travelogue-style visit to Venice As a fan of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" I probably am in the same class as most readers of both books in being disappointed by this second one. It has many similarities to the first: both are first person accounts of several years spent as the "outsider" observing the strange customs of an unknown foreign tribe, like an an early explorer in the wilds of who-knows-where. He brought that sense of awe and naivete more believably to us in "Midnight" where the people of Savannah, his fellow... more info
too many outsiders not enough venetians I had wanted to read this book for a long time as I enjoy anything relating to Venice and its history however I was a little disappointed. Although it comes vividly alive when the author meets real Venetians too much time and too many pages are taken up with 'outsiders' the boring section about the controversial Ezra Pound Foundation lent little to the book and seemed never ending---what did it have to do with the Fenice fire ??? It served only to pad out the midddle section of the book. The interesting... more info
Great Expectations Not Fulfilled I know what I expected from a new book by Berendt. I expected something better than the last. I realize now that it was a lot to expect.
The City of Falling Angels does not come up to the standard set by his previous novel. It's not that Venice does not compare to Savannah (I am in no position to tell not having visited the latter), it is just that The City doesn't have a decent story to keep the book together.
Similarities are quite striking - in both books the narrator arrives within days of... more info
Limited sympathy for small-town gossip I found this on a second-hand stall one Saturday morning a few weeks ago. The unique qualities of Venice have fascinated millions of people for hundreds of years, and though we think we keep rediscovering it, it's something of a cliche to say that nothing new can be said about the place (as Berendt acknowledges, with reference to Venetian authorities Mary McCarthy and Henry James, early on in this book). Here, Berendt tries to tell the story not of the place, but of some of the people he encountered after... more info
