The Remedy (edition 2006)

I always like historical novels, and if they are set in Venice it's definitely a biggie. In this case though, I had trouble suspending disbelief. The hidden and darker parts of society in Venice and London are very well depicted, which gives a certain amount of freshness to the genre; but the twists and turns of the plot, which ended up being very predictable, had me raising an eyebrow more than once ( )

It took me more than a month to read this novel, which is extremely long for me. Honestly I don't think the novel is all that bad, but it is certainly confusing and frustrating. Ironically the plot is clear and predictable after the first few pages of the second part, how it all plays out after that is a bit of a mess though.

A rebellious Venetian girl is shipped off to a local convent where she at least can't make any more trouble for her noble family. Inside the convent things go from bad to worse and pretty soon the innocent girl is sleeping with invited male 'customers' of the nuns. Quite predictably she gets pregnant by her dashingly interesting stranger. After some final altercations she manages to escape the convent and ends up in London as an actress and spy for hire. We then switch to the perspective (although not in first person) of 18th century master of the London dispensaries by the name of Valentine Greatrakes. A more unbelievable and silly name if I've ever seen. Intrigue ensues. Valentine falls for the actress who turns out to be related to this and the other, they hate each other, miss each other, try to find each other again and again and so on. If you like coincidences then this is one you'll like.

Characters are beyond flat and modeled after what the author thinks current gender stereotypes are, and then projected on 18th century templates. None of the characters are particularly likable, which is not a requirement for a good novel, but they should at least be interesting. Granted the period is rendered in vividly accurate detail, but then again that is what we expect these days from authors. Flat novels is unfortunately also something we've become to expect. The male characters are all single minded and only interested in carnal pleasures. Women are either stunningly graceful or beyond ugly and/or boring, all of them being eternal victims who might also be seen as strong if it weren't for the overwhelming victim mentality portrayed in this book by all female characters.

So then why did I read it? I'm a bit of a sucker for immersive novels, especially those taking place in exotic locations from exciting periods of history. In this particular novel the opening recipes for quack medicines added an additional touch to the text although you quickly find out that the subject of the recipes doesn't have much to do with the contents of the chapter. You know the author got things right, you don't know why specifically but you know. Both London and Venice feel real and appear to be quite genuinely depicted in the appropriate period settings.

All of the world descriptions and depictions work together well on the other hand many of infuriatingly little narrative details stand out and detract from the story. All the female character's chapters are in first person but not the male protagonist. One of the female characters, the daughter of Valentine's best friend Tom, is given a very small amount of chapters to add something useful to the narrative but those fragments make things more confusing than they already are. Supposedly this girl/woman/child is dense and quite selfish. Certainly the selfish part is consistent but if we have to believe the author she is far from stupid. If this is a deliberate touch then nowhere in the rest of the novel does it make sense or fit in. ( )

Well Michelle Lovric definitely can create a picture of times gone by. This is the underbelly of eighteenth century Venice and London. A world of quack doctors and their potions or remedies; the man who provides these and a woman who isn't all she seems.

It is difficult for me to say what I think about The Remedy. I admire Lovric's ability to create a picture of the life that these characters could have lived but I couldn't connect in any way with their actions. Great writing and research but not as appealing to me as her other books. There is one character who also appears in her later The Book of Human Skin who I would love to learn more about - so hope that at some point she appears in a book of her own. ( )

The Remedy is a historical novel full of interesting details, rather than an interesting historical novel, I'm afraid. In the author's notes, Michelle Lovric claims, 'I have tried to paint the London and Venice of the eighteenth century, in all their flavours, but more importantly to bring to life two personalities with whom the modern reader can identify.' Where she succeeds in recreating not only the geographical markers of both cities, from the crumbling buildings and dank streets of eighteenth century London to the unique waterways and edifices of Venice, but also the rich atmosphere of both time and place, I was less than convinced by her main characters: larger than life Irish wideboy, Valentine Greatrakes (his name doesn't help, real or not), and the manipulative actress Mimosina Dolcezza, formerly a Venice blueblood and fugitive nun named Caterina Venier, alias Mistress Giallofiore, AKA Jaune-Fleur Kindness. Nor is the pacing of the story helped by delivering Mimosina's narrative in first person, when, for such an enigmatic and patently false character, an omniscient narrator would have served better. The characters merely struggle along between two cities searching for a plot. Valentine comes across as distant and dense, surrendering his powerful underworld reputation as a 'free trader' of quack remedies after a quick fling with an actress, and Mimosina is an unbelievable anti-heroine and unrealiable narrator. Her involvement in the death of Valentine's friend is foreshadowed from the beginning, but I was genuinely surprised by the second unlikely blast from the past. Perhaps that connection was also signposted, but the possibility was far too farfetched for me to predict.

That Mimosina cannot be trusted is cleverly established, but my problem was more that she is wholly unsympathetic. Everything happens to her, and she is forced into her career of lies, yet we are supposed to believe that she really loves Valentine? Or that he is charismatic and unforgettable enough to inspire her sudden independence? And the whole theme of 'class' - 'Caterina has proved the ephemeral nature of class by floating downwards, he by rising upwards in his great material success', etc. or 'I had proved renegade to my class, after all, and turned actress. Could not a London criminal rise above his station and become in life and habit noble' - is very heavy-handed and anachronistic. That Mimosina couldn't tell a lord from a Irish charmer makes her dimwitted, not democratic.

The plot hinges on coincidences and the even more incredible concept of true love. Valentine cannot forget his actress, Mimosina is hellbent on Valentine making an honest woman out of her. He chases her to Venice and discovers the dark secret of her true identity, she waits for him in London, biding her time as a quack's assistant. The twists and turns of the final chapters are convoluted, but the bulk of the story is dull. I found myself distracted by two other books - one a classic I have read before many times, and the other a terrible Regency romance - and had to force myself to return and finish The Remedy. Although well written and filled with wonderful language and archaic recipes for mixtures, powders, decoctions and juleps, Michelle Lovric's novel unfortunately goes down like a horse pill. ( )

There is some excellent research and good writing here. There also are some holes. Heading each chapter with a genuine recipe for a quack remedy of the time was a bit much. Once, in the front of the book and the rest in an appendix would have been better. The ending ignores rather a lot of previous plot development. How can there be a happily ever after for Caterina and Valentine in London given how zealous the Venetian spies seem to be about those who defect? And after he springs her from prison, no one comes after them and they don't even seem to be in a hurry to get back to London? I may try this author again. ( )