She dipped a corner of a biscuit in her caffè latte, ate it, and continued. "Never once have I heard anyone say, 'Yes, Gemma's really not very bright, so I understand why she didn't do well in mathematics,' or, 'Nanni is a bit of a dope, you know, especially at languages.' Not a bit of it. Their children are always the best and the brightest, are perceived as spending every waking moment bent over their books, and into the lambent clarity of their minds no teacher has ever been capable of adding even the dimmest light or glimmer of improvement. Yet these are the same kids who come home with Chiara or Raffi and talk of nothing but pop music and films, seem to know nothing about anything except pop music and films and, when they can tera their attention away from pop music and films, do nothing except call one another on their telefonini or send SMS's to each other, the grammar and syntax of which I most sincerely hope to be spared."tBrunetti ate a biscuit, took another, looked across at her and asked, "Do you prepare these speeches when you're washing the dishes, or do such rhetorical flourishes come to you unrehearsed?"tShe considered his question in the spirit in which it had been asked and answered, "I'd say they come to me quite naturally, though I imagine I'm aided by the fact that I see myself as the Language Police, ever on the prowl for infelicities or stupidities."t"Lots of work?" he asked.t"Endless." She smiled…. (p. 89)"She worries about the flowers [using fossil fuel to fly flowers, then truck them, from one country to the next], but she can still dismiss the death of a vu cumprà?" he asked, fully conscious of how illogical a question it was but unwilling to stop himself from asking it. tPaola smiled as if to suggest she had already asked herself the same question. "I think she's still too young for us to expect much consistency in her ideas, or in her ideals," she said.t"What does that mean?"t"Exactly what I said: she's still a child in many ways, so she's discovering all the fine and noble causes for the first time, and she still sees each one as a discrete unit: she hasn't seen the connections or contradictions among them; not yet." (p. 146)tThe officer saluted and left, leaving Brunetti faintly troubled by the difference in their response to the two drug addicts. Pucetti's was the generation all in favor of sentiment, sharing other people's pain, voicing compassion for the downtrodden, yet Brunetti often found in them traces of a ruthlessness that chilled his spirit and made him fearful for the future. He wondered if the cheap sentimentality of television and film had sent them into some sort of emotional insulin shock and suffocated their ability to feel empathy with the unappealing victims of the mess that real life created. (p. 202-203)Like most Italians, Brunetti had mixed feelings about Rome. As a city, he loved it, himself a willing victim of the excess of its beauty, in no way reluctant to admit that its majesty equalled that of his own city. As a metonym, however, he viewed it with jaundiced suspicion as the source of most of what was filthy and corrupt in his country. Power resided there, power gone mad, like a ferret at the taste of blood. Even as this exaggerated abhorrence registered, his more logical self told him how mistaken it was: surely his career had revealed to him countless honest bureaucrats and officials who worked there; and surely there were politicians who were motivated by something other than greed and personal vanity. Surely there were. (p. 207)t"She's an adolescent, Guido."t"And that means?"tAbsently, Paola pulled a cushion from behind her and tossed it on to the table, then kicked off her shoes and put up her feet. "It means that the only constant in her life is that she's inconsistent. If enough people approve of an idea or an opinion, then she's likely to think it's a reasonable proposition; if enough people object, then she'll probably reconsider it and perhaps change her mind. And because of her age, there's all that adolescent static flying around in her head, so it's difficult for her to think straight for a long time without worrying what her friends will think of her for saying or doing what she does." She paused, then said, "Or, for that matter, for wearing or eating or drinking or liking or listening to or watching what she does."t"But isn't she aware of the inconsistency?" he asked doggedly.t"Between attending to one foreigner's needs and casually dismissing the death of another?" Paola inquired, again phrasing it bluntly.t"Yes."tAdjusting to a more comfortable position, Paola leaned her shoulder up against his chest. "She knows Azir, likes her, so she's real to Chiara: the black man was a faceless stranger," Paola said, then added, "And she's probably still too young to be affected by how beautiful they are." (p. 213)
This is the 3rd of this series that I've listened to. I enjoyed "Fatal Remedies" and "Doctored Evidence" so much that bought this one before finishing the 2nd one. (NOTE: All of the books in this series are not available in audiobook format. However, each novel stands on its own without much passage of time between each so the reader is able to jump around, even skipping several without much impact upon our enjoyment.). This book plods along with usual slow pace of the author, with much "stage business" like describing a person flicking imaginary lint from his or her clothing or the biting the lower lip in a contemplative manner while pondering a question asked. The reader is given indepth descriptions of Venice and the customs and mores of all of its disparate citizens. One can almost smell the canals, the crush of humanity on a hot humid day, or the bouquet of a very excellent wine at a sidewalk cafe. We become one with main character, Commissario Guido Brunetti, and his colleagues at the police department. Many readers complain about the unbelievable amount of time the author spends on telling us about Brunetti's personal life with his wife and two teenaged children. I agree that it is a bit overdone, but somehow doesn't take away from the real story of rampant criminal behaviors in Italy (from common pickpockets to the highest political arenas in the country), the investigation of complex crime plots and, finally, the successful resolution leading to arrests - although not necessarily CONVICTION, since that depends on the socio-economic status of the perpetrator(s). That's seems to be the only reason that Brunetti has a job at all! If not for him, every poor Italian or illegal immigrant charged with murder - especially the Africans - would be lynched in the center of the Venetian version of Times Square ("Tempo Piazza", perchance?) after a very quick, very unfair trial. But I like Commissario Brunetti, Venice, his family, and his intelligent way of solving crimes against very difficult obstacles, including his immediate supervisor. I've learned a lot about the country, even more about great foods and wines from Brunetti's wife, a fantastic cook. I've even picked up a fair amount of Italian "survival phrases" in just 3 books. Narrator David Colacci is outstanding! He's a master at all of the dialects and accents in Italy, plus France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Senegal, Sierra Leone, etc. - you name it, he can do it! All while reading in English with a decidedly non-regional American accent.OK, that's my take on the overall series. As for THIS particular story, I was a bit disappointed. Usually the reader doesn't get the "reveal" until a few chapters from the end and even then, there's another unexpected plot twist. We are normally introduced to the murder within the first 20 minutes of the story. Next, we are "forced" - not in a bad way - to wade through hours of stage business, dozens of reoccurring secondary and non-reoccurring tertiary characters, needless dialogue, food preparation, plating, and devouring, in-depth location descriptions, police investigations (with much MIS-investigations from the higher-ups), Brunetti's illegal and often unethical undercover investigations with his personal team of "Untouchables" - until suddenly we all GET the actual crime, why the murder (or murders) had to go down, and whom is responsible. Good stuff! Here, the whole tapestry of the plot unravels within the first few paragraphs of the book. Follow me.....this is not a spoiler, just plain common sense: The broad daylight execution of a street vendor in Venice by two swarthy-looking guys recruited from Italy's version of "The Dirty South", i.e., Sicily. They use small caliber revolvers with silencers. The kill is up close, clean, and efficient. The victim is African. Once that tidbit is juxtaposed with the words in the title "blood" and "stone", it doesn't take a rocket scientist - or, in this case, a certified gemologist - to figure out where the story is going. The Mafia wasn't contracted over a bunch of knock-off Louis Vuitton purses! After the first 15 minutes, I was not desperate enough to want to salivate over the description of thyme-infused grilled skirt steak with creamy polenta and a glass of Badia A Coltibuono to commit an additional 8.5 hours to this book! No, grazie, i miei amici da GoodReads.com! Arrivederci!
Do You like book Blood From A Stone (2006)?
To begin with, I have to confess that I love Venice. So any story that takes place there is likely to please me. Also, I love a good whodunit. Nothing's better for curling up with and relaxing. Still, Donna Leon's stories have something special. Maybe it's her detective, Commissario Brunetti. He's an extremely wise and cool person. A murder mystery's effectiveness depends on the personality of the detective, and Brunetti is extremely simpatico. Maybe it's the way her ripped-from-the-E.U.-headlines plots examine aspects of contemporary life that we don't like to look at, lay bare the ugliness of society, and yet leave you feeling hopeful for the human race. Actually, I think it's because it's through the eyes of Brunetti and his unforgettable friends and family that we observe these things. Riding along in his boat is a bit like following Virgil through the Inferno: you know you will witness the very worst of human nature, but you'll be safe, and you're headed for better places.
—Cherie
Coming highly recommended by several friends and fellow bloggers I found both of these 'Brunetti' books (numbers 10 and 14 in the series) to be everything they said they'd be ...... and more. And having seen the characters develop over these two books fully intend to read the other books in chronological order.Crime capers set in exquisitely described Venice, I found both A Sea Of Troubles (book 10) and, Blood From A Stone (book 14) to be a bit more relaxed and less graphic, one could almost say more gentle, than the vast majority of other crime books on the market.Perhaps concentrating on family/working/community relationships and issues of a somewhat moral and/or political nature (amongst other things police bureaucracy and pollution in A Sea Of Troubles and racism and the counterfeiting of branded goods in Blood From A Stone) as much as the crime itself, I really found these novels a refreshing change.Though I did enjoy A Sea Of Troubles finding Brunetti's relationship with P.A., Elettra, fascinating reading and the 'locals' reaction to the police interesting, I did find the plot a bit implausible, Elettra' role as an undercover officer perhaps a little far fetched.In my opinion Blood From A Stone was a better though in many ways more disturbing read. Though enjoyable from the point of view that many aspects of the story will be familiar to those of us lucky enough to have visited Venice, with an underlying theme of (largely disliked) immigrants and racism this did at times make for uncomfortable reading.Perhaps at times guilty of being a tad over-zealous in her desire to make us, the reader, more socially and environmentally aware, I can't help but wonder if Paola (Brunetti's wife) is in fact Donna Leon.A long time since I read two books by the same author back to back, I recommend these two books as a great alternative to the positively gory crime thrillers I seem to have been reading of late.
—Tracy Terry
Além de um livro policial Pedras Ensanguentadas leva-nos ao universo da imigração ilegal e da venda de materiais contrafeitos nomeadamente de malas de imitação de estilistas famosos.O já conhecido Guido Brunetti é chamado para desvendar o assassínio de um imigrante ilegal negro, ao que tudo indica oriundo do Senegal que foi morto por dois homens quando vendia o seu material. O cadáver ter cinco balas todas elas mortíferas o que o leva pelos meandros dos interesses ou não que envolvem este mundo. Encontra os opositores, gente contra os imigrantes ou que acha que os que ele fazem é concorrência desleal: além de venderem peças contrafeitas, o que estraga o negócio de muitos que vendem as peças originais, e o não pagamento de impostos faz com que os vendedores das lojas não vejam com bons olhos o que os vu cumprà como são designados.Guido vê também a discriminação dentro da sua própria casa ao saber que a sua filha desvaloriza a morte deste imigrante.Mas, durante a investigação Guido descobre que a contrafacção não é o motivo pelo qual o vu cumprà foi morto, isto porque encontra ao que julga serem diamantes escondidos juntamente com sal. Depois de uma intensa investigação e escondido dos chefes, Guido descobre que estes são diamantes de sangue alguns deles oriundos do Congo e de Angola.Por tudo isso constata porque é que os ministérios do Interior e dos Negócios Estrangeiros, apesar de agirem sozinhos, proibiram a investigação do caso.Mais um livro que recomendo ler desta autora a qual já sou completamente fã.
—Maria
