A Thousand Days in Venice

A Thousand Days in Venice
by Marlena De Blasi
reviewed by Adelynn

Received this as a birthday gift, which I was glad for, as I wouldn't have bought it myself (I'd have only gone for the more comical Bill Bryson and Peter Moore). Marlena is a middle-aged American woman who meets a Venezian man on one of her trips to Venice, falls in love with him, packs up her life in American and settles down in the watery city within a few months.

She starts off referring to him as "the stranger", until near the end of the novel where she relates their beautiful magical wedding day in Venice, when half the population joins in the celebrations, when she calls him "my husband, who was once the stranger".

There is none of the hyper tone of Belinda Jones, nor the sarcastic complaints of Peter Moore. In their place is the tone of a woman who has faith in what she is doing. Occasionally she injects some humour into her musings, as seen when the florist promises magnificent flowers which the Madonna would provide, and she likes it that the florist and the Madonna "operate on such familiar basis."

The author is a cook by profession and she includes recipes which she or her husband loves, but I, being hopeless in the kitchen, only skimmed through those parts. The rest of the book is simply enchanting.