John Berendt, author of the bestselling Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil (216 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List), arrived in Venice in the winter
of 1996, only a couple of weeks after a fire had destroyed the La
Fenice opera house. The
building had previously burned twice, in 1774 and 1836, and had been rebuilt
both times.
What Berendt
recognized was the fire was a story, an intriguing story, and it just might be
the prism through which to tell the larger story of Venice. And so he stayed
on, rented a room, and began to talk with people.
The City of Falling Angels was first published in 2005, the year after the rebuilt opera house was opened. And the story Berendt tells, a story of Venice, is a fascinating one.
The opera house
fire becomes a framework to write the story of Venice – its history, its
politics, its maze of bureaucratic rules, its first families (how many doges do
you have in your family line?), the expats who live and have lived there
(especially Americans), the rivalries of the charitable organizations set up to
save and restore city buildings, artwork, and icons. But it’s not only a story
of rich people; Venice is also the story of artists and bakers, gondola drivers
and electricians, and the crazy time that is Carnival.
City authorities
initially investigated the fire as one of negligence, and there was plenty of
ongoing negligence to go around before the fire – cans of solvents left open,
blow torches left burning, improper ventilation. And then, in the way that
really good stories do, the investigations focuses on arson.
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| John Berendt |
With the story
of the La Fenice fire comes the stories of a family of glassblowers, what
happened to the papers of poet Ezra Pound, a wealthy American family that has
lived in self-enforced exile since the late 19th century, and the
battle of Save Venice vs. Venetian Heritage (the rich can be just as petty as
the rest us, and perhaps more so). It’s an entertaining mix of fact and myth,
perception and reality.
Berendt, a
native of New York State, received his B.A. degree in English from Harvard
University. He’s worked in publishing, writing for television talk show hosts
(David Frost and Dick Cavett), and worked at New York Magazine and Esquire.
His story of murder in Savannah, Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil, was virtually an overnight sensation when
it was published in 1994.
Top photograph: La Fenice Opera House in
Venice, after its restoration from the fire. Image via Wikipedia.
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