{"id":4540,"date":"2014-04-14T17:45:38","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T21:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4540"},"modified":"2021-05-31T07:49:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T11:49:26","slug":"the-golden-egg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4540","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Egg"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golden Egg<\/a><\/em> (2013) Donna Leon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I am starting, perhaps, to be disconcerted by how Brunetti and his family seem to have stopped aging. The first book was written in 1992, so twenty years have passed since that book, but time has not passed at the same rate for Brunetti. It’s most obvious with Chiara, who seems to have aged only six or seven years in the intervening time.<\/p>\n

Donna Leon isn’t the first mystery author to have made her detective somewhat flexible in time, but I believe my preference is for characters to age over time–at least when they are written in the present and technology keeps pace with the times. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s slightly disappointing. I’d like to see Raffi and Chiara grow and mature–in fact, I’d really like to see what kind of woman Chiara becomes.<\/p>\n

But that has nothing to do with this mystery.<\/p>\n

Paola is disturbed by the death of a young man–a deaf mute–who “worked” at the local cleaner. No one seemed to know much about him, even his name, and so she asks Brunetti to learn what he can. And the more Brunetti learns, the stranger the story becomes, and the more disturbed Brunetti is by how a man could have grown up in Venice and yet exist no where in the system.<\/p>\n

\u2018I wonder if it\u2019s possible that he got to the point where his life was so bad, he couldn\u2019t stand it any more?\u2019 <\/p>\n

Brunetti thought about this and said, \u2018He\u2019d have to know it was bad, wouldn\u2019t he?\u2019 <\/p>\n

She turned her head to him sharply, mouth open. But before she could ask him what he meant, Brunetti saw her hear her own question and begin to consider it. Finally she said, \u2018Of course. If that\u2019s the only life he knew, then it was just that: life. Something worse would have to have happened, I suppose.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That bit is quite chilling, considering the resolution of the mystery.<\/p>\n

I admit that some of the mystery seems obvious to me, although that didn’t make some of the more disturbing parts both surprising and upsetting.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed spending time with Brunetti, but I think the biggest tell about my feelings for the series come from the fact that this book was published last year, and I’ve only just now gotten around to reading it, and although the next book is on my wish list–it’s only on my wishlist, because I’m waiting for the price to drop.
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golden Egg (2013) Donna Leon I am starting, perhaps, to be disconcerted by how Brunetti and his family seem to have stopped aging. The first book was written in 1992, so twenty years have passed since that book, but time has not passed at the same rate for Brunetti. It’s most obvious with Chiara, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,291,42],"tags":[97,96],"class_list":["post-4540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mystery","category-paper","category-police","tag-commissario-guido-brunetti","tag-donna-leon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1be","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5539,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5539","url_meta":{"origin":4540,"position":0},"title":"Falling in Love","author":"Michelle","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Falling in Love (2015) Donna Leon And now, I have read and re-read all the published Donna Leon, Commisario Brunetti books. We return once again to the Opera and Flavia Petrelli. La Fenice is putting on Tosca, and Flavia has the lead role. Brunetti and Paola meet her after the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Falling-in-Love-by-Donna-Leon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22582,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22582","url_meta":{"origin":4540,"position":1},"title":"So Shall You Reap","author":"Michelle","date":"December 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"So Shall You Reap (2023) Donna Leon (Commissario Brunetti) This is the 32nd book in the Commissario Brunetti series. Like so many other characters in mysteries, Brunetti and his family have stopped aging, Chiara forever trapped as a young teen. Like the previous couple books, the mysteries are ok. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"So Shall You Reap","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/So-Shall-You-Reap.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/So-Shall-You-Reap.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/So-Shall-You-Reap.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/So-Shall-You-Reap.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5533,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5533","url_meta":{"origin":4540,"position":2},"title":"The Golden Egg","author":"Michelle","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Golden Egg (2013) Donna Leon This mystery is good, but the resolution is so awful, it makes me dislike the whole book. This, I think, sums up what I found so awful (don't worry, not a spoiler): \u2018I wonder if it\u2019s possible that he got to the point where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Golden-Egg.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5446,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5446","url_meta":{"origin":4540,"position":3},"title":"Death and Judgment","author":"Michelle","date":"October 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Death and Judgment (1995) Donna Leon The fourth book in the Commisario Brunetti series opens with a truck smuggling prostitutes crashing, and killing the driver and all the women in back. We then see the death of Avvocato Carlo Trevisan. Italy is a country in which many laws are passed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Death-and-Judgment-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5536,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5536","url_meta":{"origin":4540,"position":4},"title":"By its Cover","author":"Michelle","date":"November 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By its Cover (2014) Donna Leon At last, we reach the books I had not yet read. The 23rd book finds Brunetti called to investigate the theft of both books and pages cut from old and rare books. Old books had always filled Brunetti with nostalgia for centuries in which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/By-Its-Cover.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":735,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/735","url_meta":{"origin":4540,"position":5},"title":"Friends in High Places","author":"Michelle","date":"October 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Friends in High Places (2000) Donna Leon Apparently, Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti books are not being published in the US following European copyright dates. Friends in High Places has a European copyright of 2000, but was published in the US only recently. Not that this particularly matters in the grand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mystery"","block_context":{"text":"Mystery","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/mystery"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Friends-in-High-Places.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}