Customer Reviews

No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I agree with the other posters that Judith Martin's tone is self-adulatory to the point of self indulgence. That, of course, isn't my favorite part of this book. However there is new stuff here that I didn't know and I've been returning "home" to Venice regularly for many years.
I actually bought this book hoping, among other things, to learn about hat etiquette (as excerpted on this Amazon page), since I sometimes wear a hat in Venice and would hate to be doing it the wrong way. I didn't find it, and that's a shame. Advising on such matters is--or ought to be--the author's forte. Imho it's too bad Miss Manners didn't write this book.
(By the way, another poster mentioned something called the "Venice Card," which is a discount gimmick for the tourists. This is quite different from the city-issued photo I.D. which allows a resident to purchase the monthly vaporetto pass for 30 euro, and this is what Martin was writing about. I didn't find it too awfully difficult to obtain, but maybe that has changed. My own abbonamento expired years ago but the brusque lady behind the counter still honors it every time, bless her heart.)

Engaging, but somewhat precious and self-conscious, this commentary on the Venetophilic addiction is a "potato chip" of a read. There are many snips of history and anecdote but it skips and samples and skims the surface without offering any real insight. I honestly found it a bit of a slog.

I guess my overall impression is similar to my impression of USA Today...lots of sound bites, but no substance. The author clearly loves Venice and knows it well but her self-adulatory tone wears thin pretty quickly. There are many nice observations about tourists and Venetophiles but I wasn't sure about the point of it all. Check it out from the library but don't bother to buy it.

Cute title. After that this book sinks into the canal. I agree with another poster I do not think Ms Martin wrote much of this book. If she did she should be ashamed.

If you want to read a good book about Venice read CITY OF THE FALLING ANGELS. Or read any Donna Leon book all set in Venice and all excellent mysteries that are filled with the life of the people of Venice.

This book is just boring!

This is a book without a purpose, beyond the self-adulation of the author. It has nothing new which is relevant to Venice nor is it insightful about its history, culture, or physical presence. There is not even anything relevatory about her experience in the city. These are simply Ms. Martin's musings about a city that she likes a lot. Unfortunately, it's hard to care.

As a regular traveler to Venice, I am pretty familiar with all of the literature and guidebooks on La Serenissima. Alas, the Martin tome is among the most disappointing of the lot, as it is written as a set of disconnected anecdotes with the lone purpose of allowing the author to boast about her elite connections. Rather offputting. To truly gain insight into residing in Venice, Vitoux's "Living in Venice" is hard to beat. Equally useful and charming is McGregor's "Venice (From the Ground Up)."

Having enjoyed renting a charming flat in Dorsoduro, shopping with a wheeled cart like real Venetians, using the Venice Card to hop on and off the vaporetti but also using the traghetto to cross the Grand Canal, I was hoping for some additional insight into the enjoyable sport of being a holiday Venetian. Instead, I found Miss Manners grandly informing us of her connections among the literati and glitterati of Venice, who she entertains in her rented palazzo.
Ms. Martin also gives us smatterings of history and literary anecdotes, nothing new here. What was new, and horrifying, was a description of ritual animal torture which used to happen in more benighted times, even in Venice.
I agree that renting an apartment is the best way to feel a part of the culture when going abroad, but found this book unedifying on the subject.
Pick up any Venice guidebook and see the same stories of asking for directions and being told "Sempre dritto", and being warned not to touch the produce, and how the boca de leoni were used to inform on people...
If you want a beautifully written, truly informative book on Venice, its history, art and culture, read Mary McCarthy's still splendid "Venice Observed".

I'm not quite through with the book but I am thoroughly enjoying it. It's interesting and amusing, and Martin writes with her tongue firmly in her cheek. I have always been fascinated with Venice, although I have only visited one time, and I can definitely relate to the love Martin feels for her adopted home. In contrast to other posters, I don't find this book any more self-indulgent than the tons of other books about re-doing houses in Tuscany, Provence, Greece, etc. etc. or authors bringing their families to far-flung locations and encountering gruff but soft-hearted locals.
I do admit that some of the historical names tend to get muddled up in my mind, but who cares? I knew what the book was about when I bought it, and its delivered its promise and more.

Really loved this one. It made me so envious of the author's experiences in Venice. I want to go for an extended stay in a palazzo, study the art in every church, learn the history of every building as she enjoys doing.

Of course it ALL makes venice GLORIOUS! I have shared this with friends and hope they like it as much as I did. Great insight into a quirky city with endless quirky charm!

No Vulgar Hotel is Judith Martin's attempt to explain and share her love of Venice. Unfortunately she wrote it as Miss Manners. It's that superior, erudite, slightly snippy tone that both makes and unmakes the book. The verbal style of her avatar is very entertaining, but it also distances the reader from Martin. As Miss Manners addressing her "Gentle Reader" Martin cannot express the mad passion she has for Venice. Martin wants to gush and sigh and holler, but Miss Manners can only be ironic. Alas.

Although No Vulgar Hotel is NOT a tour book, as the chapters progress Miss Manners takes on the voice of a frantic guide trying like mad to cover her entire itinerary and still her Gentle Readers back to their bus. We go through novels set in Venice at a trot, make a quick run through movies and dash past famous paintings. Detail falls by the canal side and intriguing ideas about books and cinema are left unexplored.

Martin does a good job of describing what it is like to be in Venice, but not as well as at answering the question "what is Venice?" Gore Vidal takes a good run at in his Vidal in Venice. Venice from the Ground Up is a very good--maybe the best--combination of narrative history and tour guide. I think No Vulgar Hotel is better than City of Fallen Angels and not as good as Paradise of Cities: Venice in the Nineteenth Century. In the first John Berendt tries to describe what it is like to live in Venice, but only gives a gloss on Venetian lifestyles of the rich and famous. In the second John Julius Norwich explores the allure of Venice through the experience of (famous) foreign residents (several of whom Martin touches on). Garry Wills' Venice: Lion City: The Religion of Empire Wills' is an accessible and lavishly illustrated exploration of Venice in painting). A History of Venice, Norwich again is the last word on the topic. Peter Ackroyd is, as usual, brilliant and exhaustive in Venice: Pure City, but not always correct. For instance his description of the long defunct Festival of 12 Marys gets everything wrong, while Miss Manners' is succinct, informative, witty and right.