Venice

Peter Ackroyd works his usual magic on this most majestic city. It's fascinating to learn that Venetians often feel they're not part of Italy. Narrator Simon Vance remains understated as he describes the glorious city and its influence on the works of Bellini, Titian, and Tintoretto. His sublime pronunciation of Italian words and names adds to the Venetian flair. It's exciting to realize that St. Martin's and St. Peter's churches have always had a rivalry, that there are multiple words to describe the fog that often shrouds the city, and that glassblowers were banished to Murano with fire safety in mind. Like Venice itself, the book and narration are multifaceted and are perfect for both tourist and armchair traveler. S.G.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

August 23, 2010
Novelist and biographer Ackroyd (The Canterbury Tales) provides a history of and meditation on the actual and imaginary Venice in a volume as opulent and paradoxical as the city itself. Structured and organized with a fluidity that reflects its many-faceted subject, he launches his tour de force with the basics of Venetian geography, hydrology, and climate before turning to history and architecture. The narrative continues to develop around themes both usual and unexpected such as trade and gossip or subjects such as the city's fabled churches, its love of sexuality, and theater. As it glides along, it gracefully incorporates tidbits about such traditions as the cabins on gondolas and the masks worn during Carnival. How Ackroyd deftly catalogues the overabundance of the city's real and literary tropes and touchstones is itself a kind of tribute to La Serenissima, as Venice is called, and his seductive voice is elegant and elegiac. The resulting book is, like Venice, something rich, labyrinthine and unique that makes itself and its subject both new and necessary.