Dieser Beitrag enthält Werbung – advertising.
There had once been a time when I had loved the Venice Biennale, the great contemporary art exhibition that had run since the end of the nineteenth century (with a few short breaks for various unpleasant reasons). Every two years the great and not-so-great, good and not-so-good of the art world would make their way to the thirty national pavilions in the Giardini and the great exhibition spaces in the cavernous halls of the Arsenale. …. Between May and November, the city practically ate, slept and breathed contemporary art.
And I had loved it all. Ten years ago, when I had arrived in the city for the first time, I had spent the entire holiday moving from pavilion to palazzo to church in a Stendhal-like daze. It wasn’t all brilliant, of course. Over the years, I’d developed a rule of thumb that about ninety per cent was rubbish. …
Then it became part of my job, and everything changed. Every day I would feel myself drowning in an ocean of almost unintelligible verbiage. Every year I seemed to write more and visit less. … I thought it was the fault of all the translation work. But I had to admit it was also possible that I was just becoming properly middle-aged.
The doorbell rang. Federica, of course. I buzzed her up. A big hug and a kiss. …
She waved her hand in the direction of the kitchen. ‘An empty pizza box and a bottle of beer. Nowadays you only get a pizza after a night out with Dario. Secondly,’ and here she winced ever-so-slightly, ‘Blue Öyster Cult on the hi-fi. Again, you only play Blue Öyster Cult after a night out with Dario.’
from: Vengeance in Venice
Venice, any Art and any Crime
Nathan Sutherland loves art and music and literature … he is an educated fellow human being. To earn his living he works as a translator. Aside he is the British Honorary Consul in Venice which is a job not paid, however, Nathan likes his consulship. Mainly it’s about lost or stolen passports, lost or stolen tickets for whatever, victims of deceitfulness up to organizing the repatriation of corpses as well as informing the relatives about casualties.
Some sort of crime may be in the background – but sometimes crime is the cardinal point. Nathan is nosy and he likes to start some sort of investigation, totally private of course, if he thinks some facts have to be clarified. His private activities are not part of his duties as British Honorary Consul, because they outreach his office.
Sometimes all develops rather slow and seems to lead to nowhere, but then suddenly Nathan obviously opens a can of worms. There will be action and violence and Nathan can’t escape. At the end the crime is obvious to anybody and the evildoer … will be punished, is dead …
Nathan loves Venice. He is enthralled by classic Venice with all the palazzi, the churches, the alleyways, the canals … the places, the bridges, the markets … the cafés, the bars, the restaurants … When moving to Venice he is full of admiration and passion for the city and its history, especially for the local works of art.
Unfortunately his wife isn’t so enthusiastic about living in such a dilapidated environment, the other side of Venice. She longs for returning home and seizes her chance to work at the University of Edinburgh. So Nathan stay at Venice alone – and a divorce follows soon.
Nathan starts a love affair with Federica, an art restorer. They come closer and closer – and finally there is a marriage. Of course, Federica is always part of Nathan’s crime adventures. There are also some good friends who also have their share in the crime cases – not to forget Vanni from the police. Nathan has no issues with the police, although he like to start sorting things out on his own. Vanni doesn’t feel so happy with these goings-on, but he is always ready to help at the end to pin the offender down and rescue Nathan – if necessary.
During the years Nathan is involved in long-lasting family feuds, in revenge campaigns among professionals, in art theft, in hunting forgotten opera manuscripts … works of art are always of special interest in his cases. All this before the livid scene of Venice. There are tenthousands of tourists, there is acqua alta and its horrible aftermath for Venetians living in Venice, there are bribery and laziness of public administration … crumbling palazzi, high cost of living … splendid masterpieces of the past as well as hidden gems of art in the background.
Nathan is straightforward, sometimes missing the right feeling for the situation. He is headstrong when trying to solve some points which bother him. Otherwise he is sympathetic and can’t let go when he scents some mischief.
… and finally: he loves Spritz and Negroni, a lot of them …