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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
I often struggle to get into nonfiction books, but The City of Falling Angels kept my attention the whole way through. The pages are brought to life by a colorful cast of interesting personalities and their stories. It gave me a deeper understanding of Venice and Venetians ahead of my travels to the city.
John Berendt's book about Venice, done in the same character study style that "Mindnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" was.
While this didn't suck me in as much as "Midnight," it's still an absolutely delightful read, with as much color and insight as his first. My one complaint is that there were a lot more people, so I got them confused rather frequently (though he did anticipate this and included an index of people, which helped some.)
This book solidifies the acclaim Berendt received for his first novel, and shows it was no one time thing. I wish that he could write a book about every city. I'd read all of them.
While this didn't suck me in as much as "Midnight," it's still an absolutely delightful read, with as much color and insight as his first. My one complaint is that there were a lot more people, so I got them confused rather frequently (though he did anticipate this and included an index of people, which helped some.)
This book solidifies the acclaim Berendt received for his first novel, and shows it was no one time thing. I wish that he could write a book about every city. I'd read all of them.
Very interesting book. Took me too long to read but it was very good.
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Makes you want to go to Venice. You feel like you are there.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is one of my very favorite books, so I was excited to start this book. While it was not nearly as suspenseful, I did enjoy reading about Venice. Of course, it had a cast of quirky characters and interesting drama.
"Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble—foundations shift, marble ornaments fall—even as efforts to preserve them are underway. The City of Falling Angels opens on the evening of January 29, 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house. The loss of the Fenice, where five of Verdi's operas premiered, is a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving in Venice three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective—inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city—while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. In the course of his investigations, Berendt introduces us to a rich cast of characters: a prominent Venetian poet whose shocking "suicide" prompts his skeptical friends to pursue a murder suspect on their own; the first family of American expatriates that loses possession of the family palace after four generations of ownership; an organization of high-society, partygoing Americans who raise money to preserve the art and architecture of Venice, while quarreling in public among themselves, questioning one another's motives and drawing startled Venetians into the fray; a contemporary Venetian surrealist painter and outrageous provocateur; the master glassblower of Venice; and numerous others-stool pigeons, scapegoats, hustlers, sleepwalkers, believers in Martians, the Plant Man, the Rat Man, and Henry James. Berendt tells a tale full of atmosphere and surprise as the stories build, one after the other, ultimately coming together to reveal a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif that runs throughout, adding the elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense of this brilliant book."
"Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble—foundations shift, marble ornaments fall—even as efforts to preserve them are underway. The City of Falling Angels opens on the evening of January 29, 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house. The loss of the Fenice, where five of Verdi's operas premiered, is a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving in Venice three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective—inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city—while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. In the course of his investigations, Berendt introduces us to a rich cast of characters: a prominent Venetian poet whose shocking "suicide" prompts his skeptical friends to pursue a murder suspect on their own; the first family of American expatriates that loses possession of the family palace after four generations of ownership; an organization of high-society, partygoing Americans who raise money to preserve the art and architecture of Venice, while quarreling in public among themselves, questioning one another's motives and drawing startled Venetians into the fray; a contemporary Venetian surrealist painter and outrageous provocateur; the master glassblower of Venice; and numerous others-stool pigeons, scapegoats, hustlers, sleepwalkers, believers in Martians, the Plant Man, the Rat Man, and Henry James. Berendt tells a tale full of atmosphere and surprise as the stories build, one after the other, ultimately coming together to reveal a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif that runs throughout, adding the elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense of this brilliant book."
The entire time I was reading "City," I wanted to go live in Venice (and I still do now that I'm done). In the first few pages, a man describes Venetians as prone to exaggeration, so clearly I was born in the wrong country. "City" was non-fiction, but most of it read like a novel. It chronicled the author's time living in Venice in the aftermath of a fire that destroyed the Fenice opera house and the subsequent attempts to rebuild it "as it was, where it was." It also delved into the politics of restoration in Venice, and all the drama that went on behind the scenes as organizations came forward to try to rebuild the Fenice and various other palazzos. The nature of Venice as a whole compared to elsewhere in the world awed me. I really hope to see it someday.
informative
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
I love Berendt's descriptive writing style. I have never been to Venice Or Savannah for that matter, but I feel that in both books, he was descripitve enough that I could find my way around by using his books as a map. If I could meet the kind of people he meets that would just be icing on the cake. Talking to friends I said that He could write a book set in the Arctic, taking place in Igloos and I would most likely still buy it, just to see him in action once again!
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced