Books : The City of Falling Angels

Rating: - 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 Americans, did come across as truly an unusual group with customs and ways new and different from the rest of us. Somehow, though Venice is an actual "foreign" city for most of us, it doesn't seem so strange; the author doesn't bring to the table the same sense of excitement, of being in a really new environment. And it shouldn't have been that way! There are certainly a large cast of characters; a possible murder that sort of fizzles out; the fire which destroys the old Fenece Opera house, a tragedy for Venetians and Opera lovers; but somehow I never FELT the loss myself...The only one of his little vignettes of which the book is made that I became emotionally involved in was the story of Ezra Pound, and his long-time partner Olga Rudge, their daughter and her family, and the attempts by a nefarious American woman to fleece Olga, then in her 90's, of not just money but more importantly the rights to the papers, and the memorabilia over 50+ years that she had from the late Pound. It is a sad story that if it took place here and now in the States now would fall under elder abuse laws, but there and then seemed to have been brushed off by the authorities, and even Ms Rudges' adult daughter and grandson seemed not to be overly concerned though they themselves took a financial loss. Berendt was perhaps prevented from pursuing further into this, but is was by far the most interesting and heart-tugging episode: Olga in her late 90's going by foot to the bank to get some of her papers from Pound and being told no, she couldn't have them, they now belonged to the "Ezra Pound Foundation" that is, the dummy foundation headed by the American woman and her attorney, and to whom Ms Olga Rudge had unwittingly signed over her control of everything she owned, even her house. That story just stops too. All the side stories seem to just end, with no real feeling of completeness. I know its non-fiction, and things don't neatly wrap themselves up, but in some of the cases, thing ends with a sort of flat thud. I also never got a clear visual of Venice, which is odd too; one would think the gondoliers, the palaces and St Marks Square would all be brought to life...It should have been but it was never clearly painted for me, I think it was assumed I knew it from photographs, but that should not be assumed by an author. Nor were the people he discussed well "painted " verbally. Overall-- though I stayed with it-- a disappointment.

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Rating: - 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 account of the Seguso glass blowers family split was dangled temptingly then dropped,it would have been interesting to have discovered more. If anything it proved what a poisoned chalice Venice is-forced to suffer the overbearing American 'art lovers' and Z list British aristocracy because they contribute to its upkeep.The sights, smells and sounds of the real Venice were sadly missing from this book which was a shame. Readers would be better served reading any, or better still all, of Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti novels for a taste of the real Venice.

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Rating: - 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 a crime being commited. In The City it is the fire of the Fenice, Venice's opera. You're not thrilled? Well, it isn't exactly a crime in which the finding of the guilty would keep you reading through the night. The book traces the opera's reconstruction to the re-opening but again that also wasn't anything most people would need to hear about.
The narrator spends years in Venice (the book isn't too specific about it - my guess is he drops by every now and then rather than waits for the Fenice to be reconstructed) talking to people. By the way - it is quite striking how almost everyone in Venice has nothing better to do but to talk to him at length... We get a number of (allegedly) true stories, none of which, however, is thrilling. Actually, after a while they get mildly disgusting - petty rivalries in Save Venice, quarrels over the will of a suicidal local poet, fight over Ezra Pound's letters... There is usually some money involved (actually, there is usually big money involved) and it is the money that most often becomes (I would say against the author's wishes - he is quite desperate to present a cultural and literary context) the real issue.
In short - a long and nicely written book without a decent plot and/or conflict. If you haven't read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - buy it immediately. If you have - wait for another Berendt. You may well skip this one.

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Rating: - 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 he moved there there immediately following the 1996 fire that destroyed the Fenice opera house. Part of the story is taken up with the investigation of the fire, and with a few other tales such as the fate of the Ezra Pound foundation and the Save Venice campaign.

It's well-written, but I found my attention wandering from time to time: a lot of effort is devoted to laying out family feuds, squabbles amongst philanthropists and the delineation of the characteristics of a mixed bag of eccentrics. Perhaps the background of this beautiful city gives them all a certain cachet, but I'd guess you could find a similar collection of people anywhere else (in spite of a few asides on the features of the Venetian character, which don't seem to get followed up). As such, I found the book of limited interest, since I had no real idea by the end about why I should care about what these people did or thought.

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Rating: - Social climbing in Venice
Author John Berendt hunts down some of the biggest social climbers on the lagoon. Arriving in Venice just as the Fenice opera house goes up in flames, Berendt creeps around the fringes of the event asking if it was the electricians or the Mafia that caused the historic old building to go up like so much tinder in February 1996.

Each year more and more Venetians move away from the island to make a home to find work away from the hordes of tourist that flush through the city's alleyways and squares in much the same way the waters of the lagoon sluice through the waterways. But Berendt does not want to speak about the struggles of the gondolier or the shopkeeper facing ever increasing rents as Disney and McDonalds flex their muscles. He has more highly gilded fish to fry.

He aims to dish the dirt on some big names and has a go at some dubious behaviour involving the missing papers of former Venice resident Ezra Pound trying to strike a resonnant chord with Henry Jame's 'Aspern Papers' as he does so. But his really big guns are aimed at a wealthy plastic surgeon and the heir to a US grocery chain called Piggly-Wiggly. Yes it really is called Piggly-Wiggly.

These two luminaries battle to head the embossed letter heading of Save Venice, another US organisation consisting of wealthy people who want to be seen in Venice as they save it. Or at least seen in the right places in Venice where they can talk about their generosity with other like minded souls.

For the Venice lover there are some names and places that will be recognised and some rather unastounding revelations about the bureaucratic tentacles that engulf Venice as much as they do the rest of Italy. The City of Falling Angels is an easy, light and ultimately unfulfilling read adding nothing to one's understanding of this most beautiful of all anachronisms. And certainly contains nothing that would make any Venetian choke over their morning coffee in Florian's.