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Title: The City of Falling Angels
Author: John Berendt
Genre: Memoir/travelogue/muck-raking journalism
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: After celebrating and scandalizing Savannah with his true crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt sets his sights on bigger prey. He arrives in Venice mere days after the legendary Fenice Opera House burned to a shell. While investigating the fire, he befriends (and betrays) a host of colorful characters, each of whom seem to have their own secrets and scandals to hide.
Thoughts: Back in 2005, when this book first came out, I vaguely remember a huge scandal in which Venetians rushed to denounce it. I can see why. Berendt makes friends easily, but I'm not sure how well he keeps them.
The book is a fascinating, dazzling look into the private Venice that tourists never get to see. We meet a wide variety of compellingly drawn people, from aristocrats denouncing democracy to the collector of uniforms who seems to think he himself becomes a fireman or military officer when he dons one of his collection, from a scion of a legendary ex-patriate family who is trying to convince world leaders with nuclear codes to allow him to blast them off to Mars to the defrauded heir of Ezra Pound's estate. Nearly every chapter reveals a new scandal--charity board shenanigans, a gay poet who may have been murdered for an inheritance, family feuds over priceless glass art. Running like a thread through many of the stories is the investigation of the fire and the bureaucracy-mired process of rebuilding the beloved Fenice.
Berendt has a gift for drawing characters in a few economical brushstrokes. You'll enjoy meeting all of them, even the unpleasant ones, of which there are many. I don't think they enjoyed meeting themselves, however. He drills down the ridiculousness of everyone, skewering pretensions and revealing hints of madness. I have no doubt that many of these people met him, thought him to be a charming writerly type, and then were utterly wounded to be served up as a cariacature.
The fire forms a theme, but there's not that much of an arc here. Generally, each chapter is about a new little mini-scandal he's uncovered. Americans and Venetians are treated about equally, so I suppose it's fair.
The overall impression rather agrees with my own experiences of reading about, traveling in, and trying to do business with Italy. Berendt treats the city with exasperated fondness. The bureaucracy is a nightmare, the corruption rampant, the infrastructure crumbling, and the setting enchantingly lovely. The people are by turns pretentious, jaw-droppingly inefficient and venal, sophisticated, charming, and gracious. I would not for a moment take this to be the absolute truth on anything that happened. But I am charmed.
Author: John Berendt
Genre: Memoir/travelogue/muck-raking journalism
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: After celebrating and scandalizing Savannah with his true crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt sets his sights on bigger prey. He arrives in Venice mere days after the legendary Fenice Opera House burned to a shell. While investigating the fire, he befriends (and betrays) a host of colorful characters, each of whom seem to have their own secrets and scandals to hide.
Thoughts: Back in 2005, when this book first came out, I vaguely remember a huge scandal in which Venetians rushed to denounce it. I can see why. Berendt makes friends easily, but I'm not sure how well he keeps them.
The book is a fascinating, dazzling look into the private Venice that tourists never get to see. We meet a wide variety of compellingly drawn people, from aristocrats denouncing democracy to the collector of uniforms who seems to think he himself becomes a fireman or military officer when he dons one of his collection, from a scion of a legendary ex-patriate family who is trying to convince world leaders with nuclear codes to allow him to blast them off to Mars to the defrauded heir of Ezra Pound's estate. Nearly every chapter reveals a new scandal--charity board shenanigans, a gay poet who may have been murdered for an inheritance, family feuds over priceless glass art. Running like a thread through many of the stories is the investigation of the fire and the bureaucracy-mired process of rebuilding the beloved Fenice.
Berendt has a gift for drawing characters in a few economical brushstrokes. You'll enjoy meeting all of them, even the unpleasant ones, of which there are many. I don't think they enjoyed meeting themselves, however. He drills down the ridiculousness of everyone, skewering pretensions and revealing hints of madness. I have no doubt that many of these people met him, thought him to be a charming writerly type, and then were utterly wounded to be served up as a cariacature.
The fire forms a theme, but there's not that much of an arc here. Generally, each chapter is about a new little mini-scandal he's uncovered. Americans and Venetians are treated about equally, so I suppose it's fair.
The overall impression rather agrees with my own experiences of reading about, traveling in, and trying to do business with Italy. Berendt treats the city with exasperated fondness. The bureaucracy is a nightmare, the corruption rampant, the infrastructure crumbling, and the setting enchantingly lovely. The people are by turns pretentious, jaw-droppingly inefficient and venal, sophisticated, charming, and gracious. I would not for a moment take this to be the absolute truth on anything that happened. But I am charmed.
