An American writer with access to Venetian high society moves there and writes down all the gossip and good stories he witnesses or hears about while living there for a few years. This book has all the strengths and weaknesses that this sounds like: on the one hand, these are pretty much all stories I am completely unfamiliar with since the reflections of Venice in things I have read or seen are typically of pre-20 century Venice (think stories like The Count of Monte Cristo or film works like Aria or histories of the Mediterranean region) and so stories like theaters burning or the Save Venice feuds or the Pound scandal are news; on the other hand, they were news to me because I didn't care about any of them before and I don't care much about them having read Falling Angels either. As one might expect, there's not much cohesiveness to the stories beyond the narrator himself because real life is not so cooperative as to combine all the storylines into a single satisfying conclusion.

On the positive side: Berendt is a fine writer who smoothly narrates events and lets people speak for themselves more than most writers would. He is aware of the danger of relying on gossip and seems to keep an open mind as he critically examines all the versions and stories he's told, and he seems to have spoken to everyone so he has plenty to compare. He also has a good eye for details and and interesting people and anecdotes. I don't regret reading it, even if I don't expect to ever re-read it nor learned any 'big' truths or stories.