{"id":5497,"date":"2015-11-15T15:27:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T20:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5497"},"modified":"2018-04-26T09:36:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T13:36:06","slug":"the-girl-of-his-dreams-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5497","title":{"rendered":"The Girl of His Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Girl of His Dreams<\/a><\/em> (2008) Donna Leon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The 17th Commissario Brunetti mystery opens with a funeral–Brunetti’s mother has finally died. This isn’t a cruel statement, just a recognition that she wasn’t the woman who raised two sons, but was instead made into a shell of herself by dementia.<\/p>\n

The mystery starts when a priest–a friend of Sergio’s who said a prayer at the graveside–comes to ask Brunetti about a religious leader who has come to concern the priest.<\/p>\n

In this, he comes to talk to her mother-in-law about religion and faith.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve chosen to believe in God, you see, Guido. In the face of convincing evidence to the contrary and in the complete absence of proof \u2013 well, anything a right-thinking person would consider as proof \u2013 of God\u2019s existence. I find that it makes life more acceptable, and it becomes easier to make certain decisions and endure certain losses. But it\u2019s a choice on my part, only that, and so the other choice, the choice not to believe, is entirely sensible to me.\u2019
\n\u2018I\u2019m not sure I see it as a choice,\u2019 Brunetti said.
\n\u2018Of course it\u2019s a choice,\u2019 she said with the same smile, as though they were talking about the children, and he\u2019d just repeated one of Chiara\u2019s clever remarks. \u2018We\u2019ve both been presented with the same evidence, or lack of evidence, and we each choose to interpret it in a particular way. So of course it\u2019s a choice.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Slightly different from Paola’s ideas of religion and faith.<\/p>\n

Her voice deepened into disgust and she added, \u2018It\u2019s all so terribly American.\u2019
\n\u2018Why American?\u2019 Nadia asked, reaching for one of the fresh glasses the barman set on the counter.
\n\u2018Because they think it\u2019s enough to feel things: they\u2019ve come to believe it\u2019s more important than doing things, or it\u2019s the same thing or, at any rate, deserves just as much credit as actually doing something.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sadly, I think that the Internet has only made that worse.<\/p>\n

It is only later that we have the death–unrelated to the priest–that one expects from a murder mystery.<\/p>\n

There are some heartbreaking passages.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Brunetti had begun to see the death of the young as the theft of years, decades, generations. Each time he learned of the willed, unnecessary destruction of a young person, whether it was the result of crime or of one of the many futile wars that snuffed out their lives, he counted out the years until they would have been seventy and added up the plundered years of life. His own government had stolen centuries; other governments had stolen millennia, had stamped out the joy these kids might and should have had. Even if life had brought them misery or pain, it would still have brought them life, not the void that Brunetti saw looming after death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And as always, passages that brought consideration.<\/p>\n

Brunetti had often reflected on the meaning of the phrase \u2018net worth\u2019, especially as it was used in an attempt to calculate the wealth of a person. It usually included their investments, homes, bank accounts, possessions: only those things which could be seen, touched, counted. Never considered, as far as he could tell, were such intangibles as the good or ill will which followed a person through life, the love he gave or the love which was felt for him, nor, important in this instance, the favours he was owed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot happens in this book, and I like that there are multiple threads occurring in Brunetti’s life, but as often happens, don’t expect those who do evil to necessarily get their comeuppance.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

The Girl of His Dreams (2008) Donna Leon The 17th Commissario Brunetti mystery opens with a funeral–Brunetti’s mother has finally died. This isn’t a cruel statement, just a recognition that she wasn’t the woman who raised two sons, but was instead made into a shell of herself by dementia. The mystery starts when a priest–a […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,42,41],"tags":[97,96],"class_list":["post-5497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mystery","category-police","category-reread","tag-commissario-guido-brunetti","tag-donna-leon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1qF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1307,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1307","url_meta":{"origin":5497,"position":0},"title":"The Girl of His Dreams","author":"Michelle","date":"August 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Girl of His Dreams (2008) Donna Leon This has all of the elements I've come to expect of a Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery--death, intrigue, good food, and corrupt Italian politics. This is not to say she presents all Italians as corrupt, after all we have Brunetti and Vianello on\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\/Girl-of-His-Dreams.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":588,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/588","url_meta":{"origin":5497,"position":1},"title":"Quietly in Their Sleep","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Quietly in Their Sleep (1997) Donna Leon This was a rather strange story in comparison to the previous books. Brunetti is given only a vague idea that there might be something untoward happening in a nursing home--a home that is run by the same man as the home in which\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\/Quietly-in-Their-Sleep.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":735,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/735","url_meta":{"origin":5497,"position":2},"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":[]},{"id":683,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/683","url_meta":{"origin":5497,"position":3},"title":"Uniform Justice","author":"Michelle","date":"October 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Uniform Justice (2003) Donna Leon I really like Commissario Guido Brunetti. I like his sense of justice and fairness. I like his intelligence and wit. And I like his wife. In fact I think I wish I was Paola. A boy is found dead in the local military school, and\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\/Uniform-Justice-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5440,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5440","url_meta":{"origin":5497,"position":4},"title":"Dressed for Death","author":"Michelle","date":"October 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dressed for Death (1994) Donna Leon And now, in the third book of the Commisario Brunetti series, we finally meet Elettra, who will become just as (if not more) central to the series as Vianello. \u201cI\u2019m very pleased to meet you, Signorina Zorzi,\u201d Brunetti said. The name rang familiarly in\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\/Dressed-for-Death-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5473,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5473","url_meta":{"origin":5497,"position":5},"title":"A Sea of Troubles","author":"Michelle","date":"October 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A Sea of Troubles (2001) Donna Leon The tenth Commissario Brunetti mystery finds Signorina Elettra deciding to take a more active role in the investigation of the murders of a fisherman and his son. We get Brunetti's observations upon the people around him, of course. Her smile, which exposed perfect\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\/Sea-of-Troubles.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5497","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=5497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}