A Thousand Days in Venice - Marlena di Blasi

...is Marlena de Blasi's debut a book that is difficult to label but it is one that confounds and and yet enchants with each turn of the page. I raced through the book relishing every word, but found myself seething with indignation at bad writing and annoyed with a narrator who just made me want to scream.

"A Thousand Days in Venice: an unexpected romance" is usually stacked on bookshops with travel writing and indeed, it ...
...the domestic. It is undoubtedly a memoir, but a memoir that is forever pointing the reader forwards, wondering what may be. The cover notes say that the book "Includes recipes" but in reality there are few. In her subtitle de Blasi refers to a romance, and romance there is - in bucketfuls. This is a love affair not only between two people but between one woman and a city: Venice, arguably the most romantic city in the world.

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There are some books that just refuse to be pigeon-holed, assuming that one need do that at all. Not only is Marlena de Blasi's debut a book that is difficult to label but it is one that confounds and and yet enchants with each turn of the page. I raced through the book relishing every word, but found myself seething with indignation at bad writing and annoyed with a narrator who just made me want to scream.

"A Thousand Days in Venice: an unexpected romance" is usually stacked on bookshops with travel writing and indeed, it does fit into that genre. But it is travel writing that focuses primarily on the domestic. It is undoubtedly a memoir, but a memoir that is forever pointing the reader forwards, wondering what may be. The cover notes say that the book "Includes recipes" but in reality there are few. In her subtitle de Blasi refers to a romance, and romance there is - in bucketfuls. This is a love affair not only between two people but between one woman and a city: Venice, arguably the most romantic city in the world.

The book is an account of how chef and freelance food writer, Minnesota-based Marlena de Blasi meets a mysterious Italian who, it seems, knows that she is "the One". He follows her to the United States and within days they are making plans for the future; within months, Marlena has joined Fernando in Venice and the couple are making plans for their wedding.

If it sounds a little crazy that's because it is. A middle aged woman seduced by a complete stranger and one with whom she has so little in common. De Blasi reminisces about the various family homes she has lived in with her two now grown up children; houses she has turned into homes, full of memories from pieces of furniture, cushions and even kitchen equipment. "The stranger", as she calls Fernando for most of the book, has never been married before and lives in a post war flat that has no character and is utterly unloved.

Chef Marlena sees preparing food for the man she loves and sharing the experience with him as an integral aspect of the relationship whereas Fernando sees food as fuel and prefers to live more simply. He wants to eat out and, in the way of many Venetians living on the Lido, prefers to eat out anyway. This is just one reason why the relationship looks doomed to fail from the beginning.

Two aspects of the book really appealed to me. One was the promise that the book included recipes although they turned out to be disappointingly few. The other was the cultural aspect: I learned so much about the geography, history and customs of the Venetians and the author manages to incorporate these facts into her account of the romance quite naturally without interrupting the main event.

However, what space she saved by including only a small number of recipes, de Blasi manages to cram with adjectives, lists and metaphors. They are everywhere, piled one on top of the other like an antiquarian bookstore where you think there could be an imminent catastrophe. In describing things on a market stall it is not enough for her to mention six when a dozen could be named. De Blasi tells us about the fabrics with which she drapes every item of furniture in the apartment, the various luxurious cushions of every hue she couldn't come to Venice without, the various fabrics offered up for her wedding dress design...and so it went on.

It got worse: sometimes the incidental passages were like a really bad soap opera - "I am blithe while the stranger pouts", "There was no stranger in his gaze. There was only Fernando". Maybe I'm just not a romantic, maybe there was just so more I wanted to know. Venice the city seemed cruelly neglected and I felt more than a little cheated.

The characters vexed me too; I wanted to shake Fernando - a man supposedly so ardent and passionate that he would know at once that this woman was the one for him, yet one who knew so little of his town and who derived so little pleasure from the good things in life.

And yet I finished the book, in so little time too. There is something quite compelling about the story that the telling of the tale can be at least forgiven to some extent. It never felt real, though. I don't think I ever viewed what I was reading as a memoir because there was something totally unearthly about the whole story, even when other people came into the story. If you enjoy the "magical realism" in Joanne Harris's novels or have enjoyed "La Cucina" by Lily Prior then this is probably something that will appeal.

I can't remember having been so torn in my feelings for a book before. I loved the setting but hated the characters; I was fascinated by the themes but found the style of writing cloying and flowery. I would love to say "Don't Bother" and yet I know that would be wrong. It's not for everyone, that much is certain, but it is a book that may appeal on a variety of levels so long as you don't expect to be pleased in every way.

Published by Virago, 288 pages 

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