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Lives of the Saints
Very good. Trade paperback. "Set in the Valle del Sole, a tiny village nestled in Italian Appenines, this novel tells the story of young Vittorio Innocente and of his mother, Christina, whose affair with a mysterious blue-eyed stranger abruptly shatters the innocence of Vittorio's childhood." Winner of the Governor General's Award, Winnifred Holtby Memorial Prize 1991 and a Betty Trask Award 1991 and more. The first book in a trilogy. 238 pp. .
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
Nino Ricci
15 books68 followersNino Ricci’s first novel was the internationally acclaimed Lives of the Saints. It spent 75 weeks on the Globe and Mail‘s bestseller list and was the winner of the F.G. Bressani Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. In England it won Betty Trask Award and Winnifred Holtby Prize, in the U.S. was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and in France was an Oiel de la lettre Selection of the National Libraries Association.
Published in seventeen countries, Lives of the Saints was the first volume of a trilogy that continued with In a Glass House, hailed as a “genuine achievement” by The New York Times, and Where She Has Gone, nominated for the Giller Prize. The Lives of the Saints trilogy was adapted for a television miniseries starring Sophia Loren and Kris Kristofferson.
Books in Canada commented that Ricci’s trilogy “so amply demonstrates the author’s tremendous talents that we would be foolish as readers not to follow him down whatever road he next chooses to follow.” That road led him to Testament, a fictional retelling of the life of Jesus. Hailed as a “masterpiece” by Saturday Night, Testament was a Booklist Choice for the Top Ten Historical Novels of the Year and a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Prize and for the Roger’s Writers’ Trust Award for Fiction and was a winner of the Trillium Award.
Ricci’s national bestseller The Origin of Species earned him the Canadian Authors Association Fiction Award as well as his second Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Set in Montreal in 1980s, the novel casts a Darwinian eye on the life of Alex Fratarcangeli, who is torn between his baser impulses and his pursuit of the Good. “This novel does so well, on so many levels,” wrote the Toronto Star, “that it’s hard to know where to begin tallying up the riches.”
Ricci is also the author of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a short biography that forms part of Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series, edited by John Ralston Saul. Ricci’s biography, according to HistoryWire, “provides the best, and best written, perspective on Trudeau there is.”
Ricci's newest novel is Sleep, out in the fall of 2015.
Published in seventeen countries, Lives of the Saints was the first volume of a trilogy that continued with In a Glass House, hailed as a “genuine achievement” by The New York Times, and Where She Has Gone, nominated for the Giller Prize. The Lives of the Saints trilogy was adapted for a television miniseries starring Sophia Loren and Kris Kristofferson.
Books in Canada commented that Ricci’s trilogy “so amply demonstrates the author’s tremendous talents that we would be foolish as readers not to follow him down whatever road he next chooses to follow.” That road led him to Testament, a fictional retelling of the life of Jesus. Hailed as a “masterpiece” by Saturday Night, Testament was a Booklist Choice for the Top Ten Historical Novels of the Year and a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Prize and for the Roger’s Writers’ Trust Award for Fiction and was a winner of the Trillium Award.
Ricci’s national bestseller The Origin of Species earned him the Canadian Authors Association Fiction Award as well as his second Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Set in Montreal in 1980s, the novel casts a Darwinian eye on the life of Alex Fratarcangeli, who is torn between his baser impulses and his pursuit of the Good. “This novel does so well, on so many levels,” wrote the Toronto Star, “that it’s hard to know where to begin tallying up the riches.”
Ricci is also the author of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a short biography that forms part of Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series, edited by John Ralston Saul. Ricci’s biography, according to HistoryWire, “provides the best, and best written, perspective on Trudeau there is.”
Ricci's newest novel is Sleep, out in the fall of 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
April 9, 2009
Winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Bressani Prize.
4 ½ stars
In my opinion, Lives of the Saints is a much more enjoyable, tightly woven story than Ricci’s most recent Origin of the Species. This debut novel is told through the eyes of 7-year-old Vittorio Innocente. Vittorio lives with his mother, Cristina, and his grandfather, the town mayor. The story opens with Vittorio hearing a man’s cry from the stable. Young Vitto also sees a snake, which has special meaning for the villagers of Valle del Sole, Italy. Inside the stable, our protagonist next sees the blue eyes of a stranger in the darkness, but when Vittorio is questioned by his mother about what he saw, he claims not to have seen a thing, focusing instead, on her snake bite. And so begins the tale of Vittorio Innocente’s loss of innocence, and the strong, independent Cristina, and how her actions affect not only her own life, but also those of her son and father.
That she had been bitten by a snake arouses age-old superstitions and fears amongst the villagers even though Vittorio later claims the snake was green, a good sign. It’s Cristina’s affair, well-known to all, that is hot gossip, and eventually results in her being shunned, not only by the hypocritical inhabitants of Valle del Sole, but also by her father. Her son’s struggle to make sense of it all eventually leads him to understand certain truths about human nature.
Ricci has a good story to tell, and his writing is very descriptive: “‘Like dogs, that’s how we live,’ Maria said from the doorway, ‘wash the clothes, haul the water, make the bread, feed the goats, per l’amore di Crist’ let me rest my limbs for a minute.’
And so saying she moved into the stone coolness of the kitchen and set her tub on the floor, then dragged the chair way from the table halfway to the door and straddled it backwards, the way young men did at Di Lucci’s bar. She rested her thick arms on the chair’s back and extended her legs before her, her bulging veins leading like purple highways to the high lands of her hips. Her flesh, its tremors receding, came to uneasy rest, her breasts and belly pressing against the chair back like a cliff wall.”
I am a stickler for over-usage of certain phrases, and per l’amore di Crist’ was used too often for my taste. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Ricci had relegated the phrase to one character, but it was uttered by many throughout the book. And if this was a stand alone novel, I would have considered the ending far too abrupt.
Those minor criticisms aside, Lives of the Saints is great immigrant literature. I am glad I do not have to wait three years to read the second in the trilogy, and then another four years to read the third. Instead, I can continue reading the story of Vittorio Innocente without interruption. I have already turned the first few pages of In a Glass House.
4 ½ stars
In my opinion, Lives of the Saints is a much more enjoyable, tightly woven story than Ricci’s most recent Origin of the Species. This debut novel is told through the eyes of 7-year-old Vittorio Innocente. Vittorio lives with his mother, Cristina, and his grandfather, the town mayor. The story opens with Vittorio hearing a man’s cry from the stable. Young Vitto also sees a snake, which has special meaning for the villagers of Valle del Sole, Italy. Inside the stable, our protagonist next sees the blue eyes of a stranger in the darkness, but when Vittorio is questioned by his mother about what he saw, he claims not to have seen a thing, focusing instead, on her snake bite. And so begins the tale of Vittorio Innocente’s loss of innocence, and the strong, independent Cristina, and how her actions affect not only her own life, but also those of her son and father.
That she had been bitten by a snake arouses age-old superstitions and fears amongst the villagers even though Vittorio later claims the snake was green, a good sign. It’s Cristina’s affair, well-known to all, that is hot gossip, and eventually results in her being shunned, not only by the hypocritical inhabitants of Valle del Sole, but also by her father. Her son’s struggle to make sense of it all eventually leads him to understand certain truths about human nature.
Ricci has a good story to tell, and his writing is very descriptive: “‘Like dogs, that’s how we live,’ Maria said from the doorway, ‘wash the clothes, haul the water, make the bread, feed the goats, per l’amore di Crist’ let me rest my limbs for a minute.’
And so saying she moved into the stone coolness of the kitchen and set her tub on the floor, then dragged the chair way from the table halfway to the door and straddled it backwards, the way young men did at Di Lucci’s bar. She rested her thick arms on the chair’s back and extended her legs before her, her bulging veins leading like purple highways to the high lands of her hips. Her flesh, its tremors receding, came to uneasy rest, her breasts and belly pressing against the chair back like a cliff wall.”
I am a stickler for over-usage of certain phrases, and per l’amore di Crist’ was used too often for my taste. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Ricci had relegated the phrase to one character, but it was uttered by many throughout the book. And if this was a stand alone novel, I would have considered the ending far too abrupt.
Those minor criticisms aside, Lives of the Saints is great immigrant literature. I am glad I do not have to wait three years to read the second in the trilogy, and then another four years to read the third. Instead, I can continue reading the story of Vittorio Innocente without interruption. I have already turned the first few pages of In a Glass House.
April 14, 2012
Ok so this is a book I'm reading for English class so it's not necessarily my first choice, but that's not the reason I'm giving it 2 stars. I'll admit that the idea probably has the potential to go somewhere- a very religious, 60's Italian town and an independant Cristina who is surrounded by controversy; all told from the point of view of her 7 year old son Vittorio who is clearly confused about it all. It's just this book got 2 stars from me for a few reasons:
1. I really don't like how there are many Italian phrases throughout the book. I mean, some are just words that are easy enough to roughly translate from context. But then there are whole sentences and lines of Italian that I can't make sense of. I mean, some of those lines may not be important, but some are and it seems to chop up the book because I don't speak Italian so I don't know what they're saying.
2. Lots of big words. That's not necessarily a bad thing because you don't want to be using really simple words, but when you realize that this book is being told by a 7 year old who can't understand that his Mom is pregnant (I hope that's not a spoiler), when he's using words like "lesions of rust", I don't understand how he knows these words. I didn't when I was 7.
3. The book starts off quite slow. It starts to pick up around chapter 20 but before that, Vittorio is still trying to figure everything out and seems quite oblivious. I guess that's why this is a trilogy, but if I didn't have to read this book for class, I would have stopped way before anything really interesting happenened.
4. There is a lot of description. And I mean a LOT. Description is usually good, don't get me wrong, just sometimes it seems to just drag on and on, almost too much. That makes it just boring becausse sometimes the description is of nothing of particular importance.
5. It can end up being a little...dirty at times. I mean, my Dad skimmed over it for about 5-10 min and was like "This book seems to have a lot of talk about breasts and bodies in it". So I don't know, maybe that's part of his descriptions but it's a little too much at times (not going to give any spoilers though)
Of course, this is just MY opinion. I'd look over the book to see if it seems interesting to you. You might love it. I just really wanted to get my thoughts on this book out there.
Thanks for reading :)
1. I really don't like how there are many Italian phrases throughout the book. I mean, some are just words that are easy enough to roughly translate from context. But then there are whole sentences and lines of Italian that I can't make sense of. I mean, some of those lines may not be important, but some are and it seems to chop up the book because I don't speak Italian so I don't know what they're saying.
2. Lots of big words. That's not necessarily a bad thing because you don't want to be using really simple words, but when you realize that this book is being told by a 7 year old who can't understand that his Mom is pregnant (I hope that's not a spoiler), when he's using words like "lesions of rust", I don't understand how he knows these words. I didn't when I was 7.
3. The book starts off quite slow. It starts to pick up around chapter 20 but before that, Vittorio is still trying to figure everything out and seems quite oblivious. I guess that's why this is a trilogy, but if I didn't have to read this book for class, I would have stopped way before anything really interesting happenened.
4. There is a lot of description. And I mean a LOT. Description is usually good, don't get me wrong, just sometimes it seems to just drag on and on, almost too much. That makes it just boring becausse sometimes the description is of nothing of particular importance.
5. It can end up being a little...dirty at times. I mean, my Dad skimmed over it for about 5-10 min and was like "This book seems to have a lot of talk about breasts and bodies in it". So I don't know, maybe that's part of his descriptions but it's a little too much at times (not going to give any spoilers though)
Of course, this is just MY opinion. I'd look over the book to see if it seems interesting to you. You might love it. I just really wanted to get my thoughts on this book out there.
Thanks for reading :)
February 2, 2025
Lives of the Saints belongs to the genre of novel where a second-generation immigrant retells the story of how their family came to the “new world” and tries to capture the place that was left behind. One hazard that comes with this genre is that we second-generation immigrants are liable to get things wrong, particularly if we rely too much on passed down family stories and presume that’s all we need to know.
I think Live of the Saints does capture the brutality, poverty, and small-mindedness of village life. The scenes in the medical clinic, the market, and at the festival of the Madonna are particularly memorable. But when it comes to the main story, things get strained and thin.
The novel drags with continual explanation. Nothing is left for the reader to discover or infer; everything is spelled out. There’s a strange inconsistency here: especially early in the novel, there are some wonderful passages from the seven-year-old narrator’s perspective, where there’s an intriguing gap between what he observes and what he understands of the adult world. But those passages are sandwiched with long paragraphs explaining the rivalry between the villages, the concept of the evil eye, why people immigrated from rural Italy to the Americas, and so on. Obviously, these bits are not coming from a seven-year-old growing up in the village; they’re coming from the second-gen adult writer who is trying to explain this world to himself and to a Canadian audience.
Related to this, the characters are awfully flat (with the exception of poor Fabrizio). Cristina, the protagonist’s mother, is the central character of the book. Ricci tries to portray her as a Strong Woman, constrained by the conservatism and pervasive sexism of village life, but he cannot imagine her desires or her liberation in anything other than sexual terms. In the end, after some extremely heavy-handed foreshadowing, he simply kills her off. I couldn’t help compare her to the character of Lila in Ferrante’s Neopolitan Quartet, who faces many of the same constraints but is far more interesting and multi-dimensional.
Overall, the word that comes to mind with this novel is “proficient”. For better and for worse, I can see why it’s often taught in school. But for me, it didn’t succeed in leaving the sense of a good story: that this is how it was and it couldn’t have happened any other way.
I think Live of the Saints does capture the brutality, poverty, and small-mindedness of village life. The scenes in the medical clinic, the market, and at the festival of the Madonna are particularly memorable. But when it comes to the main story, things get strained and thin.
The novel drags with continual explanation. Nothing is left for the reader to discover or infer; everything is spelled out. There’s a strange inconsistency here: especially early in the novel, there are some wonderful passages from the seven-year-old narrator’s perspective, where there’s an intriguing gap between what he observes and what he understands of the adult world. But those passages are sandwiched with long paragraphs explaining the rivalry between the villages, the concept of the evil eye, why people immigrated from rural Italy to the Americas, and so on. Obviously, these bits are not coming from a seven-year-old growing up in the village; they’re coming from the second-gen adult writer who is trying to explain this world to himself and to a Canadian audience.
Related to this, the characters are awfully flat (with the exception of poor Fabrizio). Cristina, the protagonist’s mother, is the central character of the book. Ricci tries to portray her as a Strong Woman, constrained by the conservatism and pervasive sexism of village life, but he cannot imagine her desires or her liberation in anything other than sexual terms. In the end, after some extremely heavy-handed foreshadowing, he simply kills her off. I couldn’t help compare her to the character of Lila in Ferrante’s Neopolitan Quartet, who faces many of the same constraints but is far more interesting and multi-dimensional.
Overall, the word that comes to mind with this novel is “proficient”. For better and for worse, I can see why it’s often taught in school. But for me, it didn’t succeed in leaving the sense of a good story: that this is how it was and it couldn’t have happened any other way.
December 10, 2011
I was very disappointed in this book. It was well written, and interesting for a while, but the plot never seemed to go anywhere, it became exceptionally depressing, and looking back on it I'm not entirely sure what it was about. I'm sure there was a deep message somewhere that I must have missed, but it certainly didn't jump out at me and I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to investigate further or re-read to see if I could get it.
October 23, 2013
This is a powerful story, written with strong characterization, the universal theme of human migration -in this case, from the decimated post-WW2 Italian countryside to the new world-and the awe and wonder of a young boy through whose eyes the narration unfolds. A stirring read.
January 18, 2023
It's very Italian. Oedipal dynamics in general are very Italian to me. Don't ask why
June 28, 2022
2.5⭐️/5. I had to read this book for summer school and it really wasn’t great. I didn’t have any expectations going into reading the book, and considering it’s curriculum reading I was prepared for a sucky novel. The book really didn’t leave me with any kind of impact or take away because for the most part the story was stagnant and poorly executed. The narrative is told through a young boys perspective however his thoughts are not those of a 7 year old. More mature sexual themes as well as behaviour is talked or thought about by Vit, which does not fit his age and mindset. I also believe that this MALE authour added in an unnecessary sexualization of women in circumstances that are not inherently sexual. Whenever a female character was introduced her “heaving breast would be strained against her shirt”. These distributors while women were teaching or gardening were out of place and disturbing. Frued would have loved this book. The author made Vit detail descriptions about his own mother that were also sexual in nature. All in all the actions of men in the novel were disappointing and unsettling. The time period has an effect on the blatant sexism of the men in the book so it is predictable that an oppressive and subservient perspective of women will be portrayed, however certain aspects of the book do a horrible job mixing appropriate representation of beliefs in that time period with unnecessary, gross, behaviour towards women. In the novel a doctor makes a comment about taking advantage of the women while she’s unconscious because she would have told him no while she was able to consent. Themes of religious presence in small towns and it’s effect on social standards are explored in the book, yet I found the depth surrounding the subject lacking. In this case I think that having a child tell the story, or at least this authors version of a child narrator hinders the effect of the theme. I do however belive Vits exportation of the concept of death and his understanding of death very interesting.
July 29, 2021
Lives of the Saints is a historical fiction novel written by Nino Ricci. It is a powerful narrative of superstation and beliefs in this coming of age story and immigrant story.
Narrator Vittore Innocente, age seven, watches as the villagers ostracize his mother, Cristina, when she is bitten by a snake, which to them seems a token of certain punishment for her ongoing affair with a German soldier who, apparently, deserted during the Second World War.
As they whisper of lu malocchi0 – the evil eye, the schoolmistress shares with Vittore a copy of the Lives of the Saints. For the saints are not merely the ghosts of some mythical past but an ever-present possibility, the mundane and everyday verging always on the miraculous for Vittore.
Cristina's scrutiny leads to the isolation of the Innocente family – her father resigns as mayor and Vittorio is bullied – not to mention, Mario – his father in Canada, was informed of Cristina's pregnancy and her affair. The townspeople's ruthless treatment leads Cristina to leave the town with Vittorio and heads for Canada.
Lives of the Saints is written rather well. The discussion of Saint Cristina, furnishes an alternate paradigm for understanding Cristina's downfall. If parallels between the saint and the defiant village woman are forced, this weakness is handsomely offset by Ricci's unsentimental depictions of the sway of superstition and ritual, of the mystical undercurrents of village life and of the overarching mystery of childhood itself.
All in all, Lives of the Saints is a powerful narrative of the innocence of children, loss of innocence, superstition and beliefs, and a coming of age story.
Narrator Vittore Innocente, age seven, watches as the villagers ostracize his mother, Cristina, when she is bitten by a snake, which to them seems a token of certain punishment for her ongoing affair with a German soldier who, apparently, deserted during the Second World War.
As they whisper of lu malocchi0 – the evil eye, the schoolmistress shares with Vittore a copy of the Lives of the Saints. For the saints are not merely the ghosts of some mythical past but an ever-present possibility, the mundane and everyday verging always on the miraculous for Vittore.
Cristina's scrutiny leads to the isolation of the Innocente family – her father resigns as mayor and Vittorio is bullied – not to mention, Mario – his father in Canada, was informed of Cristina's pregnancy and her affair. The townspeople's ruthless treatment leads Cristina to leave the town with Vittorio and heads for Canada.
Lives of the Saints is written rather well. The discussion of Saint Cristina, furnishes an alternate paradigm for understanding Cristina's downfall. If parallels between the saint and the defiant village woman are forced, this weakness is handsomely offset by Ricci's unsentimental depictions of the sway of superstition and ritual, of the mystical undercurrents of village life and of the overarching mystery of childhood itself.
All in all, Lives of the Saints is a powerful narrative of the innocence of children, loss of innocence, superstition and beliefs, and a coming of age story.
January 18, 2025
No real plot here to speak of. Vittorio's mom in Italy fools around and gets pregnant while her husband is in the US, and the whole community in her little town judges her harshly. Lives of the Saints is a book that Vittorio's teacher gives him to encourage him to live a good, saintly life. Meanwhile, of course, everybody else everywhere is either judging or sinning in one way or another. I've rarely been a fan of church-oriented books, so that was a bit of a negative for me, but fortunately the church itself plays a relatively small role here, and the story revolves around Mom and son trying to live their best life under oppressive circumstances in their little town. As they board a ship to start a new life in America, the saintly life continues to elude them.
January 22, 2025
I love a good immigrant story, and this one has some richly emotional turns of events, subtly brought in, and with much realism. It also has biblical symbols galore. Ricci’s evocative writing really captures the essence of being human, and a brutality that is only found in the old world.
November 18, 2023
I really enjoyed this novel narrated through the eyes of a child in 1960s Italy. It is very well written, easy to read, and the story is thoroughly compelling. I am looking forward to the following books in the Lives of the Saints trilogy, and including Nino Ricci in my list of authors to follow.
October 25, 2022
4.5 this was extremely sad and so well done
March 8, 2022
Canadian Literature; slow to pick up but the writing was good and the story keeps your interest
January 11, 2018
While I enjoyed what this book was trying to do, I can tell that not only was it written by a white guy, but it lacked a lot of substance. I read this for class, but at the end of the day I found it deeply misogynistic. Why would a 7 year-old constantly be describing the way his mother's breasts strain against her blouse while she's tending the garden? Or when his mother's friend is over, describe the "marble fat of her inner thigh"? Ricci is a man trying to write in the perspective of a 7 year-old boy, and fails miserably. Meanwhile, the boy's mother is trying to somewhat be a "feminist" by not caring what the village might think of her affair and pregnancy, but I hated the way she treated her son, and she was, bottomline, an unlikable character. Why to go for making the feminists unlikable! (she says sarcastically).
Other than that, I guess it accurately portrayed the time, and the little village in Italy, it's population dreaming of the day they'll all have enough money to move to America.
So I did not enjoy this. 2/5 stars.
Other than that, I guess it accurately portrayed the time, and the little village in Italy, it's population dreaming of the day they'll all have enough money to move to America.
So I did not enjoy this. 2/5 stars.
October 21, 2022
I have huge regard for this writer. He was able to tell the story, quite clearly, from an innocent child’s’ viewpoint. A difficult situation, from anyone’s point of view, but to clearly reveal the emotions of the adults, through the eyes of the child, is extremely well done. Haunting, to the end. # 1383.
April 14, 2013
Interesting perspective on a interesting situation from the point of view of a young boy. A bit slow in places. This is the first book in a trilogy.
May 6, 2020
Loving it so far!
September 17, 2021
I liked this book. Reading it felt like the sea, coming at me in waves, readying for a storm that nobody else (other than the folks who read the book) knows about. Liked the beginning, a build-up of ripples, decisions made now that have consequences later. The sea journey starts as the intermezzo, then the finale, short and violent. Once the storm passes, a new beginning is there for the survivors. Coin tossed (or lost), tabula rasa. A new story.
Only 3 *s, but it is the perfect example of a 3.5 in my opinion. A bit inconsistent, fragments that want a bit more love, but overall a very solid book.
As for the characters, the Italian author proves to be a very knowledgeable person who captures perfectly the atmosphere and characteristics of the Italian country folk after the second World war. Both Cristina and her father, the mayor of an Italian mountain village, are drawn beautifully. Ricci knows how these people lived inside and out. He alternates narrative and dialog to portrait the actors; and I particularly liked the credible bits of info that come through the eyes and voice of the seven years old Vittorio Innocente, Christina's boy - Ricci is very good at keeping him a regular kid (ie. there's no special gift that Vittorio could have had to conveniently use as a shortcut through the story).
I look forward to reading more from this author.
Only 3 *s, but it is the perfect example of a 3.5 in my opinion. A bit inconsistent, fragments that want a bit more love, but overall a very solid book.
As for the characters, the Italian author proves to be a very knowledgeable person who captures perfectly the atmosphere and characteristics of the Italian country folk after the second World war. Both Cristina and her father, the mayor of an Italian mountain village, are drawn beautifully. Ricci knows how these people lived inside and out. He alternates narrative and dialog to portrait the actors; and I particularly liked the credible bits of info that come through the eyes and voice of the seven years old Vittorio Innocente, Christina's boy - Ricci is very good at keeping him a regular kid (ie. there's no special gift that Vittorio could have had to conveniently use as a shortcut through the story).
I look forward to reading more from this author.
December 19, 2023
I read Lives of the Saints when it first came out and won the GG back in 1990. Now a student I tutor is reading it in grade 10 English, so I had to pick it up again for a little review…33 years later! (33 seems a perfect fit because of all the religious references in the book, from use of religious expletives and symbolism to the actual novel’s namesake - a book written by Alban Butler in 1756, that features a life of a saint for each day of the year.)
The novel follows the 7th year of Vittorio Innocente’s life from his naive point of view from the moment his mother is bitten by a poisonous snake to the eventual voyage Vittorio and his mother take to get to America.
I forgot how much I like this book! It paints the vivid details of life in a small town in Italy in 1960 and comments on the negative aspects of human nature - so much more intense when every person around has known you their whole life.
But I will say my student struggled with the religious references. While the initial symbolism of the snake that bites Cristina Innocente was pretty clear, readers with no catholic background would struggle with some of the deeper meanings and allusions.
The novel follows the 7th year of Vittorio Innocente’s life from his naive point of view from the moment his mother is bitten by a poisonous snake to the eventual voyage Vittorio and his mother take to get to America.
I forgot how much I like this book! It paints the vivid details of life in a small town in Italy in 1960 and comments on the negative aspects of human nature - so much more intense when every person around has known you their whole life.
But I will say my student struggled with the religious references. While the initial symbolism of the snake that bites Cristina Innocente was pretty clear, readers with no catholic background would struggle with some of the deeper meanings and allusions.
December 26, 2021
What a lyrical read, with prose rolling like the hills around Valle del Sole. This was required reading in my high school for most classes, but my teacher excluded it for some reason. A real shame, in retrospect, that I didn't get to this earlier. I think this is a great option for anyone looking for Italian-immigrant writing. Ricci evokes a stark image of a post-war, Southern Italy, and he executes the voice of his child narrator with great nuance. I appreciated the allegorical nature of the story which slowly escalates to something near magical realism. While I don't typically find magical realism all too compelling, I enjoyed realizing this tone as a background against Vittorio's disoriented struggle against superstition, myth, and belief.
July 18, 2018
Lives of the Saints is a very good novel set in rural Italy in the 1950s. I gave it 4 stars, but just barely, because 3 stars seemed too little. There are many interesting and enlightening aspects to the book such as the impact of emigration, the nature of village community life, traditional family structures, gender inequality, and inflexible social mores. The most important theme, I found, was the tragic impact of inflexible social mores on individuals. The details of life in rural Italy really added to the book. It is the first book of a trilogy. The last two books are set in Canada, after the main character has immigrated. Overall, I would recommend Lives of the Saints.
August 17, 2022
Read this for class.
While I enjoyed Ricci’s world building and his way of immersing the reader in this small, desolate Italian village, I didn’t love the story because it just went nowhere. It felt so repetitive, and it was so difficult to want to read this. I liked both Vittorio, the grandfather, and Cristina as characters, but again, just the constant repetition of events and reactions from characters made it hard to get through.
While I enjoyed Ricci’s world building and his way of immersing the reader in this small, desolate Italian village, I didn’t love the story because it just went nowhere. It felt so repetitive, and it was so difficult to want to read this. I liked both Vittorio, the grandfather, and Cristina as characters, but again, just the constant repetition of events and reactions from characters made it hard to get through.
October 25, 2022
4.5 rating
Cristina, poveretta.
I actually really enjoyed this. I’m reading it for a course but the story was well written, the characters enjoyable and the events linked to historical evidence to some extent. The descriptions were a bit too detailed sometimes but it was for the setting and atmosphere, so I get it. Overall really enjoyed it, I felt transported in their time and felt the hardships of Cristina and Vittorio.
Cristina, poveretta.
I actually really enjoyed this. I’m reading it for a course but the story was well written, the characters enjoyable and the events linked to historical evidence to some extent. The descriptions were a bit too detailed sometimes but it was for the setting and atmosphere, so I get it. Overall really enjoyed it, I felt transported in their time and felt the hardships of Cristina and Vittorio.
March 22, 2023
I felt that the reader was meant to empathize with the main character's mother to a greater degree than I felt compelled to based on how faintly sketched her character was. Or perhaps this was the point- to relay the ambiguous understanding of complex adult relationships from the eyes of a child.
Either way, sparsely and effectively written, though I did not find the story to be quite compelling.
Either way, sparsely and effectively written, though I did not find the story to be quite compelling.
March 22, 2018
Had to read it for Grade 11 U English and all I can say is that the book was good. It had its suspense, for a little while, but 7 chapters later you understand the entire plot and start to find the book lame. This entire novel was from the perspective of a 7 year old kid, which means it gets confusing for us readers to understand what's going on.
July 16, 2019
The book is okay. I doubt I'll read the other two in the trilogy. The book is narrated by a 7-year old in Italy. His dad has gone to make it rich in America--really Canada--and he lives with his mom and grandfather. His mom becomes pregnant as the result of an affair and village scandal results.
April 21, 2023
A strange glimpse of life through the eyes of a 7 year old, with mature themes beyond his understanding. Enjoyable from a historical fiction perspective on an immigrant Italians experience emigrating from Italy to Canada in the 1960s. Enough of a story to cling onto to want to read the second installment on the trilogy In a Glass House.
August 3, 2023
Very well written. I truly enjoyed this book - not knowing that it is the first one of a trilogy at the time of reading it. The characters are well developed and the story is a simple one, yet an enjoyable one. A real gem for Canadians with a love of Italian culture and language. I can't wait to put my hands on the second book of this trilogy.
March 19, 2020
A young boy in a small rural Italian town, living with his Mother and Grandfather, his Father having fled to Canada. The book is filled with descriptions of Italian traditions, superstitions and beliefs. A hard childhood, with an even harder future.
A thoughtful and sad story.
A thoughtful and sad story.
August 25, 2021
"America. How many dreams and fears and contradictions were tied up in that single word, a word which conjured up a world, like a name uttered at the dawn of creation, even while it broke another, the one of village and home and family." (XXI, page 160)
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