family, they live in the UK. Maria Teresa yearned to belong and to be British, but she only felt at home among her Sicilian family. As a child in England, Maria Teresa’s classmates made her feel ashamed of her Sicilian roots. The anecdotes in her memoir are compiled in nine true stories from her childhood and beyond. She reflects on her transnational family, revealing interesting insights that may surprise and inform the reader. One becomes aware of noises, smells, and long-buried memories while Maria Teresa explores music, poetry, thoughts, and literature. The stories embody the essence of her experiences while straddling cultural boundaries as mixed heritage, as female, as single, and later, as vegan. Each story has significance for her; some amusing, others sentimental. At its core, despite the peculiar truce between the old ways and the new, Sicily remains bound by echoes of its complex history and cultural memory.
Maria Teresa Agozzino is a professional in Ethnology and Folklore. She urges readers to be truly aware of the importance of their roots. She suggests that you explore the role you think you can play in the conservation of your heritage. She simply shows you that with love and compassion, you can incorporate a worldview experience in some form of migration and first-hand experience of a different culture. She demonstrates her interest and passion for folk beliefs, customs, and cultural values of Sicily. In Shucking Capers: Small Stories From a Big Island, Maria Teresa shows her appreciation for the richness of historic and cultural values, essential for building a true Italian identity. Through her studies and visits to Sicily, she awakened her passion to search for and recover her roots. It will encourage readers to examine their roots and claim their identity. I can relate to these stories and smile with nostalgia and an appreciation of my Italian heritage.
