A Venetian Phoenix

The City of Falling Angels 
by John Berendt


"…it occasionally felt like walking through a funhouse, especially at times when, twenty minutes after having set out on a course that I had thought was a straight line, I discovered I was right back where I started." - John Berendt


The myth of the Phoenix is famous as a metaphor of rebirth and regeneration. In Venice the opera house La Fenice is appropriately named as it as risen from the ashes more than once over its life of more than two centuries. Most recently it suffered a severe fire in 1996. John Berendt arrived three days after the fire. Intrigued by the rumors circulating among the Venetians as to the source and cause of the conflagration, he decided to stay for a while so he could listen to the stories and, experience the city without its usual herds of tourists. For several years thereafter, he followed the investigation. Was the fire arson, or negligence, or maybe an act of God? Or could there possibly be a more sinister explanation, one involving mafia ties?
It was this event that served as the catalyst for John Berendt's curious book about Venice, The City of Falling Angels. I call it curious because it is not easily categorized as a particular genre. It is certainly non-fiction, but within that broad category it has attributes of a detective story--about the fire that destroyed all but the facade of the opera house; but it also includes aspects of several varieties of history. In addition to the fascinating story of the arson that ultimately led to the convictions of two electricians there are also historical narratives about the specific literary, artistic, architectural, and political events in the history of Venice.
The result is a fascinating book for anyone interested in arcana about Venice or about some of the characters whose stories have become part of the Venice mythos. Both Henry James and Ezra Pound figure importantly in this regard. There are other stories of American ex-patriots like the fabulously wealth Curtis family, and several Venetian clans that are connected with the Fenice.
The stories can be spicy whether they are about the feud over the Ezra Pound papers or the boardroom battle over control of the Save Venice foundation. The battle over who will win the contract to restore the Fenice is yet another episode that combines architectural detail with Italian corporate politics. Ultimately La Fenice was rebuilt in 19th-century style on the basis of a design by architect Aldo Rossi.
The result of these stories is a book that is exceptionally interesting to read even though Venice the magnificent city sometimes fades into the background. Reading about the city that has been slowly sinking into the sea for centuries is ultimately an uplifting experience.

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Conflicting Claims of Truth

An Instance of the Fingerpost 
by Iain Pears

“In my small way, I preserved and catalogued, and dipped into the vast ocean of learning that awaited, knowing all the time that the life of one man was insufficient for even the smallest part of the wonders that lay within. It is cruel that we are granted the desire to know, but denied the time to do so properly. We all die frustrated; it is the greatest lesson we have to learn.”   ― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

England in the mid 1660s, 1663 to be exact, was a world filled with religious suspicions, class differences, restored monarchy, war and deception, treason and prison, poisoning and trials, public hangings, science versus religion, truth and lies.  With the age of scientific experimentation came also a plethora of autopsies, human and animal, transfusions. Just then the Royal Society was flexing its muscles -- Oxford and all of England was at the height of Restoration. Anyone knowing anything of this period knows the civil unrest and the intrigues of the times. With Cromwell dead and the monarchy restored, England is in an uneasy period and even the hallowed cloisters of Oxford provide no refuge.
Iain Pears' entertaining and long tale benefits from his work as art historian, consultant and journalist.  Using his experience he creates a compelling and intelligently written mystery, comprising a search for real truth, precise and accurate in every word. Against this backdrop of English Restoration, Pears has woven a wonderful story of darkness and shadows. A must for anyone who likes good literature mixed with history and an exciting plot. Told from multiple points of view and incorporating many actual historical figures, the book examines the difficulty of ascertaining the truth while offering a carefully reconstructed picture of life in the seventeenth century.
The story is divided into four sections. In the first, Venetian scholar and traveler Marco da Cola offers his version of the events surrounding the murder of Oxford Fellow Robert Grove. Opinionated, influential Dr. Robert Grove is poisoned with arsenic in his New College lodgings. A missing signet ring leads his colleagues to his former servant (and rumored strumpet). The child of religious radicals, Sarah falls under suspicion when it is learned that Grove has recently fired her after rumors of an affair between them began circulating in Oxford. She is swiftly brought to trial, confesses and is promptly hanged--and dissected by enthusiastic physician Richard Lower. But the crime, evidently so simple in its events, is presented through the distorting lenses of four narrators whose obsessions place it in dramatically different contexts. Much of the evidence against Sarah is provided by Jack Prestcott, a young man determined to clear his father’s name of treason charges and also the narrator of the book’s second section. The third narrator, Dr. John Wallis, mathematician and divine, believes Sarah to be instrumental in anti-government plots, while Anthony Wood, an historian and the book’s fourth narrator, loves her.
In the brilliantly illuminated world in which medical experiments, religious and political debates between Roundheads and Royalists, and the founding of the Royal Society bring debates about the nature of science, history, religion, and authority into a focus whose sharpness has a special urgency for our own time, each of these narrators has his own slashingly conflicting claims to make. But it's not until the final narrator, burrowing historian Anthony Wood, weighs in to judge among the sharply competing visions of the earlier narrators that Pears produces his most memorable surprises, or unveils his deepest mysteries. Self-interest, political expediency, and the social climate of the times all play a part in Sarah’s fate, with Pears’ startling conclusion placing the story’s final assessment in the hands of his readers. I would highly recommend it for those who enjoyed Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. Riverhead Books, 2000 (1988).

Literary Blog Hop:

May 12 - 15

The Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase! This week's question is:


What books have you read that have been hyped as literary and, in your opinion, were not?


I generally try to avoid books that are being "hyped as literary" (or hyped in general).  One exception that I made was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  (Before going further I feel I need to alert the many who loved this book that I did not.)  I still remember seeing the book in a bookstore near Union College in Schenectady New York.  The promotional material and the blurbs on the dust jacket convinced me that this was not only literary, but it was a mystery with books at its core.  The opening chapter seemed to confirm this conviction;  but, alas, this novel soon soared to the top of my list for books that failed to meet my expectations. 
 After a wonderful and mysterious opening with what seemed to be a tremendous premise the book meandered off into mediocrity.  To say that I found this book disappointing would be an understatement. The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, has written a book with many plots and subplots that do not seem to cohere in a reasonable fashion. The result is ultimately dissatisfying. The language of the novel was strange at best, but too often trite or hackneyed. Neither the scenes of violence (both graphic and jarring) nor the love scenes were portrayed successfully. While the notion of a "Cemetery of forgotten books" is a lovely one, appealing to this reader, it was ignored for much of the novel which seemed to be appended to the concept rather than connected with it. The novel seemed to slow down in the middle without sufficient suspense to support it. A much better book with a similar theme is Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas. It is both more suspenseful and better written - a delightful, if not truly great, read.

A Victorian Mystery

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

- John Ruskin

Charles Finch's novel, A Beautiful Blue Death, is a well-researched debut novel. A mystery, it is set in mid-Victorian London, and introduces gentleman detective Charles Lennox, whose ambitious travel plans are continually disrupted by crimes in need of investigation. I enjoyed the portrayal of this somewhat laid back and congenial detective and appreciated his fondness for books and relaxation with literary tomes. With the addition of friend Lady Jane Grey he investigates the murder of her former former maid, now working for a director of the Royal Mint. We find that the crime is more complicated than it initially seems and is further complicated by the author with the addition of a second murder. The solution to the murders and how they are connected fills the novel with suspense while avoiding the unnecessary gore often associated with novels about crime. Both the period detail and cast of secondary characters, especially Charles' relationship with his butler, enhanced this reader's enjoyment. This was an intricate and well-written Victorian mystery novel that gave me reason to explore more stories of literary detective Lennox from the pen of Charles Finch.


A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. St. Martin's Griffin Edition. 2008

Fatal Lies

"He was aware that everything he did was merely a game, merely something to help him over this time at school, this larval period of his existence. It was without relation to his real personality, which would emerge only later, at some time still a long way off in the future."
- The Confusions of Young Torless, Robert Musil


It was, in part, the inspiration of Robert Musil's novella, The Confusions of Young Torless, about a young cadet struggling toward self-definition while experiencing the erotic tensions of puberty, that led Frank Tallis to write the mystery novel Fatal Lies.
The heart of the mystery is the machinations a small group of cadets led by Kiefer Wolf, a precocious underclassman. They are attending a private boys' school, Saint Florian, that is replete with ancient traditions and eccentric teachers. It is this story line that draws on Musil's novella most directly with the addition of explicit Nietzschean influences on young Wolf. But the key to the success of Tallis' novel is his intelligent use of the setting of fin-de-siecle Vienna and the blend of medicine, music, psychology and history that makes this a satisfying read. The lead detective, Reinhardt and his ally, Dr. Max Liebermann, an expert in the new psychiatric methods of Sigmund Freud, are both intelligent and believable characters in this well-constructed mystery. Each of the main characters must deal with their own issues and their stories are only slightly less interesting than the primary mystery. I was eagerly apprehensive most of the novel as the plot and sub-plots moved forward with alacrity. The climax was also satisfying; So much so that I look forward to reading Tallis' two previous mysteries (also set in Vienna).


Fatal Lies by Frank Tallis. Random House, New York. 2009.

The Club Dumas

"Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?" said Borgia, watching Corso closely. "There's nothing like that sheen, the gold on leather, behind glass. . . Not to mention the treasures these books contain. . . "I know people who would kill for a collection like this."

- Perez-Reverte, The Club Dumas (p.54)

If you enjoyed reading The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo, and if you enjoy mysteries, this book may be right for you. I admit to being one of those people, in fact I remember my first traversal through the adventures of Edmond Dantes, and I could not put the book down until I finished it.
Arturo Perez-Reverte is an intelligent Spanish writer who includes details in his mysteries that make them seem authentic to the topic, in this case bibliophilia of an antique sort. The story he tells in The Club Dumas involves a detective, Lucas Corso, and two bibliophile mysteries intertwined, one of which involves a Dumas manuscript. The other mystery is a bit more sinister and the denouement seems a bit contrived. However, the mystery is a cut above the average procedural and Perez-Reverte has written several more for those inclined to spend their mysterious hours wrapped in the labyrinths of his fictional detectives.

The Club Dumas by Aturo Perez-Reverte. Harvest Books, New York. 2006 (1995).

Conscientious Attorney

Perry Mason

 “You might be interested in his economic philosophy, Mr. Mason. He believed men attached too much importance to money as such. He believed a dollar represented a token of work performed, that men were given these tokens to hold until they needed the product of work performed by some other man, that anyone who tried to get a token without giving his best work in return was an economic counterfeiter. He felt that most of our depression troubles had been caused by a universal desire to get as many tokens as possible in return for as little work as possibly - that too many men were trying to get lost of tokens without doing any work. He said men should cease to think in terms of tokens and think, instead, only in terms of work performed as conscientiously as possible.” ― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Perjured Parrot

Erle Stanley Gardner died on this day in 1970, after eighty-eight Perry Mason books (and many others) in forty years. I first encountered him through the television show in the 1950s. It was a favorite of our whole family, but as a reader I soon started reading my mother's copies of the crime stories by Gardner starring Perry and his cohorts Della Street and Paul Drake. I must have read dozens by the time I went to college.
Many titles also showed a weakness for alliteration: The Case of the … Careless Cupid, Worried Waitress, Beautiful Beggar, Daring Divorcee, Stepdaughter’s Secret, Amorous Aunt, Blond Bonanza, Spurious Spinster, Duplicate Daughter, Shapely Shadow, Terrified Typist, Singing Skirt, Demure Defendant, Restless Redhead, Negligent Nymph, Cautious Coquette, Vagabond Virgin, Borrowed Brunette. While they were somewhat formulaic, some were better than others and they all were entertaining. A guilty pleasure from my early years of reading.

Two Examples of
'Genre' Fiction

The two most recent books I have read for my Sunday afternoon reading group have been "genre" fiction; specifically a science fiction novel and 'noir' crime mystery, respectively. For all their inclusion in the category of genre fiction they are not necessarily lightweight reads, although they may be considered "entertainments" when placed beside weightier tomes.

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke is a classic in the true sense of the world. Published fifty-five years ago, it is generally considered a great book. Arthur C. Clarke's novel exhibits several characteristics of a truly 'great' book. It is a lucid account of the meeting of "aliens" from outer space with the residents of earth. In describing this encounter and the aftermath, Clarke created a scene, the image of huge spaceships hovering over major cities of Earth, that not only impresses the reader but that had remained as an image for subsequent science fiction. But this book should be considered great as a work of literature, from the structure to style to characterization there is a economy that allows for a tale spanning decades to be told in a couple hundred pages. Clarke focuses on the essentials of the story and lets the reader imagine the inessential details. He also provides contrasts in character and ideas while providing just the right amount of suspense to keep the reader turning the page. His incorporation of science into his fiction is seamless and believable as his story moves inevitably towards an unexpectedly spectacular end for humankind. With his brilliant imagination Clarke has written a fundamental "novel of ideas". This reader took away from the book the wonder of both nature and the universe, and the potential for man when encountering other worlds.

The Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin is less well known than Clarke's classic, but it is a unique example of 'noir' fiction from the mid-forties. It is a somewhat fantastic and whimsical story with nightmarish aspects. The author kept the action going and there were enough twist and turns to keep me reading, if only to mollify my confusion. The main character, a psychiatrist named George Mathews, is led into a series of adventures that almost cost him his life, yet I was never worried that he would not succeed in figuring his way out of the confusion into which he had entered. A satisfying 'entertainment' (as Graham Greene would say).


Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Ballantine Books, New York. 1970 (1953)
The Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin. Penguin Books, New York. 1983 (1946)

The Hound of the Baskervilles

I find this to be not only an enjoyable detective novel, one of the best in the series by Conan Doyle; but even more than that, a supreme example of the best of classic Victorian literature. It is well-constructed with examples of the techniques found in more typical "literary" novels. Arthur Conan Doyle demonstrates both superior narrative creation of a mood and elegant development of characters. His use of techniques such as advancing the plot through cleverly-placed letters (a technique use by Dickens, Dostoevsky and others) puts this novel in a class of fiction well beyond the genre to which it is often consigned. It is more than just a delightful read!