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The Venetian Mask: A Novel |
Author: Rosalind Laker
Published: 2008-03-25 |
List price: $14.95
Our price: $10.17
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As of: November 21st, 2008 04:44:58 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Diverting but not epic (Review for 2008 Paperback re-print)
The atmosphere of eighteenth-century Venice is exciting and exotic. It's a world completely different from anything our modern world can offer. Laker provides vivid, lush descriptions of Venetian masks, fashions, architecture, and politics. Through her prose it is easy to envision the world Marietta and Elena live in.
But while Venice is beautifully fleshed out, Marietta and Elena are not. The two women are fairly interchangeable, with no defining characteristic between the two of them. Then men are little better; all men are lusty but the 'good' ones rein in their desire until wedding bells ring and the 'bad' ones rape and take what they want. The characters, in summary, are not particularly likable because they lack dimension and depth. For this same reason, they aren't especially repulsive or horrible, either.
The plot is predictable, but enjoyable. I did have fun reading the book, although the writing is nothing exceptional. The ending is too contrived and ties up far too neatly, but the rest of the novel's pacing and action worked well enough.
Is this a book I'd recommend? No, there are far more I'd mention first. Is it a book I would read again? Probably not. But is it a bad book? Not at all. If someone I know is reading it, I would be happy to discuss the book with them. Anyone reading this review, I'm not at all discouraging you from reading this! Go for it!
 A lovely story of friendship and perseverance
In August of 1775, young Marietta travels to her late father's homeland of Venice to enter the Ospedale della Pietà, the famed music conservatory for orphaned girls, as was her mother's dying wish. During the trip, she carries with her the last mask her mother ever made--a special order gilt in gold and molded in the likeness of the owner's face. Marietta wonders about the splendid life this handsome, young man must lead.
Life at the Pietà is strict, but Marietta and her best friend, Elena, show great promise in their vocal talents. One evening, from their side of the protective grille placed between the choir and the audience, Elena spots the arrogant Marco Celano, head of the Celano house, and falls desperately in love. Marietta spots something else: the special mask she once carried, which now dons the face of Domenico Torrisi. The night nearly ends in bloodshed when the two men come to confrontation, for their households have held a bitter rivalry for centuries.
When both girls receive marriage proposals and plan to leave the Pietà, each suffers a terrible heartache, and neither ends up with the life she'd planned. Matters grow more complicated when Marietta eventually marries into the Torrisi family and Elena into the Celanos. Despite the hatred felt between the two families, Marietta and Elena vow to maintain their friendship, and perhaps someday bring an end to the vendetta. As tension rises, and each family induces terrible tragedy upon the other, the two women must depend on each other to survive, in every sense of the word.
This spell-binding story of friendship and perseverance kept me absolutely riveted. The strength that Marietta exhibits throughout the story is inspiring, and gives an interesting perspective on women of this time period. The city of Venice--with its extraordinary customs, political intrigue, and Carnival--serves as an exquisite stage, and I love how the author has woven the culture of Venice into the story itself. I never would have thought I'd find myself fascinated in the history of Venice, but I must admit it is difficult to walk away from this book without such an interest.
 Gelato
Maybe this is not a book for guys. I found it too precious and
off-putting. I thought it was saccharine and the language stilted.
I got through half the book then had to give up. I am an Italophile and have spent a couple of years in Italy working and touring. I wanted to like
the book but I couldn't.
(3.5 stars) yes, Laker has patterns for her books, but that doesn't make this novel of intrigue and love bad by any means
After reading "To Dance with Kings" I made it my mission to read all of Rosalind Laker's novels. After "The Golden Tulip" I begin to see a pattern, which was confirmed with this novel "The Venetian Mask." You see, while the plot of her novels may vary greatly from one book to another, all of her books seem to have two things in common-each female heroine must have some association with the arts through creative means (fan making, mask making, silver design, painting, silk weaving, building furniture, jewelry....) and it seems each of her novels at least some of the following aspects: an evil male (bent on marrying one of our hapless heroines and then ruining her life) at least one heroine (who's hair will be some hue of read) lovers parted (tragically but they seem to get over it in time) and a marriage of convenience from which love will bloom. For all I know though, these elements are common ground for novels that are more about romance than anything else, as Lakers are (in spite of the tons of interesting historical information she packs in.)
"The Venetian Mask" has all the elements of a Laker novel but that doesn't make it unoriginal. The setting alone in historical, secretive and magical Venice and the historical information that goes along with it makes this novel unique. It starts with Marietta a girl who works with her mother in a mask making shop and the last mask her mother will ever make, which will play a significant role in her daughters life. Shortly thereafter the mother dies, leaving her daughter to have her voice trained in one of Venice's charity orphanages, renowned for the quality of their musical orphans.
It is at the Ospedale della Pietà that Marietta will spend her years until adulthood, accompanied by another orphaned girl, her new best friend, Elena. Together they will go through childhood adventures and adult heartbreak until circumstances of marriage force them into the midst of a centuries old Venetian family vendetta and the two are forbidden to meet. But these two girls (both with hair in hues of red of some sort) refuse to be kept down. And in a city renowned for its Carnival, where safely lies behind masks, anyone in Venice can do anything....as long as people don't know who you are....
Sadly while Marietta's marriage blossoms, Elena's is a nightmare of darkness and abuse and soon the novel spins into a whirlwind of drama including baby switching, murder attempts, faked treason trials, seduction of innocent Pietà girls and even more. Add in the French Revolution and you've got yourself a novel packed full of intrigue, drama and multiple creative uses for Venetian masks.
Which is typical for Laker-you want to read her books; you get a soap opera of drama and romance, good and bad. And of course, being set in Venice, a city whose very culture is built of secrets, this one has to step it up.
There is no question that "The Venetian Mask" is an enjoyable novel. I liked it better than "The Golden Tulip" because it lacked the character problems and there wasn't any thing that could have been cut from the book and still have the story hold together. But I'm afraid that for me it will never eclipse "To Dance with Kings", which if definitely the best of Laker's work I've read so far.
The only big problem with this novel is that there is so much going on that we hear about through character talk instead of reading about with our own eyes. I know to write the whole thing down would make the book longer and maybe break some sort of suspense Laker was trying to create but I can't help thinking that it would have been a better book had all those missing scenes been included.
This is definitely a novel for a historical fiction lover who likes more than a fare share of drama and romance along with their history facts (and this is pumped full of them) and as long as you don't mind a little bit of similarity with Laker's past works, and a novel that focuses more on the romance and the drama it creates than anything else you'll most likely find a couple of very enjoyable days reading "The Venetian Mask", as I did.
Three point five stars.
The Venetian Mask
The only way I can really describe the experience of reading Rosalind Laker's book is with a half-hearted "meh." I didn't finish it- not because I HATED it, but because it just didn't draw me in at all and I felt no great desire to find out what happened next.
I found the writing inelegant- there several instances of Laker telling readers exactly what was going through characters' minds, even when it was obvious (i.e., "Are you alright?" he asked anxiously. He was anxious to know that she was alright). I also thought the female characters were terribly one-dimensional in that they were without fault, the beautiful (but of course, completely oblivious to their beauty) victims of circumstances beyond their control.
There is nothing wrong with this type of writing, I suppose, and I'm sure that if there hadn't been many other books calling out to me to be read, I might have continued reading it through to the end. But about 150 pages in, I just didn't have any real interest in the story or the characters, and so I decided to move to something else. I do like historical fiction and historical romance as a genre, but I like the Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen type novels, which are full of witty repartee and memorable conversation; Laker does not, in my opinion stack up.
Overall, I don't think this was a bad book, but I also don't think it was memorable, and I believe that there are many historical fiction authors out there who do better than Laker did.
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