The Girl from Venice (Audible Audio Edition) Martin Cruz Smith Zach Appelman Simon Schuster UK Books
Download As PDF : The Girl from Venice (Audible Audio Edition) Martin Cruz Smith Zach Appelman Simon Schuster UK Books
A World War II love story set against the romance and danger of occupied Venice.
Cenzo is a world-weary fisherman determined to sit out the rest of the war. He's happy to stay out of the way of the SS, quietly going about his business of fishing in the lagoons of Northern Italy. Then one night, instead of pulling in his usual haul, Cenzo fishes a young woman out of the canal. Guilia is an Italian Jew who has managed to escape capture and is determined to find her family. This meeting results in them both taking an entirely unexpected journey, and Cenzo suddenly finds himself thrown headlong into the world of international wartime politics, where everyone has their own agenda and nowhere is safe.
The Girl from Venice (Audible Audio Edition) Martin Cruz Smith Zach Appelman Simon Schuster UK Books
When you love an author, you want, you really, really want, to give each new book a good review.I love Martin Cruz Smith’s work. Unfortunately, The Girl From Venice is just not up to his usual standard. In fact, it reads more like a first draft that his publisher took away from him before he had time to go back, smooth the rough edges, and fix the holes in the plot.
The book has the structure of an Arkady Renko novel: the hapless investigator who stumbles into the machinations of evildoers, blunders around, and nevertheless comes up with the brass ring.
It all begins well: a fisherman finds a girl (apparently dead) floating in the Venice Lagoon. When it turns out the girl is alive, she must be hidden, because it is 1945, the Germans are still in control of northern Italy, and the girl is Jewish. But then the scene shifts suddenly to Saló, the capital of the truncated Italy which was all that Mussolini had left after the rest of Italy switched sides. At that point, the plot falls apart. People turn up and disappear without rhyme or reason. Much is made of a cigarette lighter, which conceals a .22 caliber derringer (misprinted in the text as 22 mm – an impossibility, given that even a 20 mm round is seven inches long and weighs half a pound). But the derringer violates Chekov’s dictum that if a gun appears in scene one, it must be fired before the end of the play – because after being described in detail, and then observed being transferred from the original owner to another character . . . the derringer is never seen again.
When the action returns to Venice, things grow even more confused. A German reconnaissance plane (in which the eponymous girl and the hero escaped from Saló) crashes, but then, miraculously, is repaired and flies away, piloted by the hero’s brother, who returns later with two bad guys, who then . . .
But never mind.
I kept reading to the end, because, after all, Martin Cruz Smith is Martin Cruz Smith. But my hopes of redemption were dashed, and the book ended in a complete muddle.
Do not buy this book. Buy Rose, buy Red Square, buy Gorky Park, buy Havana Bay, buy Stallion Gate. Leave this one alone until the publisher comes out with a revised and corrected “author’s cut.”
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The Girl from Venice (Audible Audio Edition) Martin Cruz Smith Zach Appelman Simon Schuster UK Books Reviews
The novel as an interesting setting - Venice and Italy in general in the waning days of WWII. A Venetian fisherman (and war vet) is drawn into a complex plot when a fleeing Jewish teenager stowsaway on his boat. Along the way we meet a good Nazi, several bad ones; Italian fascists and partisans, spies, femmes fatale and Argentine diplomats. I enjoyed the book, but in the end thought the plot was a little too fanciful. The hero is wise and worldly in a way one would not expect of a simple fisherman. His brother - movie star, fascist, philanderer all in one - is also less than believable. Finally, without giving away the story, there were far too many plot shortcuts.
This book is an outline for a possibly very good WWII novel. But there are abrupt transitions in the action with no explanation. None of the characters motives are apparent. And yes! for goodness sakes, you can't mention a cigarette lighter gun twice and NEVER have it go off!
My home library contains every one of Martin Cruz Smith's novels starting with Gorky Park. I am a fan, obviously. My question is, who wrote 'The Girl From Venice'? It is by far the least engaging Smith novel I have read. I do not recommend it.
If you like odd details about fishing which do nothing to advance the story, this is the book for you ! If you like reading about a crashed Feiseler Storch aircraft which is miraculously repaired to flight-worthy condition using what, fish guts and baling wire? This is a plane which was somehow able to take off with a very heavy load of cargo and fuel but could not continue flying with it? Makes no sense.
As far as the "historical fiction aspect" of this novel is concerned, I doubt Mr Smith will ever be confused with Alan Furst or Jeff Shaara.
I think Smith ought to stick to the deeds and misdeeds of Arkady Renko in the future. I really didn't like this novel at all.
“The Girl from Venice” by Martin Cruz Smith is an astonishingly mediocre story. Smith’s Arcady Renko (Moscow Police Investigator) stories overshadow this weak-kneed attempt -- by light years. It’s hard to believe that the same author who wrote Gorky Park wrote this absurdity.
It’s too long. There’s too much uninteresting material about fishing in it. There are numerous factual errors. For instance, allied bombers NEVER flew WESTBOUND over Venice en route to their bombing targets at Milan and Torino. Using the English word for a well-known German small plane with a well-known German name for it was puzzling.
The entire story, which takes place in the waning days of WWII as the Germans prepared to depart Northern Italy, was shallow, mostly unbelievable and contrived. Once again, Cruz Smith fails at creating a credible love story, and the familial hatred between the two Vianello brothers was vapid.
There is a sort of denouement toward the end involving gold bullion bars, an escape in a small plane and a crash landing at home in the garden of a neighborhood bar, followed by a rather idiotic meeting of the bad guys and good guys on a lagoon fishing pier. Stuff of comic books. There is an attempt at humor now and again. All characters, however, are stick figures, relying on stereotypes and gross over-simplifications.
If you’re even an armchair World War II buff (like me), it’s a tough read to stay with, due to the ridiculous plot and absurd characters. But, once in a while, it’s entertaining to read a terrible novel. This one is perfect for such occasions. Was this an early manuscript, mistakenly published before proper editing?
It’s nothing more than a 2 on ’s rating scale, and it’s that high only because of Cruz Smith’s talents and his large body of good work.
When you love an author, you want, you really, really want, to give each new book a good review.
I love Martin Cruz Smith’s work. Unfortunately, The Girl From Venice is just not up to his usual standard. In fact, it reads more like a first draft that his publisher took away from him before he had time to go back, smooth the rough edges, and fix the holes in the plot.
The book has the structure of an Arkady Renko novel the hapless investigator who stumbles into the machinations of evildoers, blunders around, and nevertheless comes up with the brass ring.
It all begins well a fisherman finds a girl (apparently dead) floating in the Venice Lagoon. When it turns out the girl is alive, she must be hidden, because it is 1945, the Germans are still in control of northern Italy, and the girl is Jewish. But then the scene shifts suddenly to Saló, the capital of the truncated Italy which was all that Mussolini had left after the rest of Italy switched sides. At that point, the plot falls apart. People turn up and disappear without rhyme or reason. Much is made of a cigarette lighter, which conceals a .22 caliber derringer (misprinted in the text as 22 mm – an impossibility, given that even a 20 mm round is seven inches long and weighs half a pound). But the derringer violates Chekov’s dictum that if a gun appears in scene one, it must be fired before the end of the play – because after being described in detail, and then observed being transferred from the original owner to another character . . . the derringer is never seen again.
When the action returns to Venice, things grow even more confused. A German reconnaissance plane (in which the eponymous girl and the hero escaped from Saló) crashes, but then, miraculously, is repaired and flies away, piloted by the hero’s brother, who returns later with two bad guys, who then . . .
But never mind.
I kept reading to the end, because, after all, Martin Cruz Smith is Martin Cruz Smith. But my hopes of redemption were dashed, and the book ended in a complete muddle.
Do not buy this book. Buy Rose, buy Red Square, buy Gorky Park, buy Havana Bay, buy Stallion Gate. Leave this one alone until the publisher comes out with a revised and corrected “author’s cut.”
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