So far, Donna Leon doesn't disappoint. I think anyone who has been to Venice loves revisiting this wonderful place through these novels. I especially enjoyed the passages in which Brunetti and Signorina Ellettra go to Verona and experience the delights of traffic and taxis. They wonder how people live in cities with cars…yes, indeed, how do we? I also enjoyed this passage:
"In another culture, Giuliano Marcoloni might have been described as fat: Italians, however, graced with a language from which euphemism springs with endless sympathy, would describe him as 'robusto'."
I was thinking of moving on to War and Peace especially after I read someone saying it was "like sand…once you got going it just kept flowing" or something to that affect. Carol replied with this comment:
"I'd say War and Peace is more like gravel than sand. You just get going with a beautiful, interesting narrative and then comes a hefty discourse about war and battle tactics. Then back to the flow before you hit another rocky chunk. It's almost like two books--one a story like Anna K, the other a discourse on war. Some people would enjoy both parts, but I thought that if I read it again, I would skip the war stuff. Probably defeating the whole point of the book, but that was my reaction."
Well, my problem is solved as Elizabeth Hay's new novel "His Whole Life" came up on my holds so I will have to read it now, of course. War and Peace will have to wait.
