January Roundup

Despite the snowy, cold weather we've been having in Colorado, I don't feel like I have been doing much reading. I just realized that the puzzle I just finished consumed a lot of my reading time, so I guess that explains it.

Apart from finishing a very short classic, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, I only managed to read three books this month but they were all quite enjoyable.

Rosamunde Pilcher binge - I read Winter Solstice in December as part of my holiday reading and loved it so much that I decided to indulge in rereading both The Shell Seekers and September. Both were a real treat. 

I gave The Shell Seekers five stars and vowed not to wait another 30 years to reread it! Absolutely love the setting--Cornwall mostly and the flashbacks to the years between the wars. Penelope Keeling is definitely a character I admire and reading the book made me long to get back in my garden and get my hands dirty with planting, weeding, pruning, transplanting, and admiring my handiwork. She has such a zest for life that I found invigorating, and I loved the story of her youth, and the art world, and Cornwall...did I mention Cornwall? It is rapidly moving up the list of places I must visit and soon. Two of her three children were maddening to the point of distraction, but that was part of the story.

I gave September four stars. It was great and I loved the Scottish setting and the diverse cast of characters, but the story was just quite not up to the same level as that of The Shell Seekers. I'm a huge fan of small town settings and this was a good story, but it didn't have a character that I could love quite as much as Penelope from The Shell Seekers. 

I was thinking I might watch one of the two versions of The Shell Seekers, but am not sure. I read that the original version, with Angela Lansbury, varies quite a bit from the book, which would drive me to distraction. The version with Vanessa Redgrave was a German production and I haven't been able to determine whether it is in German or not. If anyone has seen either one and can provide some insight, I would appreciate it.

Apart from basking in Pilcher-land, I also read Peter Ackroyd's biography of Edgar Allan Poe, Poe: A Life Cut Short. I enjoy Acroyd's writing and he is a first-rate biographer, but this was such a somber book to read. I learned an immense amount about Poe--I had thought I had a handle on him--but I was sorely ignorant. First of all, he lived much earlier in the 19th century than I had thought, and while he lived in poverty for virtually all of his life, his genius and talents were recognized by his peers and the reading public. 

I am in no way qualified to diagnose his mental challenges, but he clearly suffered from various mental disorders that made his sad life so much harder and sadder. I found myself comparing Poe to Dickens, who was just three years younger than Poe. Both had troubled childhoods, with parents and surrogate parents who didn't provide them with the care that children need. Both worked as journalists, for newspapers as well as magazines. Dickens was driven to succeed and was energetic almost to a fault. Poe was sporadic, sometimes bursting with energy but then diving into despair and self-destructing via alcohol. I think in terms of raw talent, they were comparable, but Dickens was able to channel his talents better. While Poe's stories and poems have stood the test of time, I do feel that his output is far more limited than was that from Dickens and he didn't mature as a writer in the same way that Dickens did. 

Brunetti's Venice

Brunetti's Venice: Walks with the City's Best-Loved Detective, by Toni Sepeda, is one of those books that are best read slowly. I started this book in May, after finishing Peter Acrkoyd's Venice: Pure City, and just finished it last weekend.  It was the perfect followup to the Ackroyd book, which provided the history of Venice and lots of observations and musings on the architecture, art, character, and politics of this fascinating city.  Thanks to Brunetti's Venice, I know feel I have a pretty good basic understanding of the layout of the city and my desire to visit is now more intense than ever.  Good thing it will be the starting point for a 2014 trip to Italy that I have been dreaming about for years now.

The book is all its title promises--it is a series of walking tours through the various neighborhoods of Venice, punctuated with passages from Donna Leon's mystery series featuring Commisario Guide Brunetti, and providing interesting information about the various plazas, churches, statues, theatres, hotels, and restaurants along the way. 

When I finally do visit Venice, I envision taking some of these walks, and when I return home, rereading the book and comparing my impressions with those of Sepeda and by extension, Brunetti.

I'm also looking forward to reading another of the novels in the series--having read this book and learned something of the character of the different parts of Venice that Brunetti and his family frequent in the course of their lives, I am anticipating enjoying the Leon novels even more than I did in the past.  Familiarity can breed enlightenment instead of contempt, especially when it comes to reading!

I found Brunetti's Venice to be a satisfying bridge between the real city and the fictional world of Leon's novels.  I loved how they overlapped, but  I also found fascinating where Leon departed from reality, as pointed out by Sepeda.  For example, occasionally Leon renames restaurants, or continues to refer to a place that no longer exists. 

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable book, one that I savored whilst reading and plan to refer to again many times in the future.

I asked for and received this book as a Christmas gift last year...I think I'll put Brunetti's Cookbook on this year's wishlist!

Venice: Pure City

Like so many other people, I am captivated by the idea of Venice, not having had the opportunity to visit it yet.  Everything I know about Venice I've learned from books...primarily Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti mystery novels, but also Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, Daphne duMaurier's Don't Look Now,  John Berendt's City of Falling Angels, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, and most recently, Dickens' Little Dorrit.  But, I always felt a bit confused about Venice, not really being clear about its history and why it has such a hold on the imagination.

For help, I turned to Peter Ackroyd's Venice: Pure City.  In general, I like Ackroyd's books, fiction and non-fiction, and this book is really an ode to Venice, poetic and rich in imagery.  I read this book very slowly, sometimes only reading a page or two a day.  I'm tempted to say it's dense, but I don't mean that in a derogatory sense at all.  On the contrary, reading this was like eating a very rich chocolate mousse.  Delightful, but you have to pace yourself.  Luckily, Ackoyd facilitates this pacing by providing fairly short chapters within major thematic sections. 

Most of the history that Ackroyd provides of Venice takes place in pre-Napoleon times, which was fine because I really enjoyed reading about life in Venice during Medieval and Renaissance times.  I am a firm believer that geography has a big impact on character and it was fascinating to read Ackroy'ds analysis of how the unique situation of Venice, bridging Europe with Asia, surrounded by the sea, but facing outward, shaped the politics, economy, architecture, and character of Venice.

I ended up earmarking many pages that contained quotable quotes about Venice.  Ackroyd really knows how to turn a phrase.  Here are some of my favorites:

Venice is not so much a city as the representation of a city.

The nineteenth-century English artist William Etty described Venice as 'the birthplace and cradle of color.'

In the early centuries, the Venetian dead were buried in the campo of the parish. Thus the passing generations trod upon the remains of their ancestors. Nothing could instil more awe in a Venetianthan to stand on the spot where the parish was created. In addition the presence of the ancestors gave a true title to territorial ownership of the land.  No stranger could claim the ground where the bones were buried. This may be the clue to the origin of all cities.  They began as cemetaries.

Literature asks questions and poses problems, whereas art and music celebrate and affirm; writing may encourage disruption and even revolution, whereas art and music aspire towards harmony and balance.

I now feel like I have a handle on Venice's place in world history, but despite the amount of time I spent immersed in Venice through this book it provided but one way to view the city.

I just started my next Venice book, Brunetti's Venice: Walks with the City's Best-Loved Detective, by Toni Sepeda, with a forward by Donna Leon.  This book provides walking tours of the city based on the first 16 Leon novels, following Guido Brunetti as he walks his native city, pointing out landmarks and offering suggestions for restaurants, hotels, etc.  Again, I plan to read it slowly...we have an obsession in the making.