Abstract
Reviewed by: Vito De Simone, Ph.D., Independent Scholar, USA
Just as the weaver who interlaces the thread through the loom to form a beautiful cloth, so does the author, Adolph Caso, skillfully constructs his novel. The author intertwines tale after tale into a complex work that deals with the utmost pressing issues of our times. The reader will be confronted with several aspects of today's “Battle of Civilizations” issues, between the seemingly eternal “Christendom” and the Islamic world, exacerbated by their secret and surreptitious maneuvers, manifested in the everyday life consequences of terrorism with deadly results. There are simultaneously, constructive and destructive principles at work in this novel: A US CIA Secret Agent on a potentially deadly assignment, unexpectedly falls in love with the adversary she is supposed to pursue. Impending events turn a scientific volcanologist expedition's objectives into meaningless efforts; there is talk of highly technological machinery advances but alongside it, there is a Holy Grail-type of ossuary inquiry that reminds us of the Da Vinci Code film.
Jody Vella, the main character and secret US CIA agent, is assigned to find out who possesses a deadly never seen-before electronic machine that mysteriously locates and kills specific individuals in an unexplainable manner. Moreover, the surprising thing is that this technologically advanced machine has killed, so far, only extremist Muslim leaders. The US Military, obviously, interested in finding out who operates this deadly machine, sends Jody, the attractive single woman, to Amalfi, the beautiful city on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. Once she arrives there, things become mysterious and intriguing. The events culminate in an illogical and unexpected tragic end.
The author basically puts into contrast the “entropy” principle (from order to chaos) with the opposing Catholic positive vision, which sees human progress that goes from dark to light, from bad to good, from noise to music, from chaos to order. The reader will have to wait until the end of the novel to understand the result, clarifying which of these two contrasting ideologies will have the upper hand. This contrast is extended to the Catholic and the Muslim religious attitudes. The author takes us back briefly, to the Christian Crusades of the dark ages to clarify the interlocking relations these two civilizations faced in the past, now, greatly revived after the US War in Iraq, which are manifested in the form of terrorism; which, by now, it is practically ever present in our daily thoughts. The author seems to tell us in this work that, not unattended, these conditions could unshackle a violent, end-of the world pandemonium scenario, in which human species could reach its extinction.
The author takes us to Amalfi with its limpidly transparent azure sea and its mountainous background. He relates to us its ancient beginnings and its historic direct contacts with the Muslim world. The reader, in fact, meets and becomes well acquainted with an Italian hardworking “Saracen” family, who live in the same building as the protagonist's, which, is also affected by the present belligerent situation. Jody ends up marrying Michael Capoverde, the suspect scientist-inventor who lives in Amalfi, and whose brother is the Deacon of Saint Andrew's Cathedral in that city. Because of this relationship, the reader will appreciate rarely seen secret cavernous parts of the church, replete with religious relics, mysterious underground tunnels dispersed in the mountainous background, and naturally rocky hideout formations, once occupied by the Nazis and others before them throughout the area's history.
Most of the characters of this novel have Italian names. They are either local Italians from the Neapolitan area, or Americans of Italian background. In fact, the one dominant aspect of this novel is that it does not represent Italian Americans in the traditionally made-over world of immigrants who can hardly make a living, or that live in the margins of the American society. These characters are well-integrated individuals, with prestigious backgrounds or professions. Jody Vella is a highly trained female individual entrusted with a very delicate assignment by the CIA. Her mother, Julie Vella, is a Harvard senior professor of archeology, recipient of a Fulbright, in charge of investigating ways to prevent mass destruction of humans in the event of a Vesuvius eruption. Two brothers, Michael and Paolo Capoverde, born in the US, now living in Amalfi, are both accomplished individuals. The former is a math teacher at a secondary school in Boston, now turned suspect-inventor of an apparatus that can, apparently, transport deadly chemical-biological concoctions precisely deliverable to an individual target through radio frequencies; the latter is a music teacher, now a Deacon of the Saint Andrew's Amalfi Cathedral. Another minor character but complimentary in the narration, is Domenico Fracastoro, Captain-in-Charge of the Port of Naples, who assists the American scientific contingency to gain access to the volcano area under study. The reader will soon find out that Domenico becomes enamored with Jody's mother, Julie Vella, the Harvard Professor in charge of the expedition. In addition, the novel is replete with Italian culture and historic references that go from a quotation of the “Cantico delle Creature” by Saint Francis of Assisi to the popular Neapolitan song “Funiculì funiculà:” There are succulent dinners at restaurants, even food recipes, short visits to the Isle of Capri and its Blue Grotto, even the Emerald Grotto near Amalfi. Just before the end of the novel, the reader is taken to a spectacular concert whose musical piece was “temporarily titled ‘Requiem,’” for reasons unknown then, but that serves as premonition to the world’s most tragic of events that happens immediately thereafter.
Why the author gave the title Amalfi “Re-visited,” becomes ever more mysterious and unexplainable until the very end of the novel, when a prophetic event, worse than that of Pompeii’s last days, takes place in Amalfi. This novel is worth reading.