Where I Read a Book Everyone Else Read A While Ago

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this novel. I enjoyed reading it, and I learned a lot about Florence from it.

I must admit, though, I don't like the end (which is presented in the prologue) and that marred my affection for the novel overall. The conclusion doesn't follow, IMO, from anything in the rest of the novel, and it's unnecessarily grotesque and bizarre. I wonder at the creative process which led to ending the story the way the author did... Nope, don't get it. (Maybe you'll make better sense of it.)

But leaving that aside--the novel is otherwise quite lovely. Yes, there are some tough things happening, horrible events in the city of Florence at the end of the Fifteenth Century, things which are ugly and distressing, but they happen mostly off-stage, to minor characters or unnamed characters. Nothing unusual for a story like this. The main characters mostly have rising and falling fortunes, good and bad times, just as you'd expect in a historical novel, and I found it a pleasant read from the distance of several thousand miles and 500+ years.

I haven't traveled much, but I have been to Florence. I found myself actually seeing the city as I read this, and I feel like the author has done an excellent job of bringing the place and the time back to life. The wealth, the wars, the religious disagreements--it makes so much more sense to me when I see it in a novel than when I read it in non-fiction sources. With well conceived characters and a satisfying story arc (*cof* leaving aside my disdain for the very end *cof*) it is a fine novel. As always, in my opinion.

Some family drama; some history; religion; romance; lots of art; good stuff.

Recommended.


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