- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd; First Edition edition (3 April 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434018023
- ISBN-13: 978-0434018024
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 108,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Girl of His Dreams
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Donna Leon’s engaging books have been the cheapest way to travel to Italy for quite some time -- and her legion of admirers know that the Venice of her protagonist Commissario Brunetti is a wonderful destination for the crime fiction lover. Leon, an American expat who now lives in la Serenissima (with such luminaries as opera singer Cecilia Bartoli as one of her friends) has gone native – in no uncertain terms. Her knowledge of Brunetti’s water-logged beat is transmuted into vivid and evocative narratives: the Grand Canal and the Rialto Bridge are often the dark passageways to another, darker Italy, where hidden (and not-so-hidden) corruption – in politics and daily life – is very much an everyday thing (as headlines in the papers – not just in Donna Leon’s books –remind us on a daily basis).
The Girl of his Dreams demonstrates how much life is left in the Leon/Brunetti criminal world. A child’s body is found floating near some steps on the Grand Canal – it is that of a dead girl. But there have been no reports of missing children -- and the search for the identity of the youthful victim and her family takes Brunetti to many varied destinations, including a Gypsy encampment on the mainland, and (eventually), he turns up some very nasty secrets. As ever, it’s not just the villains who thwart Brunetti at every turn – it’s the venality and clandestine nature of the establishment that hampers him, almost as a matter of course.
This is Leon on effortless form – Brunetti fans need not hesitate. --Barry Forshaw
Review
" Gorgeously written . . . the seventeenth book in this superlative series restates Leon's themes with more intensity than usual."
-Marilyn Stasio, "The New York Times Book Review"
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
-Marilyn Stasio, "The New York Times Book Review"
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have enjoyed many of Donna Leon's books for their Venetian detail and the appealing character of Guido Brunetti, but her recent books seem to be much shorter on plot and character. Perhaps she has succumbed to the pressure of having to produce a book every year.
The actual murder-mystery in this book takes forever to get going, there is little suspense or sense of menace and many characters appear to be mere mouthpieces for whatever ideas about modern Italy the author wishes to express, eg, attitudes to gypsies and immigrants. On the positive side, she makes good use of the Venetian settings and manages to create some interesting characters even if many are too underdeveloped ever to become engaging.
The actual murder-mystery in this book takes forever to get going, there is little suspense or sense of menace and many characters appear to be mere mouthpieces for whatever ideas about modern Italy the author wishes to express, eg, attitudes to gypsies and immigrants. On the positive side, she makes good use of the Venetian settings and manages to create some interesting characters even if many are too underdeveloped ever to become engaging.
50 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you want a simple whodunnit, then read no further. However, if you want to be engaged and challenged, and reminded of the deviousness of the human mind, the by-ways of evil, and the moral ambiguities of life, then Donna Leon has few peers, and this book shows why.
This book starts apparently inconsequentially at a funeral, and then with a priest consulting Comissario Brunetti, Leon's chief character. It serves as a way into Brunetti's thoughts and inner world; for while those are present in each of her Venetian novels, they are centre-stage here throughout.
The main event, the finding of a young child's body in a canal, doesn't come until well into the book, but since what Leon wants to do is show how the find affects Brunetti, as well as those around him, the atmosphere and the interiority of the narrative need space to develop. Without giving anything away, one can say that the girl haunts Brunetti: she is the girl of his dreams in a way that phrase normally never signifies.
The figure of Ispettore Vianello, Brunetti's assistant, is drawn more fully in this novel than in any of the preceding, and he becomes both a mirror to and a foil for Brunetti's broodings.
The usual lighter moments of the series: food, drink, and the wiles of Patta's secretary are all present, but are less prominent. Given the darkness of the book, they have to be. The city's role as a character, always a part of these books, is different, too: somehow, for Brunetti, this crime subtly alters his take on Venice.
By the end of the book, there both is and isn't resolution. The facts around the girl's death are clearer, and the priest's query gets an answer. And we end at another funeral that balances the beginning. But the moral ambiguities are, well, just more ambiguous. It's something that happens in several books in this series to some extent, but here it's not a plot device: it is the plot.
The book is hardly fun, but if you like Donna Leon's work, then this is a must. For me, at least, it's her best yet.
This book starts apparently inconsequentially at a funeral, and then with a priest consulting Comissario Brunetti, Leon's chief character. It serves as a way into Brunetti's thoughts and inner world; for while those are present in each of her Venetian novels, they are centre-stage here throughout.
The main event, the finding of a young child's body in a canal, doesn't come until well into the book, but since what Leon wants to do is show how the find affects Brunetti, as well as those around him, the atmosphere and the interiority of the narrative need space to develop. Without giving anything away, one can say that the girl haunts Brunetti: she is the girl of his dreams in a way that phrase normally never signifies.
The figure of Ispettore Vianello, Brunetti's assistant, is drawn more fully in this novel than in any of the preceding, and he becomes both a mirror to and a foil for Brunetti's broodings.
The usual lighter moments of the series: food, drink, and the wiles of Patta's secretary are all present, but are less prominent. Given the darkness of the book, they have to be. The city's role as a character, always a part of these books, is different, too: somehow, for Brunetti, this crime subtly alters his take on Venice.
By the end of the book, there both is and isn't resolution. The facts around the girl's death are clearer, and the priest's query gets an answer. And we end at another funeral that balances the beginning. But the moral ambiguities are, well, just more ambiguous. It's something that happens in several books in this series to some extent, but here it's not a plot device: it is the plot.
The book is hardly fun, but if you like Donna Leon's work, then this is a must. For me, at least, it's her best yet.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Donna Leon's novels always leave the reader wondering about the fine line between good and evil. 'The Girl of his Dreams' is no exception. Two stories intertwine. A priest who officiated at the funeral of Brunetti's mother asks him for help, and a young girl's body is pulled from a canal. Leon's writing is understated to such an extent that you are completely unconscious of it as you read. Nothing strikes a false note. Venice comes to life through the five senses. People are by turns good and evil. Everything swirls in ever changing patterns. Brunetti works against the vested interests which influence the most trivial happening. Italy's ever present problem with poor migrants comes to the fore in this story amd questions are raised about the relative values of human lives and different moral values. There is never any gratuitous violence in Donna Leon's books and they are all the more powerful for it. Her characters are never two dimensional. If you like your crime novels with added depth then this book is for you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Donna Leon loses the plot
I have read fifteen of Donna Leon's Brunetti novels and this is the most disappointing. The author seems more interested in using the book as a polemic for her anti-clerical views... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. P. J. Dawe
Lovely writing as ever - but a less convincing tale
At the end of this novel Guido Brunetti and his wife are talking and phrase is used: "It's not like one of your novels where everything is resolved in the final chapter". Read more
Published 18 months ago by Barmee
Exploring Venice's dark underbelly...again
One of the features that run through all Donna Leon's Venetian crime novels featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti is Brunetti's (and presumably Leon's) somewhat jaundiced view of... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Little Green Alien
pleasant trip to venice but not a detective story
It is always a delight to go to Venice in the company of Commissario Brunetti. This is a slight tale and the links to the murderer are slight. Read more
Published 22 months ago by A. Browne
The Girl of His Dreams
Not her best. Too much anti-church bias. One of the two cases left unresolved at book's end.
Simply doesn't live up to the high standard set by her earlier novels.
Simply doesn't live up to the high standard set by her earlier novels.
Published on 12 April 2010 by W. G. Churchill
Donna Leon fan club
I've only discovered Donna Leon in recent months, and I've been gobbling her novels up one after the other. This one I particularly enjoyed. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by Elizabeth Carter
Yes, it's as good as the others!
I'm a fan of the lovely Guido and have read almost all the previous books (I think I have missed one! Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2009 by Susie
Watching the Detectives........................
I very rarely read 'detective' novels but an impending trip to Venice prompted me to try Donna Leon's series set in the city. Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by Stromata
A good light enjoyable read.....
Another Commisario Brunetti story set in Venice. Donna Leon continues to bring Venice alive to the reader - and shows us not just the parts beloved by visitors but also its dark... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by Wynne Kelly
Melancholy, not at all the usual Brunetti/Leon
I have been a Brunetti addict and read all previous books over the years as they came out. This one is definitely the exception. Read more
Published on 17 July 2009 by The Dunelmian
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