The Sicilian

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The Sicilian is a novel by Mario Puzo and describes the life of the folk hero Salvatore Giuliano . The English original The Sicilian was published in 1984, the German translation by Gisela Stege in 1986. Michael Cimino filmed the title in 1987.

action

The novel is set from 1943 to 1950 in the village of Montelepre in the Cammarata Mountains near Palermo in Sicily . The Sicilian boy Giuliano helps his family with smuggling. During an illegal transport, he meets a Carabinieri patrol and shoots a police officer, whereupon he flees into the mountains. Giuliano becomes a bandit and eventually a gang leader. He robs the rich and gives much of the booty to the Sicilian poor. As a result, he receives a large number of people from the population and becomes an opponent of the powerful mafia chief Don Croce. After Giuliano threatened the Christian Democratic government in Rome with the publication of explosive documents and executed a priest and six mafia bosses, a front made up of government, church and mafia formed against him. The son of American gang boss Don Corleone, Michael Corleone, is in Sicily and plans to return to the United States. Don Corleone has promised Giuliano that he would help him go into hiding in the USA. Giuliano is betrayed and shot by a gang member, his most loyal childhood friend and partner, Aspanu Pisciotta. Don Corleone, who had promised Giuliano to publish his explosive will, does not keep this promise.

Characters of the act

  • Salvatore Giuliano - gang leader
  • Aspanu Pisciotta - Giuliano's right hand
  • Passatempo - robber chief under Giuliano
  • Terranova - robber chief under Giuliano
  • Silvestro - former corporal of the Carabinieri in the Bellampo barracks Montelepre
  • Hector Adonis - Professor of History and Literature at the University of Palermo
  • Prince Ollorto - large landowner
  • Don Croce Malo - Capo dei Capi of the Sicilian Mafia
  • Maria Lombardo - Giuliano's mother
  • La Venera - widow, Giuliano's first love
  • Justina Ferra - Giuliano's future wife

Style and themes

  • Michael Corleone already appeared in the book " The Godfather " . There he appears intelligent and personable for long stretches, but later turns out to be a cold, calculating power man. Michael is a frame figure in the novel "The Sicilian" .
  • The hero here is the robber chief Giuliano. This bandit is finally assassinated by his best friend Pisciotta.
  • Enter many Italians. Most remain pale.
  • Messenger report: Puzo intervenes several times and e.g. For example, say: “The hero is dead” etc. The respective event (such as the assassination) is described a few pages later.
  • Historicity: At some points the reader feels like he is in a textbook of history.
  • Color: For example, the three following descriptions are worth reading: The cathedral at Palermo with the grave of Staufer Friedrich II , Sicily in spring and finally the love night of the hero Giuliano with the beautiful widow La Venera.
  • Legend: Every figure that is memorized in the reader is a legend in the sense that Puzo gives it character traits that the reader “believes”. The heroization has succeeded.

Self-testimony

Puzo about his book: “The Sicilian was a fun book to write. A reprise of the Mafia, but in Sicily (It was fun to write the Sicilian - a reprise of the Mafia theme, but this time in Sicily). "

reception

  • The "Nürnberger Nachrichten" write: "Puzo has matured on the subject, which also makes the Sicilian worth reading."

source

  • Mario Puzo: The Sicilian. Novel. Translated from the English by Gisela Stege. Ullstein Verlag Munich 2000 (3rd edition 2003). ISBN 3-548-25123-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From the back blurb of the source