Rendezvous in Venice

Rendezvous in Venice is a short book, divided within itself into four smaller sections, each of which reads like a story on its own. In the first Pierre, a young art historian perusing the possessions of his dead uncle, with whom he worked for 15 years, discovers a notebook. In its pages the dead man reveals a long hidden side to himself; a passionate love affair with a younger woman, the discovery late in life of the exuberance of love, and a joie de vivre which the nephew had never glimpsed. Later, in the second part, the nephew realizes he is face to face with this long lost lover of his mentor, and must confront his unwelcome and unexpected jealousy. In Part 3 the story continues as Pierre falls in love with the daughter of his uncle’s lover only to lose her, and in Part 4 all things play out to their, in hindsight, inevitable close (or is it beginning?)
So easy to describe, and yet so difficult to do justice. Underlying the story here is a recurrent theme: we cannot know the secret lives within. We can peer at a painting or the face of a stranger on the street and build a story for them, a destiny of sorrow or joy, but the people sitting right beside us, the people with whom we share our lives, will have their own internal worlds and histories we could never imagine. The story is framed by art and the city of Venice gives the perfect background to this theme, overrun by tourists but yielding its hidden treasures to the lovers who take the time to seek them out. The paintings, like the city and the people within it, ask us to look closer, to make time to imagine the story behind the story.
Rendezvous in Venice is a story about falling in love, and the joy and pain that it can bring. It is also a story about art, and about people. Pierre’s unbidden jealousy when he realizes that Judith, his uncle’s former lover, shares memories that he thought were his alone, was powerfully rendered. Charles’ secret life convinced me. If there was a flaw to the book for me, it was Pierre’s character. He seemed too old. I didn’t believe that he could be in his 30s. Perhaps I have had too frivolous a life and he too serious! But it was pleasure to read, and I suspect will yield more enjoyment on the second time around.

Philippe Beaussant’s novella, Rendezvous in Venice, is told in four parts that circle elegantly back into each other. Pierre Voisin discovers a diary his uncle wrote before he died. Pierre thought he knew everything about his art historian uncle, but the diary reveals that Charles had a lover some decades before Pierre started working for him.

Part one of Rendezvous in Venice is written as a one-sided dialog. Pierre reads Charles’s diary, interrupting with his own thoughts and exclamations as he learns more about Judith. Charles, as Pierre knew him, was a formal, scrupulously correct pedant. Pierre was his research assistant and Charles trained him up to observe and understand art his way. Judith, however, was passionate about art in way that Charles never expressed.

In part two, Pierre runs into Judith at an art conference in Rome. There, he learns from Judith that his uncle was a very different man before their relationship fell apart. In part three, Pierre invites Judith’s daughter, Sarah, to live with him, echoing Charles and Judith’s relationship.

Pierre is very much like Charles, almost a clone in terms of personality. Reading the first three parts left me worried that Pierre was doomed to make the same mistakes as his uncle. They’re both very reserved men. Judith and Sarah seem like creatures of chaos in comparison. Part four is a resolution (good or bad, I won’t say) of all the conflicts. In part four, Pierre takes out his uncle’s diary and begins writing about his relationship with Sarah on the blank pages left at the end of the notebook, bringing us full circle.

What struck me most about Rendezvous in Venice were the opposing views of art. Charles and Pierre see art as a means of communication between the past and the present. If we can understand the context of a piece of art, we can tease out further meaning in a figure’s gestures or a flower or mythological creature. Judith and Sarah see art with passion. Art, for them, should make one shout for joy at seeing it. A great work should inspire people to pilgrimages. Another tertiary character at the art conference argues for art as free of context, a thing in and of itself. The love affairs are interesting, but I was much more interested in what the characters had to tell me about art.

I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I received this as a galley from the publisher.

I really enjoyed this book. First of all it helped toward my goal of reading more books in translation this year, and second it was a really good read. I thought the author's descriptions of place and character were delightful. This read like short stories in part but by the end fit together nicely as a unit. A quiet but good read.

very interesting

Beautiful book! Beautifully written. The lyrical prose seduces with its cadence the way it mirrors when we are lost in enchanting and confusing thoughts. There is a certain beauty to these French writers that I now know to appreciate.

I've learned more in appreciating art reading this book than in any. Of lost love and wasted time. Charles and Pierre, two generations of men drowned in their passion of art, living in parallel but not quite.

If only I could read in French then without doubt I would love this book even more.