Partita in Venice - Hardcover

Leviant, Curt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0942979648 ISBN 13: 9780942979640

Publisher: Livingston Pr, 1999

Synopsis

In this comic-tragedy, Tommy Manning goes to Venice as blithely assured as if he were the lead male in An Affair To Remember. But his rendezvous isn't quite working out like a Hollywood script. For instance, this haunting young woman named Happy -- just how will he ditch her if Zoe, his flame from years gone by, should show? And just why is it that he's spotting Zoe along the canals so often, anyway? A bothersome conscience? After all, Jack Bennie showed up as a gondolier when Tommy took Happy for a cruise along the scenic canals, so why shouldn't another friendly poltergeist? -- But, for Tommy, ghosts don't really exist -- or if they do, they're more terrible than we ever expect.

Combine the romance of Venice with the roguish humor of Tommy Manning and his seemingly ingenue girl du jour for a battle of wits. Then combine the ever-approaching prearranged reunion with the mounting, appalling evidence for a comeuppance Tommy will never forget.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Two sensual women in a romantic, watery city-can they both be after Tommy Manning? If so, it's nearly a Hollywood script. The only trouble is this: one of them acts suspiciously like a guilty memory, or even a ghost. And she may be the latter. After all, hasn't Jack Benny just shown up as a Venetian godolier, complete with outdated, whining jokes, to pole Tommy along glistening canals?

In this comic-tragic novel, we follow Tommy M., who has written speeches for some very important people, in his so-suave, so certain sophistication toward his so-boorish, so-certain downfall. As Tommy becomes more uncertain; as he encounterstall Aunt Maria and her gypsy potions; as he is physically tripped-no less-by the "chief rabbi of Venice," who claims to have posed for a canvas by Antonio Canaletto; as he watches faces dissappear and reappear along the Venetian calle and waterways directly from Grecian times is after you, Tommy, isn't it? And your fine male nonchalance and coy humor won't help in the least when its long, fine talons grab hold...

Rarely will you read the heavy hand of tragedy played so lightly. It's as if Leviant were a transmigrated Vivaldi whose strains had dipped into Venice's canals to find-surprise!-both Verdi and Sophocles.

About the Author:

Curt Leviant is the author of three previous novels: The Man Who Thought He Was Messian, The Yemenite Girl, and Passion in the Desert. He has also translated several books by Sholom Aleichem and is presently working on a translation of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Livingston Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0942979648
• ISBN 13: 9780942979640
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198