{"id":5533,"date":"2015-11-29T09:53:36","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T14:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5533"},"modified":"2018-04-26T09:36:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T13:36:05","slug":"the-golden-egg-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5533","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Egg"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>This mystery is good, but the resolution is so awful, it makes me dislike the whole book.<\/p>\n

This, I think, sums up what I found so awful (don’t worry, not a spoiler):<\/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
\nBrunetti thought about this and said, \u2018He\u2019d have to know it was bad, wouldn\u2019t he?\u2019
\nShe 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’s heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

As usual, there are the comments about Italy:<\/p>\n

\u2018He also has a job as a regional counsellor.\u2019
\n\u2018Doing what?\u2019 Brunetti asked, then, remembering that he was talking about a political position, changed it to, \u2018Meant to be doing what?\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But there remain comments that I still should remember.<\/p>\n

Brunetti was about to snap back at him when he recalled the mantra Paola had been beating into his head for two decades: \u2018This is the only power this man has, and it is the only power he will ever have in his life. Either you show him that you respect it, or he will cause you more trouble than it\u2019s worth.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Funny that Paola would be the one to recognize that.<\/p>\n

I’ll skip the rating on this, because I can’t separate the feelings the story evoked from the writing.<\/p>\n

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

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 his life was so bad, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[8,42,41],"tags":[97,96],"class_list":["post-5533","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-1rf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4540,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4540","url_meta":{"origin":5533,"position":0},"title":"The Golden Egg","author":"Michelle","date":"April 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\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":5536,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5536","url_meta":{"origin":5533,"position":1},"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":5533,"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":2024,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2024","url_meta":{"origin":5533,"position":3},"title":"A Question of Belief","author":"Michelle","date":"October 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A Question of Belief (2010) Donna Leon It's summer in Venice, and Brunetti wishes that all criminals would take a vacation with the rest of the country, to allow them to escape the oppressive heat. But even if the criminals were to take a break, two different problems that may\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\/Question-of-Belief.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":588,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/588","url_meta":{"origin":5533,"position":4},"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":5473,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5473","url_meta":{"origin":5533,"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\/5533","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=5533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}