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| Name : | Laurie-Anne M. |
My Reviews
I enjoyed Berendt's other novel, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", and this novel, "City of Falling Angels" inspired a lively discussion at our book club meeting. I found the little tidbits about Venice intriguing, and it led me to do more research on some of the anecdotes he contributes. The backdrop of outlandish personalities that populate Venice made it lively and a great launching pad for our discussion. For those who have traveled to Venice, it was a different perspective on a city with a history of drama and suspense.
This was our club selection for Jan,and it is one of the few books that I didn't enjoy. The few parts of the novel where I felt that there could have been more character development and fleshing out of the story (such as the relationship between the protagonist and her sister, for example), the author completely skipped over. Our club ended up not really talking about the merits of the book, but spent the meeting gossiping about what was happening at the local HS. That's the first time this has ever happened in the history of our club.
Many in our club enjoyed this book tremendously, while others did not. As someone who has lived in the South, I found the characters to be filled with cliched stereotypes, and the ending all too entirely predictable.
However, it does paint a compelling portrait of the tension during the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement in the South, and narrating from the perspective of the domestic help was an innovative viewpoint. The vernacular speech was annoying and I thought a bit patronizing.
However, this book will spark a lively discussion!
Our book club LOVED this book, and we read it upon recommendation from another book club. The writing is wonderful, and it's a very fast paced book. The author is quite upfront that it's fiction based on historical events, and it led to an intense discussion about choices and how each of us would have responded if faced with a similar situation.
However, the consensus was that the ending was terrible and does NOT do justice to this book. Personally, I found the ending improbable and left me with a sour note. The author could have done a much better job of tying up loose ends, and crafting an ending, which in keeping with the rest of the book, would have been more historically accurate.
The book has two parallel stories: one involves the planning, building and holding of the World's Fair in Chicago; the second involves a serial murderer who used the cover of the World's Fair to find a seemingly never ending source of victims. The aspects of the World's Fair offers a glimpse into a world gone by, and the details of the murders are chilling and haunting.
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