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clare__emm's review
4.0
I really really liked this. Was recommended to me by my Mum to read before I go to Venice and it has prompted me to think deeply about travel and journeys. The prose is often breathtaking in its simply beauty.
buttermellow's review against another edition
4.0
I love how the book was broken up into 3 sections, and each section had within it a fantastical story that the author comes across on his travels. It made the book feel very magical. My favorite was the 1st section, with the story of the brooch.
lillianhorton's review against another edition
4.75
4.75?
I really loved this book. Every time I put it down, I just kept thinking about all the topics it had addressed. I just really liked the writing style and all the questions it asked. And the conversations with the professor - sublime.
Probably shouldn't have read a book so travel-focused seeing as that still won't be happening for a looong time.
I really loved this book. Every time I put it down, I just kept thinking about all the topics it had addressed. I just really liked the writing style and all the questions it asked. And the conversations with the professor - sublime.
Probably shouldn't have read a book so travel-focused seeing as that still won't be happening for a looong time.
crufts's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A somber meditation on the nature of paradise, written as a series of letters.
A book-loving Australian man is diagnosed with HIV. While spending twenty nights in Venice, he reads Dante's Divine Comedy and writes home every night to a friend in Melbourne.
A book-loving Australian man is diagnosed with HIV. While spending twenty nights in Venice, he reads Dante's Divine Comedy and writes home every night to a friend in Melbourne.
Pros:
- Masterful use of details and witty observations to ground the narrative and suspend disbelief; if not for the Wikipedia article saying otherwise, I could have believed that the letters were real and not fictional.
- Interesting theme of earthly paradise is explored throughout the book, in both stories-within-a-story and real scenarios. This is a book which has something to say, and says it.
Cons:
- First ~80 pages drag somewhat due to slow pacing.
- Similarly, some of the stories-within-a-story could have been pruned, e.g. the golden amulet tale could be halved.
Overall: This is a poetic book where not much happens, but by golly, it happens in the most beautifully described and thematic way.
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