Book - City of Falling Angels

Leisurely finished this book, it was not one of the can't-put-it-downs. Not a bad read, entertaining. Writing was ok, but I didn't feel all the mystery and charm of Venice and its inhabitants leaping out at me, like Dibdin's books. None of the characters really engaged me, and neither did most of the stories. I was interested enough in the Rylands that I tried to find out more about them online, but didn't find much - ok, I only half-heartedly looked. I did like the rat poison chef, I thought his story was hilarious, and the enthusiasm he had for his work really came through.

What's odd is that the pretext for the book was a look at La Fenice, but it never really ties any of the stories in with it. There's some lame mention occasionally about what on of the people thought about the fire, but it sounded more like last-minute add-ins. The Opera Buffa chapter caught my attention the most, and I wish there had been more on the whole process, since it seemed the most absurd and interesting of all the stories. As with any construction anywhere in the world, especially on a historical landmark, the demands, requirements and corruption sometimes go beyond the absurd, into the twilight zone. Sounded like there was a lot of that here, and I would have liked to know more, especially what was unique to Venetians.

Still, I enjoyed reading this, and am still very enthusiastic about visiting Venice.