Fall in Love with a House, A Country and an Author
In 1900 Robert Kitson left his native home in England to seek a warmer climate for his health. He arrived at last in Taormina, an island off the coast of Sicily and built the house of his dreams under the shadow of Mount Etna. After his death the property passed to his niece, Daphne Phelps, and her story of how she took over Casa Cuseni and became a character herself in Taormina is the subject of this book.
A single Englishwoman, she took on the monumental task of saving the Casa from both the British and Italian governments after World War II and won. And that was the easy part; the Casa required an income to run it and pay the unpredictable natives who made up the serving staff. To keep the Casa going she registered it as a common boarding house and began accepting guests. Among them were Tennessee Williams, Bertrand Russell, Roald Dahl and the eccentric Kentucky artist, Henry Faulkner. The portraits she gives of these and other artists are humourous and tender, ironic at times.
Her aqaintances among the local Sicillians range from Beppe, the lovesick houseboy to Don Cicco, the mysterious but entertaining head of the Mafia. How she weaves her rational British self into the passionate life of hot-blooded Sicilly is hilarious but at the same time compassionate and intelligent.
Daphne Phelps never thought of herself as a writer, but she is one of the best I have read in a long time. Buy this book and savor it over Christmas when the Italian sun will feel it's hottest.
