Venetian Stories

Venetian Stories #1

by Jane Turner Rylands

In these twelve wry and fascinating stories Jane Turner Rylands has brilliantly evoked the hidden and day-to-day life of one of Europe’s most mysterious cities. The thoroughly engaging characters who are the focus of these stories are from different backgrounds and various Venetian neighborhoods, but their lives—and the stories—overlap and intersect in surprising and playful ways. We meet such workers as a postman, a gondolier, and a mason; and from a different circle, an architect, the mayor, a visitor (an American decorator), a contessa, a baronessa, and an English lord. There are avenging ghosts, a deceitful husband, and a fiendish mother among these.

Through Rylands’ eyes we observe the amusing quirks and habits of the natives as well as of outsiders who are absorbed into this very closed society with all its rivalries, petty jealousies, and hierarchies. For all its elegance and sophistication, Venice comes to life as a small town. Suddenly, we have a sense of what is happening behind the seemingly inscrutable Gothic façades of those timeworn palazzos lining the Grand Canal.

These stories draw us into a complex, scheming, almost farcical society, but the poignant subtext is the profound fragility of a city with an uncertain future. Jane Turner Rylands has written a book that is as memorable and luminous as Venice itself.

Genres: Fiction, Travel, Short Stories, Italy, Historical Fiction, Literature, Historical

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 6, 2003

Reviews

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

None of these stories seemed to really go anywhere, and the use of Italian felt like it was forced in, at times for words that really didn’t need to be in Italian, and others that were very particular and more needed to be understood were not explained even with a slight aside. Honestly I can remember maybe two of the character’s stories (each chapter was a new character, though they slightly maybe pop up in other chapters after….though calling these “linked” stories as the book’s blurb did felt like a stretch to me), but mostly these stories just didn’t stay with me much after I finished them. Thought I’d get more about the city in this, but it was just a bunch of boring characters not doing much.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection, not exactly of short stories, but of character sketches/fictional slices of life of various residents of Venice at the beginning of the 21st Century. Some have a plot of a sort, but not in a conventional sense. All sorts of people are represented here (postman, architect, aristocrat, socialite, mason, politician, gondolier, etc.) and often the focal character from one chapter appears from a different point of view in another. I did feel like there was some over-emphasis on the wealthy and upper classes (50% of the characters are either rich or aristocrats). On the other hand, this may just be a excuse to have a lot of the book set in and around Venetian palazzos – since other characters (mason, architect, and interior decorator) are also focused in those settings. Weirdly, even though almost all the stories feel quite realistic, one, “Interpreter,” could best be described as a ‘cozy ghost story.’ It’s still enjoyable but doesn’t really feel like it fits with the rest of the book. Not normally my thing, but I liked it. 3 stars.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt like an answer to the questions that would arise if I were walking through Venice and wondering about the stories behind the faces of the local residents I encountered, so much fun to read!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another whim purchase from Edward McKay. I read so slowly now -- too much work and too many other commitments. These stories stand alone but also interconnect -- the same people show up or are mentioned as part of the greater fabric of Venetian life. The first and last stories are wonderful bookends for the rest. All classes and incomes show up here. Excellent characters and setting and some intriguing plots, especially the ghost story. Lovely! I'll read it again some day.

[Sonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a copy of this in our apartment. I've been reading it with rucola salad dinners. The stories are simple and they make me want to catapult the expatriate bourgeoisie (author included) into the Grand Canal with a vehemence that can only be explained by the fact that I aspire to bourgeois expatriateness, don't I.

[Camilla Tilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because each chapter was a separate story, now and then linking some people together from other chapters and the first and last chapter tying it all together. It definitely gives a different view of Venezia than what you see as a day tourist. Venezia is not JUST lovely buildings and picturesque alleys.

[Jane Gabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clever conception, this is a collection of “slice-of-life” peeks into the lives of a number of people in Venice. Often the same people appear, but seen from a different point of view. There is a difference between what is seen by a tourist riding in a gondola, and what is seen from the viewpoint of the gondolier himself (yes, there are women gondoliers, but they are rare). So this book offers a glimpse into the lives of a builder, a visitor to the city, a mother living in an apartment in one of the “unfashionable” islands, someone who has bought a home with a dark history, an architect, and so forth. The author is American-born, but has lived in Venice long enough to have had her keen observational skills well developed.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5***
A read that expanded my recent experience of Venice through seeing this aged city through the eyes of twelve different protagonists. I enjoyed the Interpreter story viewing the re-emergence of a palazzo through it's new owner's occupation and her willingness to adjust to the inherent history within. I also enjoyed experiencing the day to day life of a native gondolier and the pesky hassles that come with that job. Some of the stories are somewhat dark, maybe this references the foreboding sense of the water encroaching or perhaps it alludes to the superstitious beliefs that pervade and imbue the city with magic.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy novels more than short stories because short stories (if they are good) leave me wanting more. That was definitely the case with this book. Each story had a strange, lovely, and magical twist or surprise. The mother who wanted her son and his family to be with her so badly that she arranged a housefire that would look like an accident by an absent-minded old woman. The gondolier who flirts with a customer that turns out to be married to the long-ago rival for his own wife's affections. A lovely read. Felt like I was in Venice.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely collection of interconnected stories.

[Ria · Rating 4 out of 5]

American expat Jane Turner Rylands has lived in Venice for thirty years. She knows her city and she writes a very good short story. Her "Venetian Stories" are particularly satisfyingly linked through her characters who appear and reappear from story to story. It is not necessary to know that she is the wife of the director of the Guggenheim located in Peggy Guggenheim's former home, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, but it places her stories in perspective, and she has reputedly used at least one of them as a means of avenging herself on American journalists vis-à-vis the Ezra Pound affair. All this aside, my first visit to Venice was greatly enhanced by my having read "Venetian Stories" and I highly recommend this collection.

[Tori]

2004- I enjoyed almost all 12 stories in this book, and I liked how much of them interlock in some way or another. The descriptions of Venice made it come alive, and the different viewpoints encompassed a wide variety of people from a visitor to the city to the mayor. You could really tell that the author wanted you to see that the city's upper-class life was fading in most of the stories. However, I had some problems as well. About three of the stories I didn't really ""get"". They just seemed to make no sense whatsoever. I also found it odd she only wrote about four women, I had wished for more a balance there. Lastly, I often felt like the author was being condescending to the reader, which was a bit of a turnoff. Alright, but nothing great.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book a whopping six years ago while perusing a bookstore in Venice with my family. It's taken me this long to finally get around to reading it, and it took me 4 months of on and off reading to finish the 12 stories in this volume. That being said, this is a very pleasant read. I enjoyed it and found it both light and mysterious, distant and intimate, and compelling.

While some of the stories held virtually no appeal for me ("Interpreter," anyone? Hello, crazy cat lady), others were pretty and somewhat touching. Though I didn't grow attached to any of the characters (there wasn't enough time for that), I still enjoyed Reynolds's style and insights into Venetian life in that crumbling city and society.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I have been reading several books set in Venice before a visit to La Serenissima, I added this to the to-read list. I wanted to like it but, while it purports to describe Venetian and ex-pat "types" in engaging interlocking vignettes, I found the writing mediocre (over or underwritten, at times) and the portraits of people downright boring.

I much preferred how characters were sketched in The City of Falling Angels.

[Susan Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories seem of another era - I think of Katherine Mansfield or even Kate Chopin. Yet, the concerns of the characters are contemporary - the decay of Venice, the problems of transportation, money. Contemporary and timeless. My favorite story so far is The Interpreter for its surprising narrative turns and twists of fate.

[EchoHouseLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of interconnected glimpses into various lives, some rather predictable and others lightly mysterious. I found these slices of life engaging. Though not all characters were immediately likable you did see each person with the clear view that we are all made up of light and dark. Add in the setting of Venice and I spent a sick day engrossed in this little book.

[Martina]

This is somewhere in between read and to-read. I really wanted to love it, but I'll get through one or two good stories and then get stuck on one that really bores the hell out of me. Plus, there are a lot of Italian words used that are not translated anywhere in the book.

[DJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Berendt's, 'The City of Falling Angels', I looked for this little book. I believe he mentions the author (Rylands)in his book, which interested me in reading her work. Another really great glimpse of another world.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

good short stories

[Marilyn Litt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this after seeing Venice.

[Cindy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

quirky set of short stories loosely connected.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone planning a trip to Venice or someone who has just come back and wants to savor their memories for a little while longer.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An illuminating look at Venetian society.