The City of Falling Angels

By: John Berendt

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

It was a few years ago that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil achieved a record-breaking four-year run on The New York Times best-seller list. John Berendt's inimitable brand of nonfiction brought the dark mystique of Savannah so startlingly to life for millions of people that tourism to Savannah increased by 46 percent. It is Berendt and only Berendt who can capture Venice, a city of masks, a city of riddles, where the narrow, meandering passageways form a giant maze, confounding all who have not grown up wandering into its depths. Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art, and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble, foundations shift, marble ornaments fall, even as efforts to preserve them are underway.

The City of Falling Angels opens on the evening of January 29, 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Venice opera house. The loss of the Fenice, where five of Verdi's operas premiered, is a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving in Venice three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective, inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city-while gradually revealing the truth about the fire.

©2005 High Water Incorporated (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Funny, insightful, illuminating...[Venice] reveals itself, slowly, discreetly, under Berendt's gentle but persistent prying." (The Boston Globe)

"Berendt has given us something uniquely different....Thanks to [his] splendid city portrait, even those of us far from Venice can marvel." (The Wall Street Journal)

"One of the longest-awaited literary encores in recent times....Teems with a diverse cast of aristocrats and lowlifes....Berendt's voice is gentle and tolerant, reveling in human complexities; he has no pretensions of offering anything more than a good story." (The New York Times Book Review)

If You Love Venice, You'll Love this Book

Would you consider the audio edition of The City of Falling Angels to be better than the print version?

I did not read the print version.

Who was your favorite character and why?

They were so many interesting characters that I can't pick just one as my favorite.

If you could give The City of Falling Angels a new subtitle, what would it be?

Eccentrics Abound

Any additional comments?

I found this book to be fascinating. The history, the people the author meets and the Venetian culture are very well described.

Fascinating story of Venice

I loved this portrait of the city's public and private struggle to survive after the La Venice Opera House fire. Berendt's attention to detail is amazing. And Holter Graham is terrific. If you like Venice and Venitian history, you will enjoy this book.

Mary

This book was written in the same style as his last book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good in Evil". Mr. Berendt describes different people who live in Venice and there are different mysteries described in the book. After listening to this book, I have a better understanding of Venice and its people. It was very interesting and I am surprised that others gave it such a poor review.

Gossip, intrigue, politics in Venice....delicious!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be entertained as well as to learn a little bit about illustrious expats in Venice. It will certainly suit those who enjoy classy but gossipy magazines such as Vanity Fair. If you love Venice and know her a little bit as I do, this book will be a treat (of the very frivolous kind, of course)

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The story of the destruction of the opera house in Venice (La Fenice) because of human carelessness and the mishandling of the fire were extremely interesting. The way the writer describes how the fire inspired the glassblower and the resulting masterpieces was also interesting,

Have you listened to any of Holter Graham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first experience with this narrator. He was perfect in this book.

Ah Venice!

Loved getting lost in the story of Venice!! I was transported to the lagoon listening to each of the stories!

Worth the read if you are going to Venice

I am a HUGE fan of Berendt's Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil. So, since I was planning a trip to Venice, I thought this would give me a background of modern Venice as seen from the eyes of an American. It did, and I've very glad I read it but I cannot rate it in the realm of his former work on Midnight. Let's face it, Berendt can get people to tell him things they'd never tell another stranger, that's one of his greatest gifts. But I didn't find I really cared about any of the characters. It may be because there were so many, he couldn't dig very deep on any of them. On the other hand, he refuses to comprise his work by creating fake characters that are a "compilation" of several people and I admire that he doesn't take that route, it would draw some events/interviews into question, as always happens with a compilation. Furthermore, if he had dug any deeper on these characters, the story would have had a much smaller scope, and I don't believe I would have walked away with quite the overview of Venice that I gained from the reading.

Great long trip book

Well read and a pretty good story in a magnificent setting. The Opera house fire was the trellis for the vignettes, most of which were twining and atmospheric. More Venice and less Yankee politics would have pleased me, but still fun. I appreciated learning some Italian pronunciation as well.

If you love Venice...

People say this isn't as good as Midnight in the Garden, and they're right. But Midnight was so good, that still leaves a lot of room for virtue. I don't know what I would think if I wasn't a Venice-o-phile, but since millions are, that shouldn't count against it either. Suffice to say that Berendt turns his tried-and-true technique for baring the souls of cities to one of the most beguiling cities on the planet and produces a damn fine book. I couldn't wait to get back on the exercise bike.

City of Falling Angels

Great storyline, exciting plot. Fiction with historical references. Narrator interesting. If you love Venice, Italy and art history, you'll love this book.

Berendt does it again!

Great book !
Really loved the characters and the setting, it’s truly a magical place. Berendt captures the setting yet again!