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THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS
by John Berendt
Penguin, September 2006
432 pages
$15.00
ISBN: 0143036939


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

John Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, the story of a murder in Savannah, Georgia, stayed on the New York bestseller list for months, as well as being shortlisted for the Pulitzer prize. Now he has written CITY OF FALLING ANGELS, about Venice, where pollution and rising sea levels are causing the putti and other decorations to fall from the building facades.

Berendt arrived in Venice only a few days after the fire that destroyed La Fenice, Venice's famed opera house. The first La Fenice (The Phoenix) opened in 1792. By 1836, Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti operas had been mounted in the theatre. It burned in December 1836 but reopened a year later. Verdi premiered several of his operas at the rebuilt theatre.

In 1996 the theatre was again destroyed by fire. In 2001, reconstruction finally started and it reopened in December 2003, with its first operatic performance almost a year later. The plans for the 19th century reconstruction were followed as much as possible.

Berendt, as he did in MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, finds some interesting denizens of Venice to talk to and write about. Among them are Daniel Curtis, who owned the palace where Henry James wrote and John Singer Sargent painted, the house where Ezra Pound lived with his mistress, Olga the glassblower, Archimede Seguso, who watched La Fenice burn from his windows and who created a series of pieces memorializing the tragedy.

Many factions feel they are the most important in Venice. Berendt tries to investigate all of them, describing many eccentrics who think that they are Venice. It is a fascinating book, centering on the politics behind the reconstruction of not only La Fenice but also some of the other decaying architectural masterpieces within the city.

However, it is not MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL. Perhaps this is because I know Savannah and people who live there and was privy to the story as it was unfolding. But the Venetians are not nearly as eccentric as the inhabitant of Savannah, perhaps just more decadent.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, August 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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