The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
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Book Reviews of The City of Falling Angels
Book Review: Gotta go to Venice
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have been to Venice, you will LOVE this book. You see yourself wandering the little streets and visiting the villas all over again. Great insight into the natives.Book Review: Slugging through Venetian Canals
Summary: 4 Stars
Perhaps you remember John Berendt's strong novelistic narrative drive in his book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? And perhaps you recall the excellent movie version that was made from the book? This book, The City of Falling Angels, is a different kettle of fish.
Had I not visited Venice in November of 2007 and roamed around that enchanting city for six days and nights, I would have found this book heavy sledding indeed. It's all about Venice and the disastrous fire that destroyed the interior of La Fenice, the Venice opera house in January of 1996. This book is a non-fiction account of Venice, its people, and its politics by a man who has a genuine love of the city.
Unfortunately it spends a great deal of time on non-Venetians and their efforts through the Save Venice charity to restore the city's glorious buildings. The politics and internal squabbling of the leaders of the organization are described in too much detail. Berendt is an elegant writer who is somewhat snobbishly obsessed by the successful and wealthy.
Was the opera house severely damaged by arsonists? Was a Venetian poet murdered or did he commit suicide? And what happened to Ezra Pound's estate? Berendt tries to build suspense by raising these questions and delving into rivalries among American city saviors and all sorts of legal maneuvering.
To get through this book, you'll have to resurrect your skimming skills. There are nuggets here to be found amidst the falling angels of the great city, but they come at the cost of heaving slogging through minutiae.
Book Review: Things and People Fall Apart
Summary: 4 Stars
It's inevitable that readers of Midnight will have high expectations for Berendt's latest, and I, too, wanted to be charmed when I began Angels. Berendt failed to fire my interest in the first chapters, but I continued on and after plowing ahead found myself fully engrossed. I was rewarded for my perseverence.
Berendt has managed to write vignettes that fall together in a theme of decadance amid beauty. Angels falling, indeed. An arrogant people resting on very old laurels, the world's most beautiful city requiring a league of wealthy New Yorkers for its preservation, and no particular thrust by its citizenry to rise up from the muck into which it's been sinking for centuries.
There are juicy scandals. bits of glamor and frivolity, and sad glimpses of a city that is falling apart in more ways than the physical. The place is a fascinating mess. That's Venice: an agonizingly proud and crippled city held up only by its glorious past which remains in full evidence to its many visitors.
Berendt makes a textual thread of the tale of the fire at the Fenice Theatre and the legal machinations to find blame, but it's more a book of short works that would stand alone. As such, it sits well with everyone's favorite works about Venice.
Book Review: A Glimpse Through the Venetian Blinds
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of those books that are pure reading pleasure. Not too scholarly, not particularly historical, occasionally bordering on the gossipy but (or shall I say therefore) pure joy.
I was in Venice once, in the mid-nineties. I spent a few days in the beginning of April when there were (relatively speaking) few tourists. The weather was nice and cool. Still, there was one thing that is branded in my memory - the terrible stench rising from the canals. I can only imagine what it smells like in the summer. I was surprised that the author never mentioned the smell of Venice.
This book is a kaleidoscope of different Venetian personalities, many great and petty at the same time. I finished the book feeling that sociologically, Venice is no more than a small village.
Book Review: Another good effort by Berendt
Summary: 4 Stars
"The City of Falling Angels" is the second book that I have read and enjoyed by John Berendt. Although the characters were not quite as intriguing and flamboyant as those in "In the Garden of Good and Evil," I still enjoyed this story very much. I learned a great deal about the history of Venice, the Venetian people as well as their politics and views. I did not know much of the details about the fire which destroyed La Fenice, and all that was involved politically, socially and legally in resolving the question of who may have been responsible for the fire. Mr. Berendt's writing style kept me interested and eager to keep reading. All in all, it was a good book!