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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 who lose possession of the family palace after four generations of ownership; an organization of high-society, party-going Americans who raise money to preserve the art and architecture of Venice, while quarreling in public among themselves, questioning each other’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.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 27, 2005 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780739346082
- File size: 370876 KB
- Duration: 12:52:39
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Magical, exasperating, sometimes mystifying, but finally enormously awe-inspiring, Venice, Italy--the city itself--becomes the vibrant and vital main character as Holter Graham, in an exceptionally fine reading, presents the account of a devastating conflagration of the Fenice Opera House and the civil investigations that followed. (The irony of such an event in a city noted for its waterways is inescapable.) Further richness includes insightful descriptions of a variety of contemporary characters inhabiting this ancient and sometimes otherworldly city. Poetry lovers will appreciate the significant, sad, and sometimes tragic accounts of Ezra Pound's poetic legacy. Ultimately, Graham's fine reading, along with Berendt's valuable information and penetrating observations, results in a captivating audio presentation. L.C. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine -
July 18, 2005
It's taken Berendt 10 years follow up his long-running bestseller, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
In lieu of Savannah, he offers us Venice, another port city full of eccentric citizens and with a long, colorful history. Like the first book, this one has a trial at the its center: Berendt moves to Venice in 1997, just three days after the city's famed Fenice opera house burns down during a restoration. The Venetian chattering classes, among whom Berendt finds a home, want to know whether it was an accident or arson. Initially, Berendt investigates, but is soon distracted by the city's charming denizens. Early on, he's warned, "Everyone in Venice is acting," which sets the stage for fascinating portraits: a master glassblower creating an homage to the fire in vases, an outspoken surrealist painter, a tenacious prosecutor and others. As the infamous Italian bureaucracy drags out the investigation, Berendt spends more time schmoozing with the expatriate community in long discussions about its role in preserving local art, culture and architecture. By the time the Fenice is rebuilt and reopens, Berendt has delivered an intriguing mosaic of modern life in Venice, which makes for first-rate travel writing, albeit one that lacks a compelling core story to keep one reading into the night. Agent, Suzanne Gluck. -
October 31, 2005
Berendt reads his own nonfiction exploration of the seamy side of Venice with an insider's hushed tones, chronicling the life and times of the city's movers and shakers like a naughty child sharing an overheard secret. Following up his similar study of Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, Berendt has cobbled together a series of entertaining tales of the legendary canal city, ranging from the squabbles of Venetian fund-raisers to the fire in the Venice Opera House. Like a cocktail-party raconteur with a particularly juicy story to tell, Berendt twists his listeners' ears with his book's seamless stringof Venice-themed misbehavior and decadence. Only occasionally overemoting, Berendt mostly maintains the proper tone of high-society gossip delivered succinctly. Berendt's intimate voice helps to tie together the disparate strands of his sometimes-sprawling book. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, July 18).
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