It is often said that you can only truly know yourself if you read. It is also often said that you can only truly know yourself if you travel and visit other cultures. I’m currently on holiday in Gravà, a tiny village in Sicily, and I don’t only explore the rich culture here, but whenever I’m not driving around the island, I spend my time buried in a book. After this holiday, I’ll definitely know myself a lot better. Want to know how, both in the real world and in the made-up ones I visited? Read on!
Real world lessons
Our trip started in Groningen, which is approximately 2500 kilometres away from the place we’re staying at right now. Instead of going there by plane, we decided to drive. I’m saying ‘we’, but I should change that into ‘I’, because my partner has recently been operated and he’s unable to drive. I was quite scared, especially in the mountains in Switzerland, when I had to park the car in the ferry, and especially when I had to drive around in Palermo (in case you didn’t know: Italians are notorious for their aggressive driving style). I’m still amazed I made it without a scratch. Here’s what I’ve learned: I can drive better than I thought.
Literary lessons: Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I started reading Adichie’s highly anticipated novel the day before we started travelling. I finished it two days after. It’s about the lives of four women who, during the Covid pandemic, look back on their lives and their loves. While we read about the Nigerian characters’ institutional racism experienced in America, it is also about sexual assault (inspired by the lawsuit against Dominique Strauss-Kahn) and what it means to be a woman. Here’s what I’ve learned: One sentence doesn’t do justice to everything I learned from it, about racism, about travelling, about power dynamics, and, curiously, about how it is mostly men who criticise this book for lacking in plot.
Real world lessons
When we arrived in our home, I was happy to find out nothing had changed there since we were last here, four years ago. It is still beautiful, we can still go out in the garden and pick all the fruit we want, the weather is still nice, and our guests are still very kind. It is almost as though we’ve stepped into a time machine and entered a world where time stands still. Here’s what I’ve learned: Even though nothing has changed here, I noticed that I have changed quite a lot in four years’ time; I’m overall slightly more at peace with myself and less stressful. Sometimes I’m not, though – more on that later.
Literary world: Assembly by Natascha Brown
Having completely settled here, feeling quite at home, and after I’d finished reading Dream Count, I felt that I wanted to read more Black authors. I decided to read Assembly, a novel about a British Black woman who has to prepare for her boyfriend’s parents’ garden party. I had never heard of her, but I read somewhere that it was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, about which I was supposed to give a lecture (unfortunately it was cancelled). It was a short but very powerful novel, and I think I’ll reread it soon. Here’s what I’ve learned: Our modern society is still deeply racist, even though we keep pretending it isn’t.
Real world
On our second day, we went to Taormina, a tiny but beautiful town located near the sea. Last time we were in Sicily, we visited this lovely city, too. This time, however it was absolutely packed with tourists. That’s because the second series of the hit show The White Lotus took place here. While Sicily is not exactly packed with tourists taking pictures of everything, Taormina has unfortunately become one of those inauthentic Instagram places. I don’t like it, but it was quite a bit of fun to watch all these sunburnt, overdressed tourists taking selfies. Also, we saw a statue of Oscar Wilde, who once declared his love for Taormina in one of his letters (I was supposed to give a lecture on him, but unfortunately that one was cancelled, too.) Here’s what I’ve learned: Tourists are annoying. (And yes, that probably includes us, too.)
Literary world: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
In September, I have to give a lecture (let’s hope that one won’t be cancelled!) on the Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song. I started reading it after I’d finished Assembly. It’s about an Irish woman who tries to keep her family together after the country turns into a totalitarian state. It’s a horrifying novel, because it shows just how awful it must be to live in a country where you’re not sure you’ll survive the day. Here’s what I’ve learned: Lynch said that the idea of totalitarianism is scarier if it takes place in Ireland, instead of in countries like Syria, as though it’s more realistic – now there’s a painful lesson.
Real world
Remember how I said I have changed a lot over the years? How I’m more at peace with myself and less stressful? Turns out I was not really telling the truth. We were planning to go to Tyndaris, a very old Greek settlement, and we decided to cross the mountains to get there instead of taking the motorway. It was wonderful journey; we saw the Etna in all its cloudy glory, and we accidentally stumbled upon this really weird ghost town. It had such a creepy atmosphere, and while we were walking around there, bulls walked towards us, as though they were trying to chase us away. We still don’t quite know why this town was built, but I’m glad we left after a while. Anyway, it turned out the road was blocked, we tried another route, but then we got stuck in a town with really narrow streets. I panicked, I didn’t know what to do, I started panicking and crying. It felt like I’d failed. We didn’t even make it to Tyndaris (next day, we took the motorway after all), and the only way we made it out of that village was by accepting the help of some very kind Sicilians whose car we had to follow. They even bought us a coffee. Here’s what I’ve learned: Sometimes, I haven’t changed one bit, and I’m not peaceful at all.
Literary world: Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
I’m currently reading Family Lexicon, a memoir by Natalia Ginzburg. I started reading this book because my mother-in-law recommended it to me, and I thought it would be fun to read an Italian book while in Italy. It’s about Ginzburg’s life from the 1920s until the 1950s, and she writes about her family, Italian history and the rise of fascism. She also shows how every family has their own peculiarities and their own shared language. Here’s what I’ve learned: Reading about someone else’s family made me think of my own family – maybe I should start writing my own memoirs.
That’s it. I’ve run out of books I’ve read, and I’m running out of days, too – even though there’s still so much to see, and I brought so many more books I want to read. We’re leaving for Palermo tomorrow morning, and our ferry departs on Saturday, which means we’ll be back home on Monday.
Here’s what I’ve learned: I don’t want to go home.
Have you ever been to Sicily? What kind of books do you read when you’re on holiday? Have you read any of the books I’ve read? Do you think you learn more from books, or from travelling? Please let me know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to follow me for more bookish posts!
The Open Book 