THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS

After the famed Fenice Opera House in Venice burns, John Berendt stays in the magical city to discover the truth about the fire and to get to know the locals. Berendt hangs out with some interesting eccentrics, and he records their idiosyncrasies with a fiction-writer's ear and a journalist's eye. From the terminally wealthy to the terminally insane, Berendt spins yarn after yarn in a pleasant, easy-to-listen-to voice. Rather than voicing characters, Berendt lets his well-chosen, intelligent observations give them life. For all its indelible portraits of glassblowers, rat killers, poets, and pigeon hunters, the book lacks a compelling story to hold it together. What makes this abridgment worthwhile is Berendt's treatment of an aging beauty--Venice herself. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]