The City of Falling Angels

I noticed some time ago that whenever anyone in a movie goes to Venice, something bad happens. Donald Sutherland gets hacked up by a deranged dwarf, Rupert Everett gets his throat cut by a sadistic admirer, spinster Katherine Hepburn gets her heart broken by a married man. Even Shakespeare had Venice as the setting for intrigue, usury and betrayal. Venice is a place where bad things happen. Now John Berendt, author of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, takes on the fabled city at the turn of the new Millennium and achieves some dazzling results. It's still a city of duplicity, con games and corruption despite its glorious artistic, literary and historical heritage. Berent uses the city as the setting for a series of related essays dealing with arson that maybe was not arson, suicide that maybe was murder, feuding old Venetian families, feuding expatriates, duplicitous philanthropists, and out-and-out swindles by supposedly respectable people. Who is lying? Who is telling the truth? Is there such a thing as truth? A lot of this book is very anxiety-inducing, especially those parts dealing with people who are obviously crooks who are obviously going to get away with it. Berendt has the extraordinary gift of being able to write truth as if it were fiction. One of the episodes, "The Man Who Loved Others," could just as easily be anthologized in a collection of great short stories. As a big fan of Berendt's previous book, I dropped everything to read this one. I'm glad I did. This intelligent and literate book is wonderful writing. We'll be talking about it for years to come. I'd especially recommend the book for anyone who has been to Venice or plans to go as well as fans of Henry James. The best parts of this book are as good as the work of James himself.

Like so many of the literally millions of readers who found John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" an endless source of pure reading pleasure, I have been eagerly awaiting his next book. Well, the wait was more than worth it. I grabbed my copy of his new book, "City of Falling Angels" the very first day it went on sale. Berendt has now taken us to Venice and he digs beneath its surface--just as he did in Savannah--to find fascinating tales of intrigue, human folly and human decency. I found myself devouring it and yet at the same time wanting to slowly savor its interwoven stories. While the author introduced me to Savannah, with Venice he takes me to a place I thought I knew well--only to discover that I had been the merest of tourists on my many trips there until I had John Berendt as my guide. He goes beneath the obvious fascination of the city's history and art to introduce us to Counts and Marchesas, electricians and fruit-and vegetable sellers, artists and poets, criminals and politicians. In "Falling Angels" the core event is the destruction by fire (arson?) of Venice's famed historic opera house, the Fenice--and the byzantine aftermath of this great loss to the city. But, as in "Midnight," Berendt is not content to merely tell a gripping story. He once again introduces us to a series of memorable characters, some petty and venal, some filled with charm and wisdom, all fascinating. While this book is a work of non-fiction and true in every detail, Berendt has an amazing ability to delve into a place and get its inhabitants to divulge their secrets to him like a great journalist. In "City of Falling Angels," just as in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," he combines this skill with the art of a novelist in getting the people to tell their stories. Such authors as Henry James, Thomas Mann and Daphne du Maurier have famously SET novels and short stories in Venice. John Berendt gets Venice to tell ITS story.

In 1994, Mr. Berendt published "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" about a murder trial specifically and life in Savannah, Georgia in general. "The City of Falling Angels" is about an arson of the Fenice Opera House sort of and Venice, Italy a whole lot. It is more accurate to state that the book is more of a travelogue of Venice -- but what a travelogue. This is not to say that this book is not as good as his previous one; just that the reader needs to be aware that "The City of Falling Angels" is different from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." The arson trial does not hold the same riveting attention as the murder trial but the eccentric characters he introduces the reader to will, whether it is Count Volpi or Erza Pound's mistress, Olga Rudge. The true character of the book is Venice herself and Mr. Berendt writes well of her.

John Berndt hit a home run in 1994 when he wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, an interesting expose about Savannah and some of the more colorful characters that called that wonderful city home. Serving as a focal point was a midnight murder and subsequent murder trial. Midnight in the Garden spent four years on the NYT best seller list and made Berendt a world wide celebrity. Berendt has released his second book, The City of the Falling Angels and it reminds me a lot of Midnight. First is the location. While I have to admit Savannah and Venice aren't alike, they do both ooze atmosphere. Savannah, quaint but somewhat isolated is so different from the ancient and worldly city of Venice that it seems hard to understand their connection. You'll have to read the book first, but I think you'll see why Berendt selected Venice. Secondly, Berendt manages to find some really interesting locals to put in the book: Olga, the former mistress of Ezra Pound, an artisan glass blower, the Rat-Man, and pigeon exterminators, et al. These provide the color that was such an interesting part of Midnight. Finally, the loss of the Fenice Opera House and the subsequent trial of the arsonists gives the book an anchor similar to the murder trial in Midnight. Berendt is a consumate story teller. His prose is like boating on a calm canal. Whether The City of Falling Angels can come close to achieving the status and success of Midnight remains to be seen. As for me I found The City of Falling Angels and terrific read.