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14.7.2014
Blimey
now there's another reviewable, which looked like a tempting
prospect even before I discovered that it's set in Florence -
In Love and War
by Alex Preston. And I've just discovered The Monster of
Florence, a 1986 Italian filming of the story of the famous
(and somewhat over-exposed) serial killer, but it does not come
any higher than politely recommended. There's been talk of a
Hollywood version of journalists Douglas Preston and Mario
Spezi's investigations for a while, with George Clooney said to
have signed up to play Preston in 2011, but no news since then.
Maybe the serial killer thing has run its course.
13.7.2014
After a
slow beginning to the year June and July have seen a fair old
flurry of reviewables. Also I've been clearing the decks a bit
for the rush of new classy fiction I mentioned below. But the
deck-clearing hasn't extended to The Serpent of Venice,
the humourous novel featuring the sexually deviant monkey called
Jeff. I started it but it disappointingly did not appeal. It had
a flavour of the Terry Pratchetts about it, but this flavour was
strongly overpowered by the excessive and blokeish bandying of
words like fuck and twat at too many
opportunities. Some words need rationing, I think, to remain
effective.
5.7.2014
Paolo
Sorrentino's The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) has
been both a highlight in my recent film-watching and an
inspiration for me to broaden my listening by following up
the new classical composers featured on its fine soundtrack. I even liked his
previous film This Must Be the Place, the one where Sean
Penn looks like Robert Smith from The Cure and plays a rock star
in search of something or other. So you can imagine my joy at
learning that he's been filming his new one in Venice. Youth
tells the story of two old geezers Fred and Mick (played by
Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel) one a director and the other a
conductor, who decide to go on a holiday together. It supposedly
deals with Sorrentino's trademark concerns - ageing, art and
desire. Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda are also in it, and it's due
to be released in the spring of 2015.
2.7.2014
Fans of
Christobel Kent's always-involving Sandro Cellini novels, set in
Florence, will be pleased to know that there's a new one, the
fifth, called The Killing Room out next Thursday. It was
due out tomorrow but has been put back a week. And in the UK the
Kindle version is only £2.48!
24.6.2014
News of
some new German Brunetti TV episodes. Episode 20, called
Reiches Erbe, presumably Drawing Conclusions, was
broadcast in Germany on the 1st of April. And news has just
reached me of the filming of the next two episodes, some of it at the
Ca' Zenobio. My correspondent also shocks me with the fact that Uwe Kockisch, the actor who plays Brunetti, has just turned 70.
The imdb confirms this, but I find it very hard to believe.
21.6.2014
The
phrase 'So many books, so little time' is a not underused one
and is one of the least sympathy-generating complaints in the
modern world, I'd suggest. However, I have returned from Bruges
with two books set there to add to my pile, The Master of
Bruges by Terence Morgan, which is all about Memling, and
Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach, a strange and ripe old
thing, by all accounts. Then there are the Venice/Florence-set
reviewables mentioned below, and I've just discovered something
called The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore which
is that rare thing - a humourous novel set in Venice, and it
even features a character called Jeff, who is a sexually deviant
monkey. And looking forward to August and September when David
Mitchell, Sarah Waters and Haruki Murakami, three of my
favourite authors, have new novels out, the last one having been
looked forward to most impatiently since its Japanese
publication in April 2013. So it's looking like starting on À
la recherche... and rereading War and Peace might
have to wait a bit longer.
more
news here
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July 2014
The Image of Venice: Fialetti's View & Sir Henry Wotton Venice
Georges Rodenbach
Bruges-la-Morte
Christobel Kent The
Killing Room
Florence
Laura Morelli The
Gondola Maker Venice
Graham McKenzie
A Florentine Influence
Florence
Terence Morgan The
Master of Bruges
June 2014
Giulia Foscari Elements
of Venice Venice
Heather Redding Stealing
Venice
Venice
Antonia Hodgson The Devil in the Marshalsea London
Philip Kazan
Appetite
Florence
April 2014
Marco Vichi Death in
Florence Florence
La Venexiana Venice
films
Donna Leon By its Cover
Venice
March 2014
Richard
Skinner The Mirror Venice
February 2014
Doctor Who - The Vampires of Venice
Venice TV
January 2014
Thomas Coryate Most
Glorious & Peerless Venice
Donna Leon My Venice and
other essays
December 2013
Light in the Piazza Florence
films
Tony Ballantyne Dream
London London
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Pike Venice
McCann
Ace, King, Knave London
November 2013
Elizabeth Spencer The
Light in the Piazza Florence
Roberta Rich
The Harem Midwife Related works
Christopher Jones White
Phantom City
Venice
September 2013
Tom Brown
Strange Air London
Venetian bird Venice
films
Ellis Peters
Holiday with
Violence Venice
August 2013
Tinney Sue Heath A Thing Done
Florence
Christopher
Fowler Full Dark House
(Bryant & May Book 1) London
The Redhead (Die
Rote)
Venice films
Miranda Miller The Fairy Visions
of Richard Dadd London
Ben Aaronovitch Broken Homes London
July 2013
MacDonald Harris Pandora's Galley
Venice
Jonathan Holt The
Abomination: Carnivia Book One
Venice
Chloe
Aridjis Asunder London
Richard Russo Nate in Venice
June 2013
Michelle
Lovric The Fate in the Box Venice
Essie Fox Elijah's Mermaid London
Wu
Ming Altai Venice
Penguin Underground Lines:
Twelve Stories from Twelve Authors London
Victor Canning
Venetian bird
Venice
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