The City of Falling Angels

I found this on a second-hand stall one Saturday morning a few weeks ago. The unique qualities of Venice have fascinated millions of people for hundreds of years, and though we think we keep rediscovering it, it's something of a cliche to say that nothing new can be said about the place (as Berendt acknowledges, with reference to Venetian authorities Mary McCarthy and Henry James, early on in this book). Here, Berendt tries to tell the story not of the place, but of some of the people he encountered after he moved there there immediately following the 1996 fire that destroyed the Fenice opera house. Part of the story is taken up with the investigation of the fire, and with a few other tales such as the fate of the Ezra Pound foundation and the Save Venice campaign.

It's well-written, but I found my attention wandering from time to time: a lot of effort is devoted to laying out family feuds, squabbles amongst philanthropists and the delineation of the characteristics of a mixed bag of eccentrics. Perhaps the background of this beautiful city gives them all a certain cachet, but I'd guess you could find a similar collection of people anywhere else (in spite of a few asides on the features of the Venetian character, which don't seem to get followed up). As such, I found the book of limited interest, since I had no real idea by the end about why I should care about what these people did or thought.

Social climbing in Venice (4/6 people found this helpful)

Author John Berendt hunts down some of the biggest social climbers on the lagoon. Arriving in Venice just as the Fenice opera house goes up in flames, Berendt creeps around the fringes of the event asking if it was the electricians or the Mafia that caused the historic old building to go up like so much tinder in February 1996.

Each year more and more Venetians move away from the island to make a home to find work away from the hordes of tourist that flush through the city's alleyways and squares in much the same way the waters of the lagoon sluice through the waterways. But Berendt does not want to speak about the struggles of the gondolier or the shopkeeper facing ever increasing rents as Disney and McDonalds flex their muscles. He has more highly gilded fish to fry.

He aims to dish the dirt on some big names and has a go at some dubious behaviour involving the missing papers of former Venice resident Ezra Pound trying to strike a resonnant chord with Henry Jame's 'Aspern Papers' as he does so. But his really big guns are aimed at a wealthy plastic surgeon and the heir to a US grocery chain called Piggly-Wiggly. Yes it really is called Piggly-Wiggly.

These two luminaries battle to head the embossed letter heading of Save Venice, another US organisation consisting of wealthy people who want to be seen in Venice as they save it. Or at least seen in the right places in Venice where they can talk about their generosity with other like minded souls.

For the Venice lover there are some names and places that will be recognised and some rather unastounding revelations about the bureaucratic tentacles that engulf Venice as much as they do the rest of Italy. The City of Falling Angels is an easy, light and ultimately unfulfilling read adding nothing to one's understanding of this most beautiful of all anachronisms. And certainly contains nothing that would make any Venetian choke over their morning coffee in Florian's.

Another beauty from Berendt (1/1 people found this helpful)

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" was such a worthy contribution to the non-fiction genre presided over by Capote's "In Cold Blood" that I cannot now explain why I was so luke-warm about the news of Berendt's latest work.

I think I was put off because I thought "The City of Falling Angels" would be something of an art history of Venice. I was also wary about the fact it had been ten years' in production. The same is true of "Something Happened", Joseph Heller's second novel. And, in Heller's case, the fact that the book had been assembled so painstakingly letter-by-letter over such a long period really showed to the detriment of the prose.

I accept that, with such a low level of expectation, I was hardly likely to be disappointed, but I quickly realised that the book was just brilliant, evoking not only memories of "Midnight" but, more interestingly, the realisation that the Berendt style is unique amongst the many hundreds of different books read in the ten years between the two, being part travelogue, part social history, part biography and part non-fiction crime.

Berendt is capable of unearthing the scent of intrigue from the most innocuous of encounters. His unique talent thereafter is to follow that scent to a conclusion whether that be by way of his personal charm (very few seem to decline his requests for interview) or his considerable forensic powers of analysis. And, thanks to his narrative gifts, he is able to generate real suspense in the leads he has running.

In whatever context he meets the various characters of Venice he avoids any commentary letting the words (quoted faithfully) and actions of each speak for themselves and yet by his presentation of the evidence of such encounters he is able get his point across with subtlety.

And he meets famous characters from the past too: Ezra Pound spent a great deal of his own life in Venice. Berendt explores his connections with the city and comments on his literary legacy. He unearths a letter from Pound to his (then-teenage) daughter, Mary de Rachewiltz and, as it contains his advice on creative writing, sets it out in full (p196). Of course, Brendt's own prose measures up and it serves as yet another proof that the reader is in the hands of a real professional.

I accept there is some art history of Venice in there, but it is well-presented and I have to accept that it even enhanced his tales.

No real insight (1/4 people found this helpful)

Described as a book centred on an investigation in to the disastrous fire at La Fenice (Venice's totemic opera house), it certainly looked that way from the first chapter. I was hooked after initial browsing.
Unfortunately, it didn't carry on that way. Yes it is a recurring subject, but the rest is dominated by Berendt's meetings with other characters to create a travelogue. Sadly, almost all these characters appeared to be a wide range of expatriates living in Venice. Meetings with genuine Venetians (even Italians) seemed thin on the ground, and after a while I got rather tired of the whingeing, mutual backstabbing of various socialites who seem to occupy a world totally unrelated to the rest of us. I hope it's also unrelated to most Venetians. As for the investigation? Well, it got lost rather. Instead we were treated (for instance) to an extended diversion on the 'scandal' surrounding the papers of Ezra Pound (true Venetian this one!). It did return eventually, but by that time the continuity was lost.

All in all, thoroughly disappointing, even if reasonably well written. There are far better books on Venice (Jan Morris and John Julius Norwich for two). Even if their focus is somewhat different, at least they have something worthwhile to write about.

An excellent book (4/5 people found this helpful)

I loved this book and didn't want it to end. I got lost in the characters and as a lover of Venice, found the descriptions of the city to be evocative. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the city, history and loves a bit of scandal and gossip!

The City of Falling Angels

John Berendt

Reader Reviews:

Limited sympathy for small-town gossip (2/3 people found this helpful)

Social climbing in Venice (4/6 people found this helpful)

Another beauty from Berendt (1/1 people found this helpful)

No real insight (1/4 people found this helpful)

An excellent book (4/5 people found this helpful)

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