Voyager2006

"The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt (author of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil&quot.

Gives wonderful insight into non-tourist life
in that city centered around events after the fire at the opera house.

Check it out if so inclined.

Statia

This book has come well recommended by a good friend and being that not many books are sold on the island where I live, I'm hoping to find it enroute to Venice this Sunday. I hear it's fabulous.

nonnafelice

Yes, I just finished this and liked it much better than "Midnight." Truly fascinating. It especially made me sorry we weren't able to get inside La Fenice on a recent visit to Venice. Guess we'll just have to go back!

SeaUrchin

I just met Mr Berendt, he is a very interestng man and the way he spoke about his book and how he attracts eccentrics made me like him even more. Every person he wrote about knew they would end up in the book and with their own names. He said Midnight did very well in Italy and helped people open up to him.

Now I want to read it soon!

Voyager2006

I haven't gotten very far into it but he is certainly candid about the couple from whom he rents his accommodations.

So far he really does seem to "tell it like it is" especially in terms of the mood and outlook of some of the city's citizens and the beauracracy.

LAUlvs_it

Just started reading it. On page 21 so it's slow going. My husband saw the author on TV and told me about it. Has me already in the mood for planning a trip to Venezia.
LAU

annabelle2

I just bought it last weekend and am starting it this weekend. Heard John Berendt interviewed on NPR (national public radio); interesting guy...

ThinGorjus

I was in Barnes and Noble's yesterday and took a peek at it. The opening chapter was interesting, with the Count M_ stating that everything in Venice is an illusion, that it is hard for its citizens to decipher the truth. However, I am reading Ophan Pamuk's "Snow" right now and don't want to take on another novel. Maybe when I am finished I will take up "City of Falling Angels." I am also hesitant on this novel because I HATED "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." It was just too gossipy, too subjective for me. To appreciate it, I think you needed to be a citizen of Savannah. I hope this is not the case with "City.."

Voyager2006

The book is not a "novel."

Voyager2006

PS, Thin: "Too gossipy...too subjective"?????? For YOU?? Here????

Gretchen

Loved Midnight in the Garden--why would you have to be a resident of Savannah. I understand he has gone MANY places looking for the story to tell. He can certainly afford to!!

ThinGorjus

I am only interested in gossip about people I know, or know of. I certainly don't care about some small-town drag queen or hustler, who were central characters in "Midnight." I think that these characters seemed scandalous and interesting, in a morbid way, to people from small towns, but you have to remember I have lived in London, New York, San Francisco, and Philly. Drag queens and hustlers have been my neighbours.

Oh, and an ex-husband too.

TobieT

Just bought "The City of Fallen Angels" this weekend and I'm looking forward to a great read about a city I fell in love with last autumn.

In a recent interview the author explains the similarity between this book and his last:

John Berendt: "Savannah and Venice actually have quite a lot in common. Both are uniquely beautiful. Both are isolated geographically, culturally, and emotionally from the world outside. Venice sits in the middle of a lagoon; Savannah is surrounded by marshes, piney woods, and the ocean. Venetians think of themselves as Venetian first, Italian second; Savannahians rarely even venture forth as far as Atlanta or Charleston. So both cities offer a writer a rich context in which to set a story, and the stories provide readers a means of escape from their own environment into another world."

I enjoyed "Midnight" for exactly that reason, long before I ever visited Savannah, but everyone has their own likes and dislikes...... thank goodness!

elaine

I didn't think that "Midnight..." was great prose, but a really interesting story, and it was one of those rare cases, imo, when the film was better than the book. (Clint Eastwood did the same enhancement with "Bridges of Madison County" which was nigh-on unreadable imo, but I loved the film).

Anyway, just started "City of Falling Angels" and so far it is so evocative that I got my map out to make sure I was pinpointing the locations, and I'm only on page 25. I do think it helps to love Venice, but since I can't read it any other way, I'll never know it from another perspective.

Berendt presents this as non-fiction.
He did the same for "Midnight.." but fudged the timeline and some facts, this newer book is supposed to be 'purer' non-fiction.