Rating: 
Summary: One hot product
Review: I bought this book for a quick speed read on a flight to Los Angelos and let me tell you it was hot stuff !!! I read it three times on thefirst flight and another two on the returning flight. Hot stuff is this book !!!
Rating: 
Summary: Written like one of the Florentine frescoes!
Review: What a wonderful and intelligent book. The language fits the story fits the characters fits the pace - simply a well composed and great piece of writing. There are so many memorable scenes, but I have to confess, Alessandra giving birth deeply touched me. And I say this as a guy!
Rating: 
Summary: A terrific read
Review: I picked this book up only because it was part of a two for one deal and I needed another book for the one I wanted to buy. I am ever so glad that some force lead me to choose this one. It was just terrific. A rare insight into life during the late 15th century in Florence. The power and strength of Alessandra was refreshing, as was her indiscretion at times and human failings, and this provided us with a main character who was a well rounded person, not a closeted child under the thumb of her family as one might think all women were at that time because that was what was expected. The beauty with which she weaved the story of her life with Cristofolo, the painter and her art pulled you in and was so vibrant and visual that I could the churches and houses and colors right before my eyes. I would definitely recommend this book - to those who have an interest in life in Florence during that time, to those who are interested in the love and agony involved in the desire to create, to those who are romantics, to those who want to read about a woman who is not crushed by circumstances beyond her control but who deals with them and triumphs. Alessandra may have been thrust into difficult times and situations but she is no victim. She is an inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing tale...intriguing characters...
Review: With "Birth of Venus," Sarah Dunant does a nice job of creating characters that drive the story, rather than vice-versa. If you're tired of plot-driven novels with thin, and often cliché, characters, then you're likely to dig this one. If you're into writers like Dunant, Tracy Chevalier, Robert Harris, etc., then there's a new writer you should check out: Greg Ippolito. His new novel, "Zero Station," is absolutely terrific, and an excerpt is available online for FREE. He's still a relative unknown (a friend turned me onto his work)...but this is a must-read. You can check him out and read the excerpt at: www.ZERO-STATION.net. Don't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: Slow Start, Great Finish
Review: I almost put this one down. The Birth of Venus, for me at least, got off to a kind of slow start. The story of Alessandra, a young woman in turbulent Florence dragged at first, but then, somewhere about 100 pages in, I couldn't put it down--the story got juicy, a little twisted, interesting. What kept me going, really, were the opening paragraphs, which tell the story of a recently deceased nun, who, upon her death, reveals something no one knew of her in life--that her torso was covered with a huge, serpent shaped tatoo. The suspense of what exactly what that was, and how it came about kept me reading Alessandra's story and I am glad I persevered. The Birth of Venus is an enjoyable story--a quick read that once you get into, you won't be able to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and arresting
Review: Hesitant at first to take this book on, I found myself reading it in the book store, intent on just scanning it. An hour later the salesperson asked if I would like to buy it. I did, and am happy to say I have not been sorry. The writing is eloquent and savvy, and what Dunant does with character development is amazing. Young, headstrong, and determined, Alessandra who, not quite fifteen, becomes intoxicated with a certain young painter's abilities and the wheels begin to turn. His father commissions the painter to paint the chapel walls of their Florentine palazzo and from there on the story unfolds, layer upon layer, until we're shown a wonderful and colorful tale that will stick in the mind long after you've closed the covers of the book. Highly recommended, along with McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD and THE VIRGIN BLUE
Rating:
Summary: The Birth of Venus : A Novel
Review: I wish I could have given this one a 4.5. It was better than a 4 but not quite worthy of a 5. 5s are saved for the classics.
Anyway, this is one of the best books I've ever read. It had more twists and turns than a maze!! Just when you thought her (Alessandra Cecchi) life couldn't get any weirder, it does.
It's set in Florence in 1492. Alessandra is nearly 15 when her father brings home a painter. Since she herself is an artist, she wants to meet him. But unfortunately, their relationship is severed when the French invade Florence. You see, she told her mother that if the French did invade, she'd marry to avoid being put in a convent. She decides to marry 50 something Cristoforo Langella and soon discovers that neither Cristoforo nor the painter are who they appear to be...
It has sex, murder, suspense, adultery, sodomy. What more could a person ask for??
It's highly recommended if you're a fan of fiction novels.
Rating:
Summary: "At play in the field's of the Lord..."
Review: Dunant's first historical novel is exquisitely detailed, the 15th Century bursting with life, as the blooming adolescent Alessandra Cecchi considers the future in a society enjoying a great artistic renaissance. Her innocence is yet untried; the serpent still lies sleeping in the garden. In pre-Savonarloa Florence, marriage is the most likely option for Alessandra, yet she secretly cherishes the idea of being a painter.The beauty of art abounds, all in the glory of God, as artists are commissioned to paint chapels throughout the city. The world of Florence is alight with creation. It is a difficult time to be an intelligent, vibrant young woman stimulated by the lush art and the luxury of the Medici court. When Alessandra's father, a wealthy cloth merchant, brings a young artist into the household to adorn the walls of the family chapel, she is drawn to the mysterious young man, romantic fantasies mixed with the intoxication of paint. But Alessandra is born to honor the marriage her father arranges. Whatever her dreams, they must remain only dreams. Upon the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, the monk Savonarola rises to unprecedented power. Savonarola, contemptuous of the corruption in Florence, is determined to wrest Satan from the corrupt heart of the city. The Church, wallowing in its excesses, is thrown into turmoil by the monk's intimate visions of hell. The faithful are suddenly humbled, fearful of the ranting of an ascetic whose power spreads throughout the city. In his world, women are defiled by their very nature with the decadence of Eve. Citizens turn upon each other, accusing others freely of fornication and sodomy, exposing their neighbors to the ultimate wrath of God's judgment, decrying "the power of art to undermine the purity of faith." Savonarola transforms the intellectual and artistic grandeur of Florence into The New Jerusalem. The now-pious Florentines are tested on all sides, struck by draught, the "French disease" and a recurrence of the Plague. To lift their weary and troubled spirits, the monk arranges a distraction for the masses, a "Bonfire of the Vanities", where the faithful can divest themselves of their worldly treasures. Florence is changed from beauty to self-effacing dullness and the Borgia Pope is affronted by the accusations of the monk. The two men of God prepare for a struggle of biblical proportions that will spell the end of the Savonarola's rule of fear. In response to rapidly deteriorating circumstances, Alessandra marries an older man, as much for his sake as for her own, as the city turns upon itself, searching out sinners, fornicators and sodomites. Marriage affords her some of the freedoms formerly unavailable in her childhood home, although her beloved city has shriveled into a bland shadow of its former self. Eventually, Alessandra inhabits a world within a world, one where her secrets are protected. Marriage has awakened the young woman, now a mother, to reality, as her childishness disappears along with its foolish pretensions, replaced by womanly yearnings. In these tumultuous times, this extraordinary young woman, with the soul of an artist, discovers the meaning of love, the nature of seduction and the pursuit of the spiritual life. Alessandra's venue is the eroticism of womanhood, where she keeps her own counsel, nourished by her inner life, a true child of the Medici's Florence. This author's interpretation of history has no use for predictability, although precise and accurate. Indeed, it is the exuberant joy of this imagination that paints page after page with a great visual feast, "a single voice lost in a chorus of others". Luan Gaines/2004.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful Book!
Review: This was just simply a great book. I couldn't put it down. I loved the fact that even thought the story is in the past. i could relate to the main character. And it makes you realize how life in the past and life today, aren't completely different. Just a great Book!
Rating:
Summary: An arresting piece of artistic fiction
Review: Dunant dares the reader to put this one down! While I will admit that it is certainly imbued with an anachronistically modern sensibility, not to mention language, those glaring facts do not detract from the sheer enjoyment of the novel. I am not usually a fan of the first person narrative (particularly in historical fiction for the very reasons stated above, which are almost inevitable). However, for this book it couldn't have been done any other way. How else to better portray a character who so resides in her own mind than to deliver her story in her own words? I was riveted from the opening scenes to the last and miss the characters no longer cascading through the pages. I was sorry to see it end, even if the resolution left me a little cold. As much as I enjoyed the vibrancy of the story, however, there was one nagging question, was "the painter" based on a real artist as I believe was the intention? (although I could be mistaken) If so, WHO was it?!
|
