BOOKS AND MOVIES

Posted By CarrieK on July 5, 2009

Title: The Book of Unholy Mischief
Author: Elle Newmark
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First line: My name is Luciano – just Luciano.

The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark is the story of Luciano, an orphan surviving on the streets and canals of Venice in the year 1498. He is rescued from his life of poverty and theft by Chef Ferrerro, personal chef to the Doge of Venice. Ferrerro, or Maestro, as he is known, makes Luciano his apprentice in the kitchen.

Venice in 1498 is a place of conspiracy and back-stabbing. Everyone is searching for a mysterious book, a book that is purported to hold many secrets: love potions, the formula for alchemy, even the secret of immortality. As Luciano learns his new trade, and struggles with guilt over the street friends he has left behind, he also observes the Doge’s household – and the treachery and intrigue in which the Doge is willing to involve himself in order to get a hold of the book and, hopefully, a cure for his syphilis. As Luciano learns more of the Maestro’s craft – he also begins to suspect that Ferrerro knows more about this secret book than he is admitting.

Ms. Newmark has written a marvelously descriptive book, a book that makes me want to travel to Italy to see the sights – and eat the food. The author truly excels at description and setting. I particularly appreciated this passage in which she contrasted Venice and Rome:

The great cities of Italy are like different flowers in the same garden. Venice is a burst of pink azaleas turning brown at the edges, a carnival of decadence. Marble palazzi sink, centimeter by centimeter, while every winter, the sea floods the city ankle-deep and her citizens frolic and fornicate in her watery heart. Bacchus jeers at the Grim Reaper, and oblivious musicians in the Piazza San Marco play madly while a dried-up whore runs a lascivious tongue over her rouged lips.

After Venice, I thought I knew debauchery, but I wasn’t prepared for the two-faced tawny opulence of Rome, the Venus fly-trap, an exotic beauty with a taste for flesh. Being much older than Venice, Rome had had centuries more to perfect the art of duplicity. While the rest of Italy sang folk tunes, Rome chanted in an ancient basso of contrived moral authority. The unchallenged image of a saintly Rome obscured the life-and-death power struggles festering beneath its gilded domes and embroidered vestments. If Venice was a slut, Rome was a murderer.

I enjoyed Luciano’s story, especially the portions where Maestro is training him to fully appreciate the moment: sights, sounds, smells, and, most of all, tastes. My only beef was in the mystery of the secret book. I get tired of novels in which it is implied that any true seeker of knowledge will reject Christianity. Yes, the Catholic Church has periods of gross corruption in its history. Yes, the Church has often rejected science in favor of blind faith. But I consider myself a lover of learning, and yet I am a professing Christian. I find it easier to believe that the story of Christ’s death and resurrection is true, than to believe that he was drugged with opium on the cross and somehow went into a sleep state for three days – surviving being stabbed in the side and the horrific wounds from a Roman flogging – and then went on to live to a ripe old age, bringing his disciples in on the hoax – a hoax that every one of them was willing to go to a gruesome death to uphold. I know there are segments of the Christian community that don’t value thinking and studying issues for themselves, choosing instead to believe whatever the pop culture Christianity of the day is proclaiming. But there are also many of us who are willing to listen and study, who don’t respond to issues with a knee-jerk reaction. I don’t mean to go off on a tangent, but the sub-plot about the gnostic gospels and the “hoax” of Jesus’ resurrection has stirred up some of my pet peeves about how Christians are perceived.

This part of the story wasn’t enough to ruin my pleasure in the book, though, and I recommend it as great reading for lovers of historical fiction. In August, I will be participating in a blog tour for The Book of Unholy Mischief, and I will have an interview with Ms. Newmark. I look forward to hearing about her inspiration for Luciano’s story and about her literary influences.

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Categories: historical fiction
Tags: historical fiction