The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
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Book Reviews of The City of Falling Angels
Book Review: Not as good as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Summary: 2 Stars
My wife LOVES Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. When we met, I had neither read the book or watched the movie. Since she brought it up enough while we were dating, I decided to give John Berendt a shot.
Loved the book (MitGoGaE) and didn't like the movie (which was disappointing because I love Clint Eastwood and John Cusack.)
The love of that book led me to read this one.
Unfortunately.
The problem with writing novels based on actual events that you are around for is that you run the risk that nothing interesting can happen. In The City of Falling Angels, events happen. The characters (the people) are all described in depth and the location is also painted in detail.
Note that lack of the "interesting" in my descriptions, though.
Interview with a Vampire made me want to visit New Orleans. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil made me want to visit Savannah. The City of Falling Angels didn't make me want to visit Venice... it made me want to read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil again.
Book Review: Hard work
Summary: 2 Stars
Being an opera singer myself the La Fenice fire was a topic that was compelling for me. I had also recently visited Venice and the newly restored La Fenice so it was high on my list of books to read. What's more I had read and thoroughly enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. So what was stopping this book from becoming an unputdownable adventure?
It seemed to me that Berendt simply ran out of ideas. What we ended up with was a boring litany of squabbles amongst a pack of mad rich socialites who aren't interesting and who, for the most part, aren't even Venetian.
I stayed to the end just out of curiosity - to find out the end of the La Fenice story - but was quite relieved when I finally reached the last page.
Book Review: A very tedious book
Summary: 2 Stars
I got this book because I liked Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. This book should have been titled "What I did on my vacation in Venice". I have a rule to give up on a book after 100 pages but I broke my own rule because I kept thinking the book was going somewhere. It wasn't. It was like Midnight in that it gave you lots of side events in Venice but in Midnight there was an overarching crime. There was an attempt in this book to make the burning of the Fenice Opera House a similar overarching theme but it really wasn't nearly as interesting. I should have given up after 100 Review: Little to do with VeniceSummary: 2 Stars I bought this book as I am interested in how people live in various parts of the world. The author noted early on that no one has written about people that actually live in Venice. He is correct, and they still haven't. About 60% of this book is about the boring lives and political infighting of society types, most of whom are from New York. Why does anybody think these people are interesting? But if you like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, maybe you will like this. It does have a few good parts when he can drag himself away from royalty, society and literary types, but most of the book is boring.