Book Club Recommendations John Berendt -

The City of Falling Angels

Book Club Recommendations John Berendt - City of Falling Angels Review by Queenie D

The City of Falling Angels tells the story of the Fenice Opera House fire of Venice in 1996. The book spans almost a ten year time period as the author, John Berendt, goes into colorful detail about the city and it's inhabitants.

Besides the Fenice Fire and the investigation into arson and negligence by Casson, we are given a detailed account of five coinciding stories.

We learn the turbulent history of the love affair between Ezra Pound and Olga Rudge as well as Jane Rylands attempt to take over the Pound estate; the family feud between the sons of Archimede Seguso, the world-renowned glassblower; the untimely death of Mario Stefani, the gay poet; the Save Venice feud between Larry Lovett and Bob Guthrie; and the sale of the Palazzo Barbaro. Each tale is full of it's own mystery, intrigue, feuding, and aristocracy.

All the while Berendt moves through Venice welcomed by the elite, granted audiences with the key players of each story, and making unusual friends. A true tale of Italian culture with no real conclusion because, as it is in Venice, nothing is ever definitive.

QUEENIE D SAYS

I really enjoyed this book. City of Falling Angels is a great addition to my book club recommendations. John Berendt is already a favorite of mine. He won me over with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil so much so that I quickly made plans for a trip to Savannah within months of finishing it. Alas, I have no plans to visit Venice in the near future but not for lack of desire!

The book is a beautiful narrative of the residents of a tiny island where no car has ever touched down but pulls in one of the largest amounts of tourism in the world. His descriptions of crumbling buildings, rising water levels, men who dress in full police uniforms just for fun, and families who quarrel to the death add to the mysterious aura surrounding this little Italian paradise.

I was most intrigued with the Olga Rudge/Jane Rylands dispute over Ezra Pound's estate and work after his death. I couldn't believe that Jane, a woman with no connection to the family whatsoever, could so effectively worm her way into the position of sole proprietor of the collection! At the same time it seems that Jane was Olga's main caretaker even if her motives were less than pure. I think this could start an interesting debate as to whether or not she deserved Pound's things from Olga after all.

It isn't the fastest paced book but it's the kind of story you come and go from happily, interested to find out what happens next, who stabbed who in the back, and which key players would be losing their place in society as the events unfolded.

I have to say that Berendt has done it again for me. Now that he's covered two of the most mysterious cities in the world, Savannah and Venice, I can only imagine where he'll go next!

Book Club Recommendations John Berendt DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Was arson or negligence truly responsible for the Fenice Opera House Fire?
2. Should Jane Rylands have gained control of the Ezra Pound collection from Olga?
3. Was Mario Stefani the victim of a vicious crime or did he kill himself?

Return from Book Club Recommendations John Berendt to Home