Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci

• Born: August 23, 1959
• Birthplace: Leamington, Ontario, Canada

First published: 1990

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: 1960

Locale: Valle del Sole, Italy

Principal Characters

Vittorio Innocente, a seven-year-old boy

Cristina Innocente, his mother

Vittorio’s grandfather, his mother’s father, the mayor of Valle del Sole

Mario Innocente, his father

The Blue-Eyed Man, a former German soldier

The Story

Valle del Sole is a small, rural Italian village in the Apennine Mountains. It is 1960, and the small community there holds tightly to centuries-old superstitions and religious fears. Their beliefs are a blend of ancient paganism and Catholicism. Villagers pay tributes to the Virgin Mary as a statue of her is carried through the town, and they believe that sacred forces overpower any tangible elements of modernity. Vittorio Innocente is a seven-year-old boy living there with his mother, Cristina, and his grandfather, the mayor of Valle del Sole.

The Innocente family lives a simple life. It is not without its conflicts, however. Cristina tends to the farm while Vittorio is at school. Unlike other mothers, she does not force Vittorio to perform farm work early in the mornings before school. She is not as superstitious or devout as the rest of the village. Vittorio’s grandfather manages the village but has been accused of selling out to the fascists. Vittorio’s father, Mario, went overseas in 1956 and lives in Canada, working to raise enough money for his son and Cristina to immigrate there. Mario writes them letters every month, but Cristina feels abandoned, and to Vittorio, he is nothing but a vague, unhappy memory. One of his only recollections of his father is a violent confrontation in which Mario hit Cristina in the face. She bears a scar from the incident.

One day, Vittorio hears a stifled scream from his family’s stable. He sees a green snake slither out of the stable, as well as a blue-eyed man running away toward a car. The snake has bitten Cristina on the ankle, which to the superstitious townsfolk is seen as a punishment for her ongoing affair with the blue-eyed man—a former German soldier who defected during World War II. As a villager named Antonio Di Lucci drives her to the hospital, Cristina remains unexpectedly calm. She lies to him, saying she was just feeding the pigs, but her quiet demeanor disturbs Di Lucci. He tells the other villagers he believes she is lying about what happened in the stable, and shortly after, word of the incident travels throughout Valle del Sole and Cristina is shunned by the whole community.

When the townsfolk and her father—who holds the same superstitious beliefs—learn that Cristina has become pregnant from the incident in the stable, they shun Cristina. She becomes distant toward her father and Vittorio, who can hear her quietly crying at night. She never tells her family what happened in the stable, though the townsfolk spread many rumors, going so far as to say that her child will be born with a serpent’s head.

Cristina scoffs at their gossip and imprisons herself in her own home. Vittorio struggles to understand the situation. At first, he does not comprehend the connection between the blue-eyed man and his mother’s pregnancy. After being bullied at school and disregarded by his mother, Vittorio gradually begins to grasp what happened.

At school, Vittorio’s teacher Zia Lucia believes he is a godless boy, so she reads to him from a book called Lives of the Saints, which documents numerous Catholic saints. He reads about the life of Santa Cristina, which serves as a reflection of his mother’s own disgrace in the village. Santa Cristina refused to accept the superstitions of the Romans and her defiance led to her execution.

After school one day, Vittorio is attacked by one of his classmates. Cristina hears of the attack and believes it was prompted by the rumors being spread about her. She goes to the home of the boy who beat up Vittorio and attacks his mother, attempting to strangle her before she gets away.

Cristina begins to go about Valle del Sole as if nothing has happened. She is outwardly cheery and ignores the way townsfolk sneer at her. Giuseppina, one of Cristina’s remaining friends, suggests that she should show some regret or guilt over what happened in order to appease the townsfolk. Cristina refuses to compromise who she is. The townsfolk continue to ridicule her.

The townsfolk’s cruelty increases, leading Cristina to decide to leave Italy with Vittorio. Before getting on a truck that will take them to the docks in Naples, where they are to leave on a ship bound for Canada, Cristina yells to the villagers who stare at them as they depart. She declares that they are the ones who are dead because they do not know what it is like to be free of superstition.

Vittorio speculates that his mother actually plans on sailing to her lover, the blue-eyed man. He never finds out though because on the ship, Cristina goes into labor prematurely during a storm, giving birth to Vittorio’s half sister. Cristina dies in the process. The blue-eyed man visits Vittorio in an infirmary. In the end, Vittorio is reunited with his father in Canada.

Bibliography

Baldo, Michela. Translations as Re-Narration in Italian-Canadian Writing: Codeswitching, Focalisation, Voice and Plot in Nino Ricci’s Trilogy and Its Italian Translation. Diss. U of Manchester, 2008. Print.

Guttman, Naomi. "Magical Complexity: Review of Lives of the Saints." Matrix 32 (1990): 74–75. Print.

Imboden, Roberta. "The Hyperbolical Project of Cristina: A Derridean Analysis of Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints." Dalhousie Review 72.1 (1992): 38–51. Print.

Zucchero, Jim C. Migration, Historical Memory, and Ethnic Identity in Italian-Canadian Writing. Diss. U of Western Ontario, 2006. Print.