Customer Reviews

A Stopover in Venice

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a wonderfully seductive book. The contemporary story delights with mystery, discovery, the entanglements of modern-day marriage and the possibility of release through self-discovery. The historical story is a wonderfully complex maze through the history of Venice, the world of artists, and blessed with a love story that is unbearably touching.
It is refreshing, original, and deeply satisfying.

I just finished reading this wonderful tale of discovery that takes place in Venice. I will probably read it again after I allow a little time to savor it and let it sink in. The writing is wonderful, the characters are multifaceted and interesting; there is also a delightful little dog and, of course, the beautiful city of Venice. I couldn't put the book down, from the minute Nel steps off a train to Verona and returns alone to Venice... to the end...well, I won't tell you the end. The book is fun, intriguing, interesting and, if you love Italy and Renaissance art, you will find it a total treasure. Never formula, it is as fresh, heady and stimulating as a cup of cafe espresso. Oh, how I wish I was picking it up for the first time all over again!

Oh, the useless lives of women married to famous men, how they squander their time and their talents in deference to their more important mates. That is, until they wake up and say, hey, wait a minute, what about me? Such is the trajectory of one Cornelia Everett, 35 years old and married to a popular, charismatic and apparently obsessively self-absorbed musician.

A Stopover in Venice starts with Nel spontaneously pulling her suitcase off the overhead rack from a train bound for Verona and returning to Venice, leaving her husband Antony and his posse to finish their European tour without her.

Author Kathryn Walker in her first novel paints lovely pictures of old Venice, with its legendary light (a softer, watery version of Santa Fe's), its crumbling palazzos and its maddening maze of unmarked city streets and alleyways. And she does a convincing job of evoking the emotional netherworld of a young woman who fell into a particular sort of marriage (the one-sided kind that often comes with fame) before she was fully prepared.

The adventures to be found in a wonderland like Venice for an aimless and uncertain woman armed with her husband's credit card (which to her credit she uses intelligently and sparingly) are just right for a book that strives to hit a notch above the standard woman-in-transition genre.

Through a refreshingly not-improbable series of events, Nel finds herself a guest of a grand old signora in one of the aforementioned old palazzos, at one time used as both a convent and a hospital during the plague years. A young scholar named Matteo and his assistants are busy working on the careful reveal of a mysterious 16th century fresco buried under layers of old plaster in one of the many abandoned rooms, and Nel finds herself drawn in to the project and the mystery of the unknown artist.

The "family" that is created between Nel, Matteo, the Signora and her old housekeeper Annunziata and a couple of other researchers pulled in to help unravel the history of the building and its mysterious fresco gives Nel the sense of community and shared purpose she had missed in her marriage. Their warmth and conviviality convince her to tie up the loose ends she has left behind and leap forward into the unknown armed with a new perspective and possibilities.

A Stopover in Venice is an appealing story, filled with convincing scholarship and fascinating historical detail, but is not without its drawbacks. Walker has chosen a quirky writing style that eliminates quotation marks throughout all the dialogue, rendering this reader often confused between the actual dialogue and Nel's internal asides, frequently inserted without warning. Much of the book has a reportorial feel to it; transitions lack grace and characters seem to be anaylzed rather described. The classic "show, don't tell" mantra of all writing teachers everywhere seems to have been ignored.

Two seconds with Google has produced the information Walker's PR purporsely chose to leave out: she is an ex-wife of singer James Taylor, and this, her first novel, is a roman a clef of her own adventure in Venice when she left him. That answers many questions a reader might have about the nature of the storytelling in this novel.

Was hoping for more Venice. Did not like author's style of writing. No quotation marks used in any conversations. Just ran on in an abstract and confusing way. Got too bogged down, slow, and glad to finally finish it. Will not recommend to friends and will not keep in my library.

This is the first book I bought for my new Kindle and I love both the Kindle and this story. I couldn't put it down! The only problem is that it left me wanting so much more. I hope Ms. Walker has a 2nd installment in mind. Did Nel leave Antony? Will she return to Venice? What about Matteo and Leo? Will we find out the history of Clare's son? Gee whiz, so much more is needed, at least another 200 or so pages.

The evocative descriptions in this book -- both the connections to the past and the present -- are wonderfully captivating. As a long-time Venetophile, I have filled my shelves with books published about the city. A Stopover in Venice does tasteful justice to the Love-of-Venice genre.

The author conveys her belief that one more book about Venice, about love in Venice, about art in Venice, and about the secret discovery of art treasures are gifts she would like the reader to share. The book feels like a gift of love and is enjoyable on so many levels. Love is explored in all forms -- the ashen remains of dead marriages, the bittersweet longing of lost loves, and the discovery and excitement of someone new. It also explores love of art and "The Discovery." One gets the sense that the palazzos of Venice are filled to the rafters with delicious discoveries, and this book captures that feeling. The city of Venice becomes an essential character in this book which is also detailed in its slow unfolding of the desires of its human (and canine) characters.

The read was such a wonderful journey, I was sad for it to end. I look forward to more books by this author!

I bought this book after reading a review in O Magazine. This is the author's first book. It is beautifully written. It winds together a modern story of a women dealing with the realities of her 8 year marriage with an amazing love story about two 16th centiry painters. I bought an extra copy and have sent both copies off to friends to read. It is a lovely, lovely book.

This is a wonderful tale of a magical chapter in one womans' life. Kathryn Walker's voice evokes mystery, romance, seduction and eternal beauty. Walker manages to tell the tale with a sensitive balance between a hard eye, and a soft heart.

Told with great feeling for her characters and the magic of Venice. Highly recommended as a one-way ticket to a magical place. And love the the little dog too.

This book was very good. The only thing wrong with it was the lack of punctuation. It is a great story of love, Italy and friendship.

If this smart and well-paced and literate tale of loss and redemption had come out earlier in the summer, it might well have been on every summer reading list, including Oprah's. I don't mean to commend it solely as entertaining diversion, though it certainly is that - I lost myself for two days and nights in its labyrinth of 16th century characters, emerging, open-mouthed, in a state of wonder - because it has much more to offer.

It is the rare book that can parallel two lives, half a millennium apart and seemingly unrelated, and cogently allow the reader glimpses into the complex commonality of human nature in the way Walker has done here. As a review in the San Francisco Chronicle put it, "...the book's themes are profound and unforgiving. Emotional restlessness, thwarted desire, the insinuating attraction of the past: These are Walker's concerns, and her romantic subject matter lends them an attractive, dramatic background without diminishing their seriousness."

The narrative structure, in which Walker offers a composite consistency within the duality of narration, is notable. The novel takes place in both modern day and 16th century Venice, the modern narrator working toward discovery of the 16th century narrator, and each displaying a distinctive prose style: the modern narrator's prose is clipped and introspective, as if she's thinking to herself while gardening, or doing the dishes perhaps. The 16th century narrator's prose is grand and mellifluous, literary and romantic, deeply emotional and culturally intelligent. A remarkable feat, and one not easily held together.

Nel Everett, on a European concert tour with her famous musician husband, his band, and his worshipful entourage, comes to the sudden realization that having been sucked into the vortex of his fame she has ceased to exist, or matter at all. Alarmed and awakened by the realization, she suddenly gets up and gets off the train at a small stop near Venice without telling anyone. Standing on the platform alone as the train pulls away, wondering if she will even be missed, she is lost, with no clear sense of what she is doing or why. She is feeling, at the same time, triumphantly liberated. And so the adventure begins.

Confused and lonely, she heads back to Venice where she rents a tiny hotel room and mindlessly walks the city's streets and alleys. The novel takes us through Nel's process of recovery, of figuring out what happened to her and who she is. Does love really exist? Did it ever? She is taken in by an elderly and elegant countess living in a partially boarded up palazzo. The endearingly misanthropic characters Nel meets along the way and the backdrop of mysterious and romantic Venice offer her perspective, revelations, and endless new possibilities.

While the story is engaging, its most salient and lasting facet, I think, is its scorching indictment of our culture of celebrity worship. What becomes of people who are encouraged to believe themselves gods, and how are the people in their lives affected (or afflicted) by it? Walker should know. According to a New York Times article on the book, she was married to folk icon and demigod James Taylor for a decade. A lot to give up to find yourself; but in the end, it sounds like it was worth it. Brava Nel!