Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating and fun book!
Review: Theresa Maggio has a beautiful writing style, which is very descriptive.The book, "Mattanza," begins with a bang, when Maggio describes the first time she views the trapping and killing of bluefin tuna. As I read her description of the mattanza, I found it awesome, fascinating and sad. I could actually visualize the fishermen and the giant bluefin tuna. I could envision both fishes and men struggling to win their own goal - life. The origins of the mattanza ritual are interesting. Maggio explains it in such a way that keeps you wanting to know more. I also enjoyed the fact that the book is not only about the mattanza. It is also about Maggio's stay in Favignana -- the people she met, her relationship with them and the fishermen. After reading the book, I felt as if I knew and understood the fishermen who perform the mattanza. If you're looking for a different book on Italy, a place where classical mythology is said to have occurred, a book filled with interesting natural history facts, culture, and sprinkled with a little romance, "Mattanza" is the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Something for everyone!
Review: Theresa Maggio has an incredible gift--the ability to write in a way so as to make the reader feel the experiences as opposed to just observing. MATTANZA is an incredible read--a journey of the heart and soul in the exotic beauty of Italy. A MUST-READ!
Rating: 
Summary: Fish Story
Review: Theresa Maggio has done us a favor by providing a well-written book about a subject little-known to the English-speaking world: I refer to the mattanzas, or communal bluefin tuna kills, that have been a feature of Sicilian life for over a thousand years. In the process, she has introduced us to dozens of colorful characters and an obscure island off the northwest coast of Sicily. Curiously, it is the Japanese -- not the Italians -- for whom most of the tuna is reserved. They have factory ships offshore for processing the tuna into sushi and packing it to fly back home under ice. These mattanzas are intensely covered by the Japanese news media, as Ms. Maggio shows, because bluefin sushi is highly desirable, rare, and goes for astronomical prices in Tokyo. Over the last two or three decades, the number of tuna and their size has declined steadily. One reason is that, at the time the book was written, European fishermen had overfished the tuna using purse seines. Off the coast of North America, stricter controls are in effect to allow the species to recover. The process of luring the tuna into the elaborate traps for the mattanza is complex and deeply embedded in Sicilian lore. It calls for patience, strength, courage, and wiliness -- qualities which are fast disappearing as the knowledge has not been passed on due to the decreasing number of old hands available to impart the knowledge. The only failure of the book is not the author's, but the publisher's. Explanatory photos and more schematics than the single one (in Italian) appearing on the front and rear endpapers are essential to support the text. There are some small photos that are marginally discernible, but plates would have been better. The mattanza is a complicated event, and I feel this is a serious omission. In every other way, I wholeheartedly recommend Maggio's work.
Rating:
Summary: exquisite
Review: This book has a special intrest for me as I am a commercial fisherman who lives on an island. This book unfortunately focused too much on Theresa Maggio and not enough on either the history or practice of fishing. Her writting style is excellent. Unfortunately the content is more sutitable for a magazine article than a book.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting but overrated
Review: This book has a special intrest for me as I am a commercial fisherman who lives on an island. This book unfortunately focused too much on Theresa Maggio and not enough on either the history or practice of fishing. Her writting style is excellent. Unfortunately the content is more sutitable for a magazine article than a book.
Rating:
Summary: ROMANCE - HISTORY - CULTURE this book has it all.
Review: This book was fascinating! Theresa's story will captivate you as you go to Sicily's Egadi Islands. She documents the history of the Mattanza and the people who live their life on the sea. This true story of love and death will make excellent reading on the beack or by the pool this summer.
Rating:
Summary: exquisite
Review: This is a book from the heart. A portrait of a culture on the cusp of destruction, told by a writer of rare poetic gifts. I picked the book up reluctantly, fearing anything that glorifies the hunting and killing of animals. But there is no glory in this killing, only necessity, and pain.
Rating:
Summary: A piece of Sicily
Review: This woman is a great writer. she brings you right to
the subject at hand, this one being an ancient fishing
rite, populated by real, breathing (sexy sometimes) men. You have to read the whole book too! amazing.
Rating:
Summary: The REAL Mediterranean
Review: What a pity this books seems to have dropped from print. Forget Mayle and Mayes with their renovated houses and expensive habits, and gushing nonsense. This is the real Mediterranean, where people are proud but poor (Stendhal says that Italians have no shame about poverty) and attempt to hold on to their centuries-old traditions in the face of declining fishing stocks and changing economic circumstances. Maggio's book is a wonderful testament to these noble men who love their life in spite of its precarious nature--the perfect foil for having to deal with boring MTV-types.
Rating:
Summary: The REAL Mediterranean
Review: What a pity this books seems to have dropped from print. Forget Mayle and Mayes with their renovated houses and expensive habits, and gushing nonsense. This is the real Mediterranean, where people are proud but poor (Stendhal says that Italians have no shame about poverty) and attempt to hold on to their centuries-old traditions in the face of declining fishing stocks and changing economic circumstances. Maggio's book is a wonderful testament to these noble men who love their life in spite of its precarious nature--the perfect foil for having to deal with boring MTV-types.
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