The City of Falling Angels

Second reading: still so very gossipy, still so very very good.

First reading: Gossip cleverly disguised as commentary upon the citizens of Venice, Italy. Mmm, good.

The entire time I was reading “City,” I wanted to go live in Venice (and I still do now that I'm done). In the first few pages, a man describes Venetians as prone to exaggeration, so clearly I was born in the wrong country. “City” was non-fiction, but most of it read like a novel. It chronicled the author's time living in Venice in the aftermath of a fire that destroyed the Fenice opera house and the subsequent attempts to rebuild it “as it was, where it was.” It also delved into the politics of restoration in Venice, and all the drama that went on behind the scenes as organizations came forward to try to rebuild the Fenice and various other palazzos. The nature of Venice as a whole compared to elsewhere in the world awed me. I really hope to see it someday.

I loved Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, but just couldn't get into a groove with this one. Life's too short to finish books you're not enjoying. I'm moving on.

I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil years ago and loved it, so I was excited when this book came out. Berendt really knows how to select a setting. He also knows how to seek out the local “characters” and bring them to life in print. Like Midnight, this book has a central mystery that's rather unsatisfactorily solved (in this case, the burning of The Fenice Opera House), fabulous descriptions of the city and its art and architecture, and lots of minor intrigues and petty infighting amongst the locals. It's like a really well written gossip column. And it's lots of fun.

I doubt I'll retain much of what I read, but I did really enjoy the book.