El Marsam Studio - Writings

Deeply Rooted

in Faith and Family

BOOK REVIEWS

Anthony Buccino | Maya Williamson |Judy Enos |Patricia E. Fogarty

By Anthony Buccino

If you've ever dreamed of packing up all your belongings and moving to a beautiful farmhouse with a breath-taking view of the unforgettable countryside of Umbria in Italy, it would do you well to first read Deeply Rooted in Faith & Family by Ginda Ayd Simpson (290 pages).

Through a series of fate twists, the author - an artist - and her husband abandon a comfortable life in Egypt where his oil industry job has folded after two decades and decide at 50 what's next!

It turns out to be house packing in Egypt, house hunting in Italy and dealing with international shipments (of car and crates) and phone companies and paper work, and finding 'the' house. Says Simpson, "It scares me to think that all our worldly possessions, except for the contents of our suitcases, are in the hands of strangers."

Simpson, who is one of 12 children, weaves chapters of her family history - tied to Italy and tells parallel stories of what led up to the idea that life in Italy could be beautiful, and the strength of the roots pulling her back to her ancestral earth.

Here, in part is how the artist as author describes a relative in Italy: "... Her skin was smooth and dark as an olive but her hands were rough and swollen from her labors. Her thin lips were spread tight across an overbite in a lock of determination and concentration ..." and a later visit to this same relative yields the following, "Caterina wastes no time in beginning food preparations. Visits with Ciccio without eating a full-blown meal are unheard of and surprise visits are no exception."

Finding their new home in Italy is like falling in love for the first time. When it happens, you know it. So we work through the trials of this dream house and that dream house. The journey, well documented here, is the thing. In search of a home, Simpson observes, "The gray skies match my mood but even when I am most dispirited I cannot deny the allure of the sea, an intense blue ribbon of water that meets the misty horizon with defiance."

It’s the defiance of every roadblock to change and moving forward that pulls you along as you read Deeply Rooted.

A colleague tells me that the paperwork trials and bureaucratic tribulations endured by the author and her family are commonplace to this day and likely will be the same hundreds of years from now.

It's the beauty of the place, both in the family flashbacks and the new discoveries in each walk in what will become El Marsam, that serves to overcome the intolerable wait for paperwork to bring a car in from Egypt, or proceed with daughter Bridget and Darin's wedding.

The artist often stops to smell the roses, or in this case the fresh flowers in the groves, and the food. Oh, the food. Everywhere the food has its influences in this book. Every family gathering has more food than anyone can eat. And huge helpings of loving-family-around you with each bite!

The artist as writer observes in word-pictures. For instance, you can see the night sky here: "... the sky that only this morning was an impenetrable white is now a deep blue-violet; the acacia tree creates an ink-black filigreed silhouette against the brushed silver moon."

I hated to finish this book, to leave the sweet, homey visit with artist Ginda Ayd Simpson and her family through their trials. But as her new neighbors might say "basta!" enough. The only way to keep enjoying this story is to pick up and head out to the artist's bed and breakfast in Umbertide. You'll already know the story of how the house got its address, recently, at the end of the 20th Century, when it finally needed one for the new American family that came home to El Marsam, a farmhouse with a view.

This is not a book you are likely to come across in the book store. It has been printed in Italy and published in Italy, and an American publisher should look into our own version. Deeply Rooted is is a delightful and enchanting book of an artist’s journey home. It is one you should consider owning for your personal library, and donating a separate copy to your local public library.

By Maya Williamson

Ginda Simpson's memoir, Deeply Rooted, records not the pangs of growth, the passions of youth, or the high points of a successful career, but rather a process of re-evaluation and recommitment experienced in middle age. What to do when you are no longer tied to a specific location because of your job or your family? Do you go, or do you stay? Perhaps because Americans are less rooted in their soil than people of other cultures, or perhaps because they have essentially remained pioneers, more and more American retirees pack up and move somewhere else. Those with international experience may leave the United States altogether.

With their three daughters off on their own and Ginda's husband's career as a geologist prematurely terminated as a result of a merger in the oil industry, the Simpsons decided to settle in Italy. Deeply Rooted explains why - emphasising the importance of cultural and spiritual rather than physical or geographical rootedness. Ginda, a painter and writer, loves the culture and life style of Italy; her husband loves working the land, growing his own olives and grapes - with dreams of making wine. About one half of the chapters in the book chronicle, in diary form, the details of the couple's move from Cairo, where they were posted at the time of the lay-off, into a three centuries-old restored farmhouse in Umbria. It chronicles all of the emotional and practical upheavals involved in this move, not least of which the challenges of the Egyptian and Italian customs authorities. The other chapters recount, in the form of a narrative covering some hundred years of family history, why the author in particular is so drawn to the land of her ancestors. In this way, alternating between the personal present tense of the diary and the past tense of the historical sections, the narrative makes one an integral part of the other, Ginda's own world a part of that of her extended family, the present of the past, the past of the present.

What distinguishes this book from other en vogue records of cultured Americans setting up house in similarly romantic locations like Provence or Tuscany (the best-selling books by Frances Mayes, for example) is I think the depth of the author's love for and connectedness with the people and their culture. Not only do we get luscious descriptions of landscapes and food in the Niccone Valley, of old houses in their natural setting, of the fruits of the land, of the art and architecture of Florence, and the beauty of the countryside around her ancestral hometown Davoli in Calabria, there are also deeply affectionate portraits of her relatives and stories of family ties that have remained strong across the ocean for over a hundred years, culminating in her oldest daughter's wedding at the Santa Lucia Church in Davoli, their ancestral village, in August 1998.

There is much that is very personal in this memoir, which makes it both heartwarming and eminently readable. It seduces with the culinary and aesthetic delights of Italy, shows that the horrendous hurdles put up by foreign bureaucracies can be overcome without resorting to crime or the dark arts, and is proof that it is never too late to take a new direction. Playing it safe and staying put may be the worst thing for you.

This book is an inspiration, an injuction to follow your dreams no matter what.

By Judy Enos

Deeply rooted like the olive,
With a sweetness like the vine,
Fresh memories become new branches
As the old ones become entwined.

With this verse, Ginda Simpson gives the reader both the theme and the heart of her second book, Deeply Rooted, in faith & family. The cover alone, a sensitive watercolor of the southern Italian landscape that cradles the Church of Santa Lucia painted by the author makes you want to own this book. Reading it makes you want to keep it as a cherished favorite. With an artist’s eye and a poet’s heart, the author skillfully weaves her childhood visits to her grandfather’s ancestral village, Davoli, Italy with her present day move to Umbria, Italy. When her husband, Mike, who has been working in Cairo, Egypt is suddenly retired much earlier than expected due to a corporate merger, they are compelled to make some important decisions, one of which is whether to follow a dream they have long nurtured. They choose to make Italy their home. Thus, the reader is invited to share this daunting adventure of finding a farmhouse with vineyards, olive groves, and an orchard – a serene place where they will plant the seeds for their future. Fresh memories become new branches. Interspersed within this wondrous journey is the story of her Italian ancestors, those who stayed in Italy and those who immigrated to America, and the generations that followed. It is a story of the Italian-American heritage that influenced and molded Ginda and her family. The old memories become entwined.

The author introduces us to both the Cairo she lived in and loved for several years and the Italian countryside she first fell in love with at age 14. The artist in her paints pictures with details the casual eye would miss. For the reader, southern Italy comes alive in vibrant color. You experience the enchantment of Umbria, Italy the way the author does, with open arms. But it is the heart of the author that introduces her Italian family. With the voice of a poet, Ginda recounts a family’s unity and love that have survived being divided by an ocean for one hundred years. It is a tale of the American family who keep returning to the homestead in Davoli and the Italian relatives who welcome them with exuberance and love.

Deeply Rooted is a must read for those who in today’s’ unpredictable work force may be facing an earlier retirement than anticipated. It presents the myriad of emotions one must work through - the loss of what has been one’s life’s work followed by the re-evaluation of goals and aspirations. It is a loss that must be mourned. The emotions of denial, anger, and sadness give way to the practical concerns of life. The author addresses the deeper questions, those that involve the heart and soul. What do we do now? Do we dare to follow our dream? Ginda and Mike lead the way for you as Ginda openly shares their struggles and victories in their quest for fulfillment in this new chapter of their lives.

September 11^th has changed us; yet, Deeply Rooted, in faith & family, assures us all that through the love, faith and strength of family we are deeply rooted. Now maybe as never before we are reminded of how important our families are to us. We are encouraged by this soul–satisfying book that it is time to seek after our own long held dreams. With courage, laughter and tears, Ginda leads the way for us. This book will refresh your spirit, renew your faith and reawaken your dreams.

by Patricia E. Fogarty

Deeply Rooted is a book to enter with care. From her gallery of word pictures, author and painter Ginda Ayd Simpson lays out a richly tinted panorama of the Italian countryside, its land, people, and natural bounty. There’s a thoroughly engaging surface texture. Yet within this brilliant parade of scenes, a complex chronicle of faith and family unfolds, as Simpson and her husband seek to take hold, and root in a new life.

When a corporate merger in Cairo leaves Ginda’s husband Mike jobless, the couple faces a challenge familiar to today’s global market worker. Due to downsizing, and Mike’s age, suddenly there’s no employment, no new address circled as next layover on the map. The Simpsons have no place of their own to return to. Where to go? Most of all: why? Ginda and Mike set out in pursuit of answers.

After the nightmare complications of leaving Cairo, the couple’s first stop in their journey is along the southeast Italian coast, in Calabria. It’s both a reuniting with kin and return to a country that has signified much for both of them. Almost a century ago Ginda’s Grandfather Giuseppe Corasaniti emigrated to America from his father’s lands. Across the wide Atlantic and the many decades, through visit and reunion, the American and Italian Corasaniti relations have never ceased bonding. Though time has passed since Mike’s temporary Naples residence, and Ginda’s last family contact, they still mutually celebrate the rich experiences and life values they each found during their Italian stays. They agree: it’s a common heritage and building-point.

At the Corasaniti ancestral house, great-cousins and aunts still work the land at San Leonardo, in the small town of Davoli. Here the Simpsons arrive to rifocolare - restore and re-strengthen - in every way. For this homestead and its cultivated fields represent a century-long history, where love of family and land, and enduring religious faith have triumphed. A chronicle that begins with Giuseppe’s emigration forms a chain across the passage of time, to a present day wedding ceremony for Mike and Ginda’s daughter Bridget, in the tiny old church reposing in the heart-and-home-land of San Leonardo.

To organize this event, there’s been, of course, a grand Corasaniti reunion and countryside picnic. In one typical stroke from her vibrantly organized word canvas, Simpson provides a Gargantuan vision of the groaning board and overflowing affection shared on this occasion. With the author, we savor the warm sharpness of local wine, the odors of wood oven breads, the hot pepper in local sausages. Corasaniti cousins whisper in our ear: Ci penso io/I’ll take care of that for you. And so, in San Leonardo, surrounded by a casting-director’s dream of relatives and acquaintances, enclosed in a circle of loving warmth, secure in their life-affirming religious convictions and belief in prayer, Ginda and Mike Simpson reconstruct their personal link to the ever-rich and generous Italian countryside, and the sustaining Italian values of faith and family.

Now they know what they want and need. And after long scouring of a brilliantly-described paesaggio, they find it in a stone and masonry casale nestled in the verdant Umbrian hills. Here they bring their energies, dedication, and love to Spazzavento, windbreaker hilltop home. Challenges are the order of each day. From the semi-comic dramas played out with Italian bureaucracy, to the hard physical labor involved in bringing an ancient farmhouse and its lands back to life. Their new home is alive with their energies and commitment.

As coincidental, but icing-on-the-cake climax to the Simpson’s tale, chance research in old documents reveals their casale is four centuries old, part of a much larger estate named “Villa Pace,” a name that represents the lasting peace they find as they work the land, pruning, reseeding, planting, and caring for its abundant crops.

To keep fresh in memory the hard-won fruit of faith and family, and their long journey to this goal, they decide to give their new living space, an Egyptian name, El Marsam: workcenter and artist’s studio. In the old vineyards and fruit groves planted on their undulating terrain, within their ancient casale, the Simpsons are home.

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For those who wish to order directly from author and pay by personal check, please send order to Ms. Maggi Reid, P.O. Box 905, Brooklandville, MD 21022 or contact by e-mail: maggi@mcreid.com