Venice: The Lion, the City and the Water (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) Hardcover – November 3, 2020

55,000 Venetians, 30 million tourists…It is far easier to deal with the flood of water resulting from rising sea levels than the human flood, perhaps a metaphor for the planet as a whole. And now 90% of the Venetian restaurants are run by Chinese, Albanians and people from the Middle East. Cees Nooteboom provided those factoids in this charming, extremely erudite exposition on the wonder that is, and was, Venice. Thanks to a thoughtful review provided to me by a former Amazon reviewer, I placed the book on my list of books to buy. Amazon algorithm offered it to me for under 10 bucks. How could I say NO, and still look in the mirror the next morning?Nooteboom is Dutch, and thus from another country with an intimate relationship with the sea. He was born in 1933 and first visited Venice in 1964, when he got hooked, and kept returning, “like a repeat offender.” I found his account of Venice so rich in information that was new to me – always a very important criterion for evaluation. Nooteboom provides a multi-faceted view of the city, the art, the history, the political machinations, the land and the water, and even how the experienced tourist tries to dodge the flood of mass tourists who are ignorant of Venetian history. For the adept, experienced tourist, the Holy Grail is to pass oneself off for a local.West meets East. That’s Venice’s raison d’etre. In an unlikely and nominally inhospitable place: the Po River delta, where the river meets the Adriatic. Early settlers were fleeing the barbarian tribes, the Lombards, et al., that had put an end to the Roman Empire, at least the Western version. Sanctuary in the swamps; a lagoon that helped protect it from sea invasion up the Adriatic. Venice faced east, colonizing much of the Adriatic, and with a mixture of warfare against first the Eastern Roman Empire, and then its successor, the Ottomans, and with much commerce, managed to accumulate vast riches. The Doges (the Dukes) of Venice reigned for more than a thousand years, from 726 to 1798, when Napoleon turned the lights out on a spectacular run.The “high-brow” tourists also beat a path to Venice: Montaigne, Byron, Thomas Mann (though Nooteboom never mentions his “Death in Venice”), Mary McCarthy, Jorge Borges (and his fascination with mazes). In some cases, Nooteboom only “name drops.” In other cases, he provides contrasting details via pairings: Joseph Brodsky and Ezra Pound; and St Theresa of Avila and Casanova (who pulled off a famous escape from prison). In one case, the author highlighted the pairing provided by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, in her book “Wonder and Irony,” between the finely wrought prose of Henry James and the plain-speaking Mark Twain, who both examined the works of Tintoretto and Veronese (The Rape of Europa) in the Doge’s Palace. The author stayed in the same hotel, perhaps the same room, that Franz Kafka wrote his last letter.Alas, Nooteboom omitted that famous 19th century bed-notcher, (beloved) George Sand, and her steamy affair with Alfred de Musset, in Venice, 1833-35, with both sides providing “kiss and tells.” And they weren’t even old (!), when the moments can be particularly relished.Nooteboom tries to walk across Venice without a compass. He provides the details of funky hotels. He followed the path of Pépin’s (the son of Charlemagne) unsuccessful invasion of Venice. He stirred my neurons with the mention of a ‘70’s movie art house classic: “The Garden of Finzi-Contini.”The author provides detailed accounts of the paintings of Francesco Guardi (1712-93) as well as Tintoretto’s “The Last Judgement.” So much better to see them in person, with a good guide.I’ve only been to Venice once, for two days, the epitome of the stumbling ignorant tourist who made it to St. Mark’s square, with two little kids in tow, and ate two pizzas for a hundred dollars, probably served by real Italians then, back in 1989. With Nooteboom 5-star, plus, book in hand, may I live long enough to be granted one entire week.

Love letter to Venice!

Why not a Kindle edition?

I suppose sales of this book will provide the author funds to spend more time in Venice. Fine. But don't look for more than a personal, somewhat eccentric diary of the city by a person who knows Venice better than she can illumine the city for her reader.

Beautifully written, reminiscent of Brodsky, and somehow Nooteboom has found new angles, new things, new approaches to talk about in Venice....wonderful.

I visited Venice more than 25 years ago & immediately fell under her spell, continuing to spend weeks there every year. Although I have a small library of some 500 plus books , being a “collector” by nature I tend to purchase anything written about the city. Others have found this book inspiring I.however failed to finish reading it. Ppossibly it has lost its magic in translation, whatever this is one of the few books on Venice that remains unread, although I will return to it later in hope .

Not quite what I was expecting. I thought this book was going to highlight lesser known areas and stories of La Serenissima and, knowing the City very well, was looking forward to adding to my knowledge. However, this was not really the case. It said far more about the author than his subject. I found the prose somewhat stilted and pretentious. That may have been because I read it in translation. But the last few chapters make it really well worth staying with the book. The atmosphere and ancient spirit of the city are wonderfully expressed, beautifully captured. For that alone, I would recommend it.