Gondola

Donna Leon's brief, charming paean to "the sleek, mysterious gondola, the boat whose name and image are inextricably linked with the city". The intertwined histories of Venice and the gondola are illuminated through amusing anecdotes (her recounting of the call and response between a gondoliere and the dachshund Artù is riotous); gorgeous illustrations from Canaletto, Carpaccio and Guardi; and Leon's love of the city, tempered (in both senses!) by her dismay at the assaults of cruise ships, pollution and corruption.  An accompanying CD includes barcarole sung for centuries by gondolieri and here re-created by Il Pomo d'Oro, featuring the exceptionally versatile and talented singer Vincenzo Cappezzuto, with a special guest appearance by Cecilia Bartoli.  It's the next best thing to a trip to Venice.

My Venice and Other Essays

Donna Leon was born in Montclair, New Jersey, but lived in Venice for over 30 years.  She is best known as the author of the Commissario Brunetti mystery series (>32 books and counting) all set in Venice.  The Commissario is calm, decent, humble, smart and immensely likable - and the mysteries are well-crafted and quite revealing of life in Italy.  But Leon also has written many essays and other books. One is a delightful book on Gondolas, which is accompanied by a CD with gondolier songs in the Venetian dialect sung by a lively virtuoso (Leon is a music aficionado who is mad about Handel - as she describes deliciously in one of this book's essays).

Brunetti's wife Paola is very likable, but has strong, forceful views - In real life, Leon seems to be like Paola - only more outspoken and forceful!  These essays can be charming, humorous, or blistering attacks on customs or viewpoints that Leon finds intolerable.  Since I agreed with almost all her views, I found the essays to be very entertaining!  Below is an excerpt from one essay, which she introduces by explaining that she had called her plumber, who finally arrives three hours late, and offers this explanation:

"Giorgio's putting in a new bathroom." The plumber lives in my neighborhood, and both of us buy our fruit and vegetables from Signor Giorgio.

Curious about any bit of neighborhood gossip, I asked, "What's he doing to the bathroom?"

"He's putting in new fixtures and lining the walls with black marble." 

"Black marble?"

"Yes"

"Giorgio?"

"Yes"

"Giorgio il fruttivendolo?"

"Oh, no, that other Giorgio. The nice one from Rome who bought the palazzo around the corner. Giorgio Whats-His-Name? Olmini? Olmoni?"

This couldn't be. "Giorgio Armani?" I asked, voice tentative.

"Yes, that's right. Armani, that's his name. Is he a friend of yours? Do you know him?"

No, I didn't know him, but I wish I did, for I'd love to tell him the story.

 

The Janissary Tree

 This very enjoyable read is the first in a series of mysteries by Jason Goodwin that feature Yashim the Eunuch, a kind of free-lance investigator who is loosely affiliated with the court of the Sultan Mahmud II in 1830's Istanbul. 

The rise of the Ottoman Empire was fueled by the conservative Janissary Corps, which had been founded in the 1300’s.  But over the following 500 years, while Western Europe modernized its military organization and technology, the Janissaries became a reactionary force that resisted all change.  Sultan Mahmud II, whose reign began in 1808, introduced extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms and, recognizing that Turkey needed a modern military force, abolished the Janissaries in 1826, executing 6,000 or more, during the so-called Auspicious Incident.  There was substantial opposition to these changes by conservative forces, which underlies the (fictional) events of 1836 described in The Janissary Tree. (My thanks to Wikipedia, which helped this description and my understanding of the setting of The Janissary Tree!)

Yashim is admirable and likable - he is calm but game for action, speaks several languages, and is a good pick-up cook (Goodwin has also written The Yashim Cookbook, which includes recipes for Yashim's intriguing concoctions!)  

    "So it seems," Yashim mused, "that junior attaché Potemkin springs into a coach with four of the brightest New Guard cadets - and they're never seen alive again."  

    Palewski's eyebrows shot up. "Meet a Russian--disappear--it's a common phenomenon. It happens all the time in Poland."

   .......

Fine cities whose contented citizens support an intelligent administration do exist, containing not a single dilapidated public building, a solitary wood-strewn building lot, or even a crumbling palazzo; but a great city must have them all, for decay too, is a sign of life. In the right ear, dereliction whispers of opportunity.  In another ear, of delinquency and corruption.

The Janissary Tree is excellent: enlarging and entertaining!

 

 

My Past and Thoughts, vol I

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812 – 1870) is considered by many to be the "father of Russian socialism".  His influence is illustrated, for example, by the fact that he was the key figure in Tom Stoppard’s trilogy of plays evoking the per-revolutionary period in Russia. 

But Herzen's first,"pre-revolutionary," volume chronicles his childhood, university years, and banishment to northeastern European Russia, a punishment for having been part of left-leaning student groups:

 “His autobiography is often considered one of the best examples of that genre in Russian literature…..the impressions he left of his father and other relations, of the Moscow idealists, and of the leaders of the European Revolution are unforgettably vivid….the first parts devoted to his life before his exile contain the broadest, truest, and most penetrating view of Russian social and cultural history in the first half of the nineteenth century”. (Wikipedia)

For me, this was a very enjoyable, leisurely read.  Herzen's descriptions of the countryside are lyrical. His family was aristocratic and his father played a key role in negotiations between the Tsar and Napoleon. As a child, Herzen was very isolated and his father was forbidding and cruel - his descriptions of his father were initially sharp and severe, but eventually were tempered with sympathy: a striking contrast.  Herzen relates vivid impressions of the Tsars and his sympathy and passion for freeing the serfs were admirable.  Despite some anecdotes about now obscure Russians, Herzen's memoir is very readable and is interesting for its insights into a time when revolution was in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

Warlight

 

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje is a growing-up story told by Nicholas, who eventually discovers that his parents were important British spies during World War Two.  His story, revealed in flashbacks, is like a dream, with vivid imagery, disconnected, puzzling events and colorful characters (The Moth, The Darter, Marsh Felon) who appear and disappear suddenly and meaningfully.  The title references the reduced-light conditions imposed by blackouts during aerial bombings of London.  The difficulty of discerning objects under these conditions is echoed by repeated instances of things later turning out to be different than they seemed at first. 

Besides, hearing another version of the goat incident was a further layering in the world that I was entering.  I felt I was a caterpillar changing colour, precariously balanced, moving from one species of leaf to another.

Much of the war work in which my mother and others participated was carried out, it is now clear, with a similar invisibility, the real motives camouflaged, the way childhood is.

That familiar false modesty of the English, which included absurd secrecy or the cliché of an innocent boffin, was somewhat like those carefully painted formal dioramas that hid the truth and closed the door on their private selves.

 The writing is often beautiful, with lovely descriptions of the countryside or the Thames at night, alternating with fast-paced, nefarious adventures.