Books and Things

 Books

The Venetian Candidate

The Venetian books by Philip Gwynne Jones are entirely new to me, and I arbitrarily chose one of the last ones from the series to read first, as recommended by my friend Sheila. The Venetian Candidate (published 2023) seemed to me to be well-plotted, with interestingly developed characters and plenty of local color in Venice in January, 2020 — you can figure out the date because of several news items the characters see about a new strange virus threatening to break out. 

The principal character is Nathan Sutherland, who is the British Honorary Counsel in Venice. As such, travelers in trouble come to him for help and advice, which in this book involves a missing man who was searching for information about his great-grandfather who died near Venice during World War I. Not surprisingly, this bit of history turns out to have a lot of ramifications on the present day, particularly on the candidates who are running in an election for Mayor. It gets very involved, including some violence from a hired thug, but of course it all works out well in the end.

Any self-respecting mystery author today is aware that readers want to know what the protagonists are eating and drinking. Obviously, what they eat in this book is fabulous Venetian food — and frequent quick and easy meals of pizza, which takes on quite a lot of significance:

“Gianluca didn’t even look at the menu, but smiled up at the waitress. 

 “‘Pizza Margherita, as always.’ 

“He looked over at me. ‘Now, Marco and Alessandra here are just about to tell me how boring this is.’ The two professors nodded as one. ‘But,’ Gianluca continued, ‘they’d be wrong. Because the Pizza Margherita is like Hemingway’s prose. Simple, clear, direct – no messing about. Perfect as it is.’” (p. 142)

They also drink lots of mixed drinks like Negronis, but also wine when they mean to stay sober! For example, this interchange:

“‘Okay. And to drink?’ 

“He shook his head. ‘I’m on duty. Just a red wine, please. And a couple of tuna and egg tramezzini.’ 

“I made my way over to the bar and looked at the range of food in the cabinet. Meatballs, of course. Small octopuses. Fried crab claws. Sliced meats and cheeses. All of those would be good. But what would be best on a freezing cold day? I smiled, as I saw the rows of crispy orange arancini, fried risotto balls. Perfect for getting some heat back into me.” (p. 24)

I’m glad Sheila suggested this series, and I expect to eventually read some of the other books by this author.

The Mistress of Bhatia House

“Soon, the potato and fenugreek curry was steaming in front of them, along with a thick yellow dal, stewed green beans, puris, tomato chutney, pickled turmeric, yogurt, and carrot halwa.” p. 90

“The baked cake, wheat studded with dal, nuts, and raisins, sat resting on the kitchen table. John cut two pieces for her and she put them on a metal plate.” (p. 125)

The flavors of Indian Parsi cuisine are invoked in many of the chapters of the most recent Perveen Mistry novel by Sujata Massey: The Mistress of Bhatia House (published July, 2023). I enjoyed it very much, though the central subject is depressing. Perveen, the only woman lawyer in Bombay in the early 1920s, is faced with exonerating a young servant woman who has been accused of the crime of abortion. As she unearths many unfortunate truths about the plight of women of all classes in her society, Perveen struggles against the abuse of this one woman and against the total lack of reproductive freedom for all women in her society. She must deal with the anti-woman resistance she experiences in her own efforts to achieve professional success. She realizes how the British rule of India negatively affects the interests and opportunities of Indian women and men of all classes. 

Although life in modern America is nothing like this, the book does bring to mind a variety of ongoing efforts right now to deprive women of their reproductive rights! Perveen, influenced by a woman doctor who faces many of the same prejudices she is facing, is reading a revolutionary book by Margaret Sanger, the American who promoted birth control beginning in 1914. As Sujata Massey presents them, the social problems of India a century ago can really resonate with readers today.

Graphic Novels

I reviewed this earlier in the week.

One more graphic novel, Neil Gaiman’s “A Study in Emerald,”
in which Sherlock Holmes meets classic monsters.

Shared with me

Beautiful lunch in Washington, DC, sent by my family. I wish I had been there!
The cheesecake is especially enticing.

Finding Mona Lisa

Remembering Faith Ringgold (1930-2024). Her quilt:  “Dancing at the Louvre” (source)

This image of Mona Lisa as Medusa turned up in a review of the book My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Book 2) by Emil Ferris. I’m not really that fond of graphic novels so I didn’t read the book, though I looked through a short (free) sequel to the book with the same title. As it happens, I tried a few other graphic novels too.

First promised for this month, Lego has postponed the release of the huge lego Mona Lisa until October.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz