Marlena de Blasi: A Thousand Days in Venice

By JOELLE THOMSON*

Life, declares the Venetian banker Fernando, is an unknown quantity of days from which one is permitted to withdraw only one at a time. "No deposits accepted," he adds, wistfully. Fernando is the best supporting character in this lovely, romantic little memoir, and he muses that he has used too many of the precious days allotted to him to sleep.

An affair with a divorced American wakes him up - but before you yawn, this book proves an exception to the rather tired subject matter.

It is, nevertheless, a familiar tale. A middle-aged, middle-class American leaves a perfectly good life behind in search of an even better one in the hills of Tuscany. Thankfully, de Blasi spares us the details of Tuscany, choosing Venice as the canvas on which to paint the picture of her transformation from American chef, restaurant critic and journalist, to wife of a Venetian. True to the genre, this is a love affair not just with a person but also with a country.

It is her unashamed rendition of the cultural clash between her over-indulged American upbringing and his spartan Italian tastes that gives this book the pace so many in its genre lack.

The couple meet on her second trip to Venice in 1993. She is with friends at a cafe when she spots a guy she reckons is a dead-ringer for Peter Sellers. He pursues her. She, eventually, says yes.

The book's strong sense of reality lifts it out of the mire of other I-love-Italy-and-want-to-live-there stories. And the writing is extremely good. It overflows with beautiful descriptive language but never sinks to the depths of adjectival pile-ups.

No book of this ilk is complete without a set of recipes and all credit to de Blasi that she has confined her 11 to a small chapter at the back. The whole roasted pumpkin stuffed with porcini and truffles grabbed my attention. Like that recipe, this book will interest food lovers but it is a must-read for those who enjoy a good yarn.

Allen & Unwin

$36.95

* Joelle Thomson is Viva wine writer.