In a story spanning 60 years, Angela Mastronuzzi and Patricia Salomone’s new books tell of life in Malta and Italy. Jo Caruana explores what makes these books so special.
It’s always enchanting to read stories of private memories. Personal recollections remind us of our own pasts and take us on a walk down memory lane that tugs at the nostalgia-strings and brings moments in time flooding back.
Two books that will be released later this month plan to do exactly that.
Written by an aunt and her niece, they tell the stories of a family through the eyes of two generations and across two countries and they will be presented to the Italian Cultural Institute on November 26.
“My book is packed full of my own memoires, while the other tells of the memories of my aunt, Angela Mastronuzzi,” says Patricia Salomone, who is well-known for her TV and radio programmes, including Pjazza Taljana, Għandi Pjaċir and Eva Illum.
“We’re presenting the books together because, although one is in English and the other in Italian, one is the sequel to the other.”
The first book, Alhambra, tells of the tragedy, hopes and disillusions of a southern Italian middle class family during the 20 years of the Fascist regime, and the nightmares of war.
Its author, Mastronuzzi, was born in Italy and is 85 years old. She has previously published books of poetry and two historical novels, Debbinska and Selina, La Ragazzi di Otranto. Throughout her career, she worked as a school head and a freelance journalist on the Corriere del Giorno in Taranto and has won several literary prizes. Her book follows her family through difficult years and stresses the futility of war and hatred among people, races and nations.
My Pizza and Toffee Apples in the 1950s picks up where Alhambra leaves off. Written in English, it starts at the wedding of Anna (Mastronuzzi’s sister) to Captain Bertie Salomone, “a young Englishman who had made her his bride”.
“That young ‘Englishman’ was my Maltese father, Albert, who met my mother on Christmas Eve in 1944,” explains Salomone, who was born in 1947. “My part-English, part-Maltese father and Italian mother made for an interesting mix and that’s partly what my story is about.”
Also featured in the story is Salomone’s little sister Daniela, and her childhood companion Roy, who is treated like another member of the family.
“The 1950s were a time of great change, a period of historical moments that affected people’s lives and were to change the world for ever,” she continues, explaining the ethos behind her book.
“There are so many stories to tell from that time, but so many of them hark back to the summers and the activities we would enjoy, whether that was eating the delicious pizza cooked in mother’s kitchen or the pretty dresses made for our holidays in Italy.”
I named this book after the tastes, sights and smells that I remember so fondly from my childhood in the 1950s
Summer also reminds Salamone of toffee apples straight from her Nanny Jean’s picnic basket, swimming in the shallow water that collected in Malta’s salt pans, and chasing friends on the rocks in Qui-Si-Sana.
“People have already started asking me why I chose to call the book My Pizza and Toffee Apples in the 1950s but, to me, back then, that is exactly what life felt, smelt and tasted like,” continues the author, who has also filled the book with pictures from her childhood.
“I recall that, in autumn, it felt kind of melancholic as the summer activities went indoors, silence fell on the erstwhile festive streets and the fiery stars of the festa fireworks no longer lit up the summer sky.
“In winter it was the wind howling up from the rough sea, a mixture of seawater, rusty barbed wire and mother’s Arpege perfume that I remember from while we sat struggling with our homework.
“In spring, on the other hand, it was the taste of chewed stalks of haxixa Ingliża and ċiċri and the exciting anticipation for the closing up of school. Then, finally, in summer it was salty days at the seaside, and the music from the Chalet and the Officers’ Mess – as well as all the other wonderful sights, smells and tastes I mention above. So I named my memoires for my favourite memories.”
All in all, the book has turned into a highlight of Salomone’s search for her identity, presented as an intimate account of a little girl’s view of life on an island that was living through the last vestiges of British colonialism.
“Writing it has been an incredible journey and sharing this with my aunt has made that even more special. Even though my mum [and her sister] won’t be here to share this with us, I am proud that her story will be living on, and look forward to sharing my memories of those special times in her life and mine.”
My Pizza and Toffee Apples in the 1950s will be launched on November 26 at the Italian Cultural Institute, Valletta. For more information send an e-mail to segreteria.iiclavalletta@esteri.it.