The Wicked House of Rohan by Anne Stuart

Setting:  Venice, 1740

Stereotypes:  Venice is a den of sin; bored people are interesting; men are wicked but like their women angelic.

Major likes: The setting; it was a fun, quick read.

Major dislike:  The story had a lot of loose ends.



Oh the Rohans.  How are they wicked--let me count the ways.  One, they propose debauchery.  Two, they hang out with people of Questionable Moral Judgement.  Three, they refuse to be shocked by said debauchery (see reason one).  Four, they have the sexs.

Unemployed, friendless, and broke, Kathleen Strong is desperate enough to accept a shady job as governess to a Mr. Marblethorpe's sister in Venice.  But when she arrives at her new job, she discovers there is no governess job, she's actually the only living virgin in Venice over the age of 12 (because it's VENICE), and the gentleman is part of a club that wants to pop her cherry so they can feel like scandalous degenerates instead of utterly useless wastes of space.

BUT!  Enter the mysterious and lethargic Alastair Rohan, the most degenerate of all the degenerates.  The forming of the club and the deflowering of the virgin were both his ideas.  Now that he's laid eyes on Miss Strong, however, he feels possessive and thus would like to lay more than just eyes on her. 

And they fell in love.

This novella was actually fairly entertaining.  Although we never find out what exactly Kathleen did to piss off her former employers, causing them to strand her in a foreign country; or why Rohan's butler is being controlled by Marblethorpe; or what the source of Rohan's cynical ennui is.  We do at least discover that Alastair and Kathleen have a shared past.  The story clips along at a very brisk pace, and before you know it, it's over! 

As for the setting, it doesn't play that much into the story.  Venice is like the 18th-century version of Las Vegas:  what happens there stays there.  It's pretty over-the-top, actually, but then everything in this novella is.

As a promotion for Stuart's new Rohan series, The Wicked House of Rohan does its job: I am now definitely interested in checking out the first book in the series, Reckless.  Although I am bummed it doesn't take place in Venice.


3/6 books read

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Movie Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley

First released: 1999
Starring: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jack Davenport
Director: Anthony Minghella
Based on: the novel by Patricia Highsmith

Tom Ripley is a young, very poor musician living in New York City in the 1950's.  The kid is earnest and hungry and at first seems like the perfect American caricature of a future self-made man.  But then he meets Herbert Greenleaf, famed shipping magnate, and a small white lie eventually turns Tom into yet another typical American archetype--someone who will do anything, even kill those he loves, out of greed and self-preservation.

If I had to describe this movie in one sentence, it would be, "If Hitchcock made The Great Gatsby."  The build-up of suspense is slow, but very effective.  By the end of the movie, the sinister mood weighs upon you like a brick on your chest.  At the same time, this isn't just a suspense film--it's about class and greed, as well.  Tom is a poor nobody trying to fit into life of the idle American rich in Italy, and the desire to remain there is what really draws him into a life of deceit and murder--a dark room where all his secrets are kept, he calls it.  The character he confesses this to assumes that he's talking about his homosexuality, but in reality he's talking about who he really is--someone who doesn't belong in the Greenleafs' world, and never will.

The performances were, by large, really great.  Especially Matt Damon's--he was totally convincing and pitch-perfect.  Jude Law has played the same type of character before, so--yawn.  Gwenyth Paltrow reminded me once again why she won an Oscar, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was excellent, as well.

I had two major problems with the movie, which actually tie into each other: one, Cate Blanchett's character.  She's utterly random and doesn't feel organic to the story at all; she just shows up whenever Tom needs the screws put to him a little tighter.  This kind of makes sense, though, since she's the only character who was added by the screenwriters and isn't in the book.  That leads me to issue two: the length.  This movie is two and a half freaking hours long.  By the hour and a half mark I was ready to wind this puppy up and put it to bed, and by the hour fifty mark I started reading a book.  There was a lot of
unnecessary crap in this film that could and should have been cut, not the least of which was Cate Blanchett's character--the ten-minute jazz club montage, for example.  God save me from directors and party/club montages.

As for the Venice part of the movie, it was small.  There are some great shots of Venice, but most of the scenes were in Rome.  They're great scenes, however, and the apartments Tom picks out once he takes on Dickie Greenleaf's allowance are absolutely to die for.

This is a good movie I would absolutely recommend, especially if you enjoy suspense films á la Hitchcock.  The acting is impressive, the script is smart (even if it could have used some editing), and the setting's fantastic.  Definitely a solid film all-around.


3/2 completed (I'm an overachiever like that)

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Movie Review: Don't Look Now

First released: 1973
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Donald Sutherland's butt, Julie Christie
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Based on: a short story by Daphne Du Maurier

After their daughter dies in England, the Baxters need a change of scenery and take off for Venice, where John Baxter is restoring an old church.  One day, Laura Baxter meets up with two freaky old ladies to whom anyone with any sense would give a wide berth.  But not Laura--because one of the ladies, who's blind, says she can "see" Laura's dead daughter, and she's warning them of danger!  Lo and behold, pretty soon John's in danger.  He also thinks he's going mad because he keeps seeing his dead daughter in the labyrinthine streets of Venice.

This movie was definitely better than Summertime, although still not really that great.  My favorite part about it was Venice, which did feel creepy as heck by the end--and it definitely can be creepy when you're wandering around, semi-lost, all by yourself, and then you pass... a puppet shop!

Um, anyway, we definitely get scenes of a "different," non-touristy Venice in this film.  On the down side, however, this movie is pretty confusing.  There's a sex scene that lasts incredibly long and feels totally random, like it belongs in another movie.  And I saw way too much of Donald Sutherland's butt.  I could really use some mind bleach right about now, because Donald Sutherland and Skinemax-level sex and nudity is JUST. NOT. RIGHT.  To be fair, though, he looked pretty good.  Not Alexander Skarsgård good, of course; don't get your hopes up.  Just good considering it was Donald Sutherland.

Aside from the sex scene, the rest of the movie had a bunch of disparate plot elements that never came together for me.  There were the creepy old ladies, the Cosa Nostra guys who loitered around street corners and freaked John out, the gloomy religious aspects, and the visions of Baxter's daughter.  Admittedly, I did get bored and started reading a book about halfway through (I also might have drifted off at one point, I can't remember), but I didn't really understand what was going on aside from the blind woman who could talk to dead people and thought Laura's son and husband were in danger.

And don't even get me started on the foreshadowing and slow-motion, which was OUT OF CONTROL.  Aie freaking yai!  I get it already!

It's pretty unbelievable, but according to Wikipedia, this movie has been referenced a lot in popular culture.  Some of the more interesting examples:

• In the feature film Flatliners, Kiefer Sutherland is tormented by a small childlike figure in a red hooded coat in a homage to his father's film.
• The video to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's single "Catch You" draws heavily on the film's imagery as Bextor runs around Venice in a red evening dress.
• Clips from this film appear in the video for Big Audio Dynamite's 1986 hit "E=MC2" which is an homage to the films of the director, Nicholas Roeg. It contains the lyric "met a dwarf who was no good, dressed like Little Red Riding Hood" etc...
• The drowning scene is referenced by the 2005 film The Dark starring Sean Bean and Maria Bello in which their daughter drowns wearing a bright red sweater.
• The end chase scene is referenced in the 2006 release of Casino Royale where James Bond is pursuing Vesper Lynd through Venice while she is wearing a red coat.
• The 2008 film In Bruges has many references to Don't Look Now, including the claim by one character that the film-within-a-film is a pastiche of Don't Look Now.
• Portions of the film are sampled in the M83 song "America."
• The film is mentioned in a portion of the graphic novel Swamp Thing, written by Alan Moore.

See, don't you want to watch it now?  You're missing out on this cultural phenomenon, not to mention Donald Sutherland as you've never seen him before!  Unless you've seen this movie, of course.


2/2 completed

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Movie Review: Summertime

First released: 1955
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi
Director: David Lean
Based on: the play Time of the Cuckoo by Arthur Laurents

Camera in hand, spinsterish Jane fulfills her lifelong dream of traveling to Venice.  But despite the fact that she's in beautiful Venice and has a great wardrobe, she's sad and lonely until she meets a swarthy Venetian antiques seller and both he and the city overcome her pride... so to speak.  But alas, all vacations must come to an end, and Jane returns to Akron, Ohio.

This is definitely not one of Katharine Hepburn's better movies.  Thinking, "Oh, I've never heard of this one before"?  Well, there's a reason.  Trust me.  The entire movie is simply an excuse for Lean to film Venice--which would be fine, honestly, if he showed us anything original.  Instead, it looks and feels like one of those prepackaged travelogue movies that use stock footage--Grand Canal, St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Square, Murano, St. Mark's Square.  You can probably get more interesting views of Venice from watching Rick Steves' Europe.

As for the script, it's a mess.  Every conversation and plot development feels totally random.  Hepburn is way too old to play The Frightened Virgin, and her personality doesn't really suit the role, either.  There were times when it felt like she was in a completely different movie... a good one.  In other words, she took the role way too seriously and it felt over the top. 

I lol'd my way through the romance between her and Italian Guy, especially seeing as how she fell in love with him in a day, he was married, and her vacation lasted a week.  I'm sure she'll be scarred for life from leaving her luhvahr. /sarcasm  I did have to admire Italian Guy's argument in favor of their having an affair despite the fact that he was married with four kids, though, which went something along the lines of, "I'm a man, you're a woman.  We're attracted to each other.  Why do you care about my wife?  Maybe if I was rich you'd care about me!  You Americans are all alike--so uptight, you don't know how to enjoy life the way Italians do."  Uh-huhhhhh.

I really would not recommend this movie.  I laughed, but not at any of the parts that were supposed to be funny, and the last half hour seriously tried my patience.  There's got to be better Venice movies out there.


1/2 Completed

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Venice Movie Mini-Challenge!

Since most of us like to watch movies in the summer, why not take a break from reading for a few hours and watch some movies instead?

As part of my Venice Reading Challenge, I'm offering a mini-challenge to watch two movies set in Venice during the month of July.  Some of my favorite movies are set in Venice, including Dangerous Beauty and Casanova with Heath Leger.  I would recommend either of those films, or you can check out the fairly comprehensive list on Wikipedia.

Simply watch the movies, write a review of each one, and link back to them here using Mr. Linky or the comments.  And, everyone who completes this challenge will get a prize from ibdibd's etsy shop!

Have fun and good luck!

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Faces Under Water by Tanith Lee

After eight years, two continents, five countries, and countless states, I have finally read this book.  And it was good--actually, really great!

Furian is a mysterious figure on the Isle of Venus, an alternate world obviously modeled after 18th-century Venice.  Although Furian is an educated gentleman, he lives in the gutters of Venus and makes money through odd jobs such as collecting bodies from the canals for the mad scientist, Doctor Shaachen, to experiment on.  One night during Carnival, he spies an elegant and expensive mask floating in the canal.  Not having found any bodies that night, he takes the mask to Shaachen and unknowingly sets himself on the path of searching for a group of killers in Venus who use magic to ensnare their victims.

This is not the type of book where things are laid out clearly at all.  At first you have no idea what's going on.  Then Lee lays a trail of breadcrumbs, promising that eventually you'll find out.  Things are never what they seem in this world or in the words used to describe it, which are lyrical and beautiful and obfuscating, most especially when describing the basest actions.  There is also tons of symbolism in the novel, which I'm not even going to attempt to unravel at this point.  But color, statues, and masks obviously have some sort of iconic meaning.

This is the first book in a series that is themed after the elements--fire, water, earth, and air.  As you can probably guess by the title, this one is dedicated to water--and there is a lot of water, as well as the color blue and green, in the world of Furian.  However, I think blue represents much more than just water--it's indicative of magic, divinity, love.  Green hides vast secrets.  Still waters definitely run deep in this novel, as the reader discovers.

The more I think about this book, the more it reminds me of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell--not because the plots are similar at all, but because they both death with themes of magic, lust for power, hidden worlds and dangers, and love.  However, I think Faces Under Water is by far the better book--not just because it's about 600 pages shorter, but because the writing style is much more lyrical and beautiful, the story is told in a more interesting way, and it makes a bigger impact on the reader.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating that Tanith Lee is one of the most underrated authors out there.  I honestly think she is one of the greatest fantasy writers of our generation, and this book only confirmed my opinion.  The first fifty pages of Faces Under Water are hard going simply because everything feels so impenetrable, and I didn't think the reveal at the end of the book came together as smoothly as it could have; but overall this is a great, enthralling, and very quick read.  I know the cover is terrible, but I would recommend Lee's novels to anyone who enjoys fantasy.


Venice Challenge: 2/6 books read

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Lord of the Night by Susan Wiggs

Sandro Cavalli is the Lord of the Night, the leader of a group that investigates crimes in 16th-century Venice.  One day he drops by the studio of his friend, Titian (yes, that Titian), and meets the maestro's latest model, courtesan-in-training Laura Bandello.  But Laura's true ambition isn't to be a courtesan--it's to be a famous painter like Titian.  Uptight Sandro is immediately attracted to the beautiful Laura, blah blah blah, plus there are a bunch of murders.

The first part of this book was actually pretty good, even though I was bothered by how objectified Laura was.  Sandro is literally old enough to be her father (he's 39 when the story takes place, and mentioned he was 21 or thereabouts when his wife died, so his kids have to be older than 18-year-old Laura--a fact the author glosses over), but for some reason there wasn't much of an ick factor there.  The couple does have chemistry and Wiggs definitely knows how to set up anticipation for a scene and then change it up enough to keep people reading.

However, in the second half of the book, the motivations of the characters started to fall apart.  They seemed to act suddenly and with no reason other than to create conflict and drag the book out.  Sandro's uptight personality and fear of feeling any emotion is never explained, and it really should have been--the guy is Italian, for god's sake!  Did his mom drop him on his head when he was a kid, or what?  Also, the solution to the murders was painfully obvious, and that tried my patience, especially at the end.

I still enjoyed this book, though, for the hugely redeeming factor of the setting--Venice!  I have to applaud Wigg's research into the time period, and she did a decent job of bringing the city to life. 

BUT--speaking of research, I had huge issues with the art in this book.  I do have to give the author props for lifting the first scene straight from Titian's Danae (or at least one of them), but all the descriptions of the paintings sounded like they were lifted straight from an art history textbook, which was pretty jarring.  What really made me snort in disbelief, though, were Laura's paintings--Impressionism, really?  Uhhhhhhg.  Aside from the pure ridiculousness of it, anyone who'd seen an Impressionism painting and an Old Master work side by side would know that crap would never fly in the sixteenth century, when painters were actually expected to have, you know, skills (note to my boyfriend:  I use the term crap in the most affectionate way possible, haha).  But realistically I know this would bother few people other than myself, so disregard.

For an old-skool romance novel (it was originally published in 1993), Lord of the Night holds up pretty well.  But it could have used tighter editing, especially in the second half, and I was left with the feeling that it could have been a lot better.  That being said, if you want a mini-vacation to 16th-century Venice, this book is a guaranteed ticket.

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Announcing: Venice Challenge!

While doing some research for my Listed: Venice post the other day, I ran across a TON of books set in and about Venice at my library.  Even exercising some control over myself, I still wound up checking out about a dozen Venice-themed books I just couldn't pass up, plus buying two on EvilEmpire.com (aka Amazon--what can I say, there was a sale). 

With all the books about Venice out there, I started thinking it would be great to have a reading challenge about it!  Here are the deets:

Where: Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books (http://heidenkind.blogspot.com/)

When:  May 1st, 2010-May 1st, 2011

What:  Read 6 books set in the city of Venice, or about Venice.  I don't care if it's fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, YA, or whatever.

How:  Sign up in Mr. Linky below and update it every time you do a post for the challenge.

What am I planning on reading for the challenge?  There are so many choices!  Here's what I'm thinking of so far (and yes, I know it looks like considerably more than six books):

• Faces Under Water by Tanith Lee
• Lord of the Night by Susan Wiggs
• City of the Falling Angels by John Berendt
• BIANCA: A Novel of Venice by Robert Elegant
• The Glassblower of Murano and The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato
• The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark
• Hidden Voices by Pat Lowery Collins
• The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin
• The World Before Her by Deborah Weisgall

If you need any suggestions, there are some great ones in the comments section of my Listed: Venice post.  ETA: CupK8 also found this amazing and enormous list of books set in Venice at Fictional Cities that you definitely need to check out!

I hope you can join me in reading about Venice this year and traveling to this romantic, fabulous city through stories in books!

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