The Beauty of a Story

‘A Thousand Days in Venice’ by Marlena De Blasi

Five out of five stars.

I read the second book first, the continuation of their story before the beginning. So of course, I had to go back and read the beginning.

At first glance, this is a whirlwind romance book. The once in a hundred lifetimes experience that goes right. It is that, and it is more than that. ‘A Thousand Days in Venice’ is a memoir. A true story of one woman’s romance with a person and with a place.

This book is not for everyone. I loved the introspective style of the book, events and thoughts, memories and present day, were all mixed up together as the narrator navigated her new life. It is not a quick paced book. Nor would I say it dragged, the pacing was just right, in my opinion, for the type of book it is. The book is an inward looking memoir, full of sensations rather than excitement.
Such a book is not going to move along quickly.

The story begins with her going to Venice for the first time. At first she is afraid Venice will not live up to her daydreams, the magic people place upon the city. She is hesitant, then falls head first in love with the magical, watery city.

The story then jumps forward in time to the last time she comes to Venice as a visitor. This time, she meets a man in a rather peculiar set of circumstances. These circumstances include seeing each other across the room, and a flurry of phone calls in an attempt to see each other again. She and this man who she calls ‘the stranger’, spend a whole afternoon wandering the streets of Venice and talking. Then she gets on a plane and goes back to the States.

Soon after, he comes to visit her, his first time out of his home country. She and the stranger spend a week together, learning each others languages and histories. As she calls it, they are both people ‘of a certain age’. Her children are already grown, with lives of their own. She is settled in her life and work and house. Then comes the stranger, who upends her whole life. After that week, they have decided to get married, and she will join him in Venice.

The rest of the book follows the highs and lows of her learning to live in another country. She learns a new language, a new culture, and a new person. She is warned by her friends that it won’t be easy, and it isn’t. She has to start again in building her own community, finding her own place in Venice and in life. But what I liked about the narrator is she doesn’t pretend it will be easy. She knows she has hard work ahead of her, she knows two people set in their ways will struggle to meld two lives, and she does it anyway.

The story has at once a rosy outlook of life, and a grit your teeth and get it done attitude. She is the one who packs up life and career to marry her stranger, yet she never once pities herself. Instead, she shrugs and decides to begin again, because it brings her closer to the one she loves.

Another piece of the book which holds this duality of the rosiness and grittiness of life is the persons she marries. She does not paint him in a romantic light, a prince in shining armor who comes to sweep her off of her feet and make everything better. He is a human being, who at once loves her and doesn’t know what to make of her. He is grumpy at times, and happy at others, he makes mistakes, and is kind. In other words, he is an average person she dearly loves. She acknowledges his shortcomings and decides to be with him anyway. Her knowledge does not make her love him less, but rather more.

It is the way I want to view life. To clearly see what it is, in all of its hurt and glory, and take it as it comes. There is nothing to be gained by closing my eyes to the faults of the world, or conversely in wallowing in those things. Rather, I want to see the world as it is, and make the best of it I can in my little corner of it.

Shaina Merrick