Period novel props up untraditional heroine

"The Witch of Napoli," by Michael Schmicker (Palladino Books, $12.99)

Review by Pat Matsueda
Special to the Star-Advertiser

The heroine of Michael Schmicker’s novel "The Witch of Napoli" may have been born in the mid-19th century, but she is a heroine for our time.

Orphaned and fending for herself on the streets of Naples by age 15 — first by doing laundry and then by holding seances — Alessandra Poverelli is hot-tempered, resilient and quick to use both her fists and her sharp tongue to defend herself; as a woman she is victimized by powerful men and struggles to remake herself in order to survive. The backdrop of her story is turn-of-the-century Europe, with its wealthy cities, exciting inventions and new explorations of the mind.

Schmicker, a Hawaii resident who co-authored "The Gift: ESP, the Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People" and is known for his reportorial work on the paranormal, has chosen in his first novel to fictionalize the life of medium Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918). His creation captivates, bewilders and infuriates the men she encounters.

Tomaso Labella is 16 years old and employed by a local newspaper as a photographer when he meets Poverelli in 1899. Although she is 40, she still exudes what Labella calls "a raw, animal magnetism that left boys like me tongue-tied, and made men ignore their wives."

With funding from Camillo Lombardi, an eminent doctor and university professor, the couple embark on a multicity tour of Europe — she as the psychic who will be studied by scientists and academics, and he as her photographer and documenter. Among the many skeptics and critics she encounters is Nigel Huxley, "the grand inquisitor for the London Society for the Investigation of Mediums in England (who) takes no prisoners." Huxley dogs, harasses and threatens Poverelli, setting her up for humiliation and failure.

Twenty years later, after Poverelli has died, Labella reflects on their friendship, saying, "I owe her." The history of that debt informs much of the book. "We were two briccone from Naples who fooled the world," he says.

Schmicker is to be commended for the large amount of research that clearly went into his period novel as well as for his intuitive treatment of a tempestuous woman and her mystifying, little-understood powers. For readers seeking a new and unconventional heroine, Alessandra Poverelli doesn’t disappoint.

Labella tells Poverelli on her deathbed he will share his story with a practitioner of the newfound art of filmmaking, and we can only hope that "The Witch of Napoli" itself makes it to the screen. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Poverelli and Benedict Cumberbatch as her nemesis, Nigel Huxley? The witch would be delighted with the fireworks.

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Pat Matsueda is editor and publisher of thumbnailreviews.com.