In the Company of the Courtesan (2006)

An interesting story of a successful courtesan in 1500's Venice. However; the story is told by her partner's point of view. Bucino is a dwarf who acts as her assistant, accomplice and friend. As the pair make their way from Rome to Venice after Rome is attacked, their bond grows. They re-start their lives in Venice with the help of several accomplices.
I would have loved for the story to focus on more on Bucino's relationship with La Draga. The book really did not focus on this till the end.

Bucino is a dwarf employed by one of the most favored courtesans of Rome, Fiammetta Bianchini. When Rome is sacked by Spaniards and Lutherans in 1527, Bucino and Fiammetta barely escape with their lives and a few jewels they managed to swallow. They are forced to start over again in Fiammetta's native city of Venice. The going is slow at first, but they are both determined to rise to the top again, with the help of some unlikely accomplices.

This was really about 3.5 stars. I enjoyed reading it, I liked Bucino, and I truly enjoyed reading about Venice. But towards the end I started asking myself what the point of the whole thing was. It didn't really seem to be going anywhere. When it did finally get to something like a conclusion, it was all over pretty quickly. I would have liked a little less build-up and a lot more exploration of the final conflict, for lack of a better word. As it was, I felt like the ending sort of came out of nowhere. And I don't mean that in a good way.

Also, looking back at the beginning of the book to remember how to spell Fiammetta's full name, I realized that her character really wasn't very consistent. Her moods and really her overall character seemed to shift to suit whatever needed to happen next in the book. Sometimes that makes a character seem more real, but in this case, it felt like the author didn't know how to get the story where she wanted it to go without changing Fiammetta.

I would recommend this book if you're going to Venice soon (I am! Lucky me!). I'm so excited to go see the places that Sarah Dunant described so well! But for a great Renaissance-era book set in Italy, I think I would recommend Susan Vreeland's Passion of Artemisia instead. It's been a while, but I remember that book pretty well, and I think In the Company of the Courtesan will fade pretty quickly from my mind. ( )

Story of a courtesan is told by her companion, a dwarf. Starts in Rome in the 1500's just before the city is sacked by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The pair flee to Venice and there begin all over again. Very interesting portrayal of what their lives would have been back then. The mix of the Catholic and the oriental (Turkish) as well as the threat of the Protestants forms a backdrop in these early days of the Reformation. ( )

Our story begins with the 1527 sack of Rome, and famous courtesan Fiammetta Bianchini is readying her household for the soldiers' arrival. She and her dwarf companion Bucino, who narrates this tale, flee to Venice to start their lives over again. The description pulls no punches, as it were, laying it all bare without nary a euphemism in sight. But it's not just crudeness and filth that is described this way, but great beauty and purity is as well. All in all, a sumptuous presentation of Renaissance Italy as told through the eyes of a cranky dwarf. I wish there had been more plot - I would have liked to know more about what happened to the Jew and the Turk, for example, and that more ends had been tied up by the end - but I suppose that isn't always possible with first-person narration, and the looseness of the story did make it feel more realistic. I especially appreciated the historical notes at the end, explaining which characters were based on real people and where things deviated from fact. It appears there's nearly as much history as fiction in this historical novel. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more by Dunant. ( )

I'm reading a lot of books on the same theme - The Crimson Petal and the White, Whorticulture - and I have loved them all. This one is almost as good as Dunant's The Birth of Venus. Her writing is really classy and I think the characters are original. I'm not sure about the ending but overall it's a great read. ( )