It would have been easy for Brunetti to grow indifferent to the beauty of the city, to walk in the midst of it, looking and not really seeing. But then it always happened: a window he had never noticed before would swim into his ken, or the sun would gleam in an archway, and he would actually feel his heart tighten in response to something infinitely more complex than beauty. (p. 69)t'What do we have as a military here in Italy?' Ambrogiani asked, his question clearly rhetorical. 'We're all volunteers, the Carabinieri. But the Army -- they've all been drafted, except for the few who choose it as a career. They're kids, eighteen, nineteen, and they no more want to be soldiers than they want to …' Here he paused and searched for a simile that would do justice. 'Than they want to do the dishes and make their own beds, w which is what they have to do, probably for the first time in their lives, while they're in the service. It's a year and a half lost, thrown away, when they could be working or studying. They go through a brutal, stupid training, and they spend a brutal, stupid year, dressed in shabby uniforms and not getting paid enough to keep themselves in cigarettes.' Brunetti knew all of this. He'd done his eighteen months.tAmbrogiani was quick to sense Brunetti's waning interest. 'I say this because it explains how the Americans see us here. Their boys, and girls, I suppose, all volunteer. It's a career for them. They like it. They get paid for it, paid enough to live. And many of them take pride in it. And here, what do they see? Boys who would rather be playing soccer or going to the cinema, but who have to do work they despise instead, and who therefore do it badly. So they assume that we're all lazy.' (p. 90-91)tThe secret of police success lay, Brunetti knew, not in brilliant deductions or psychological manipulation of suspects but in the simple fact that human beings tended to assume that their own level of intelligence was the norm, the standard, and to work on that assumption. Hence the stupid were quickly caught, for their idea of what was cunning was so lamentably impoverished as to make them obvious prey. This same rule, unfortunately, made his job all the more difficult when he had to deal with criminals possessed of intelligence or courage. (p. 198)tWhen he hung up, Brunetti found himself wishing he were in America. One of the great revelations to him when he was there was the system of public libraries: a person could simply walk in and ask questions, read any book he wanted, easily find a catalogue of magazines. Here in Italy, either one bought the book or found it in a university library, and even there it was difficult to gain access without the proper cards, permissions, identification. (p. 240)He moved with that loose-limbed ease so common to Americans, the ease that made them look so good in casual clothing, so awkward in formal dress. (p. 263)
I liked it more than the first; and the first had been enough to get me hooked. Donna Leon's characters and plots start off as plain, usual, lacking any eccentricity, but as you progress in the story they start displaying more depth than you would imagine. Brunetti has no peculiar traits as a detective; he's not particularly charming nor depressed and dark, he does not have any special modus operandi or colourful habits. He even has a normal and loving family. And yet he feels authentic, real enough to lead you through the book. As does Venice, and this was the first reason for my interest in Donna Leon's novels: she uses the city as a convincing setting, describing it as a real place and not as the postcard you would expect from a non Venetian. If you allow yourself to get sucked in her stories, Leon displays the ability to be far more convincing, meaningful and accurate than you thought in the beginning; she is able to phrase musings and doubts an Italian would (sometimes; not always) and to put at the core of her plots that kind of resignation, melancholy and anger that Italians sometimes feel towards their country.She does, to be completely honest, insert perplexing opinions every now and then; she buys in some Italian stereotypes, most notably the difference between North and South, or the supposed wealth of ancient Venetian families. But it's not so much that you cannot appreciate the story. And this one in particular is very well conceived: it spans through the whole North/North East of Italy, in a plot not maddeningly mysterious but realistic enough; it sees the main character ally with different others towards the kind of bittersweet conclusion one could expect to come later in such a crime series. Leon seems to be fascinated by the insertion of outcasts and the different faces of Italy, and some of her most warming pages are the ones that concentrate on characters and relationships.
Do You like book Death In A Strange Country (2005)?
This is going to be one of my favorite Leon books. There is a strong lesson here in international politics and international shenanigans. The subject, besides some very crude and insensitive murders, is the disposing of hazardous waste -- how it is usually done improperly, and that not by accident.Politics and its close interplay with big business, the network of 'the important people,' is clearly portrayed with all the associated blemishes this sort of underhanded dealing deserves. There is also a good lesson in Italian politics and even an open commentary on where both Guido Brunetti, our protagonist, and his wife, Paola the college professor and daughter of 'the Count,' stand with their own politics. A nice touch, this.The subject of hazardous waste disposal cannot be given enough attention. It was a problem in 1993 when this book was written, and it is an even bigger problem now. Leon does not pull her punches in laying the problem out for us.A timely and well-done piece of work that deserved the CWA Silver Dagger Award it carried home.
—Shari
Leslie wrote: "I keep hearing good things about Donna Leon - I will have to add her to my (long) tbr!"A friend recommended Donna Leon's mystery series to me. This is the second one I've read, and the slower pace is like a breath of fresh air. No guns blazing here!
—Sandra
I wasn’t aware the U.S. had any military bases in Italy until I read this book. How odd. And apparently the life that goes on there is almost hermetically sealed off from that of the country in which it’s located. Even odder. Imagine a middleclass suburban American neighborhood, complete with supermarkets and bowling alleys, plunked down right in the middle of Italy, and filled with people who don’t even speak any Italian! Mind boggling.Commissario Guido Brunetti is introduced to this world when an American from the base is found dead in a Venetian canal. Unwilling to accept that this is the result of a mugging gone deadly, Brunetti persists with his investigation even when the case is officially closed. This is a police procedural, but you get a slice of Italian life along with your mystery, since Brunetti’s family and friends play a significant role in his investigative process. Author Leon is an American who has lived in Venice for years. As an outsider, she knows what needs explaining about the culture, and does a fine job of doing so without seeming to.
—Kathleen
