I loved this book by John Berendt about Venice in the aftermath of the fire at La Fenice, the Venice opera house.
While I was listening to it, I had a nagging feeling .. why, I kept asking myself, does this all seem so familiar?
Well, one obvious answer is that I'd read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, his account of a scandalous murder trial in Savannah, Georgia that became a runaway nonfiction hit (kind of a rare animal), as well as a film by Clint Eastwood. That book also featured a cast of eccentrics and a city members reacting to threats to the city's traditions and cultural assets.
But another, more basic reason, is that the swirling speculation about the causes of the La Fenice fire reminded me so much of Michael Dibdin's Ratking.
Berendt also writes at length about James's the Aspern Papers, which is still vaguely familiar to me from having read it in college. The connection is that James based his story on having heard a similar real life story of Claire Clarmont, the half-sister of Mary Shelley and the lover of Lord Byron, surviving to the ripe old age of 80 in Florence. Of course, James changed the setting to Venice, which conveys with it a sense both of beauty and decay.
I had a profound sense of having been there before; and I loved it.
While I was listening to it, I had a nagging feeling .. why, I kept asking myself, does this all seem so familiar?
Well, one obvious answer is that I'd read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, his account of a scandalous murder trial in Savannah, Georgia that became a runaway nonfiction hit (kind of a rare animal), as well as a film by Clint Eastwood. That book also featured a cast of eccentrics and a city members reacting to threats to the city's traditions and cultural assets.
But another, more basic reason, is that the swirling speculation about the causes of the La Fenice fire reminded me so much of Michael Dibdin's Ratking.
Berendt also writes at length about James's the Aspern Papers, which is still vaguely familiar to me from having read it in college. The connection is that James based his story on having heard a similar real life story of Claire Clarmont, the half-sister of Mary Shelley and the lover of Lord Byron, surviving to the ripe old age of 80 in Florence. Of course, James changed the setting to Venice, which conveys with it a sense both of beauty and decay.
I had a profound sense of having been there before; and I loved it.
