A Taste of Sicily

I'm planning a return trip to Sicily, the birthplace of my husband. When this memoir popped on to my radar, I quickly requested it from the library... and promptly forgot about it. Until it arrived. At which point I devoured it. Like a good Sicilian meal.

I'd never heard of the actress, Tembi Locke, but I found her memoir, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Love captivating.

As an overseas college student in Florence, Tembi, an African-American from Texas, meets Saro, a chef from Sicily. They fall in love. They settle in California. They marry. Saro is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. They adopt a baby. Saro dies. But that's not what this memoir is about.

Saro was on the outs with his family in Sicily after he dared to fall in love with a woman from Sardinia. But now, he's in a relationship with Tembi, a black woman from America. You can imagine how they might react. But again, that's not what this memoir is about.

This memoir is about Tembi honoring the deathbed wish of her beloved husband to have his ashes buried in Sicily. It's about spending subsequent summers in Sicily, forging a relationship with Saro's mother, his family and their neighbors. It's starts as a story of connection based on mutual love of Saro, but it shows how love and acceptance evolves. It's a bittersweet story to be sure.

I was able to make many personal connections to what I was reading although my own story about being an American Jew married to a Sicilian is quite different. But it's got me excited about my planned trip to Sicily. I made note of some places I'd like to visit and foods I'd like to try. (I printed out three of the recipes from the back of the book.) It's made me sad that I don't speak Sicilian.