ביקורת ספרותית על קנוניית אפריל מאת סוסנה פורטס
ספר טוב

---

Florence, April 1478. They are terrible days, those that follow the failure of the conspiracy against the Medici by the Pazzi family. Florence is bloodthirsty, determined to punish with torture or death anyone who has participated in the conspiracy. Safe in his palace, Lorenzo the Magnificent comes to know of the corpses thrown into the Arno, beheadings, lynchings. It is the whole city who avenges the murder of his brother Giuliano, and the city that delivers itself and the murderers into his hands, making him as powerful as ever. But Lorenzo does not know that the threads of the conspiracy were pulled by people much more influential than the family Pazzi...

Florence today. Not many people know Pierpaolo Masoni, Renaissance painter and a soul tormented. Ana Sotomayor, a PhD student in art history, came to Florence in order to understand something more about this dark character, who carries with him personal charm. Her passionate research is pinned on one of the most controversial paintings by Masoni, being restored in the laboratories of the Uffizi, and a series of notebooks in which the artist recounts in detail his own existence and the events that have marked the history of Florence at the end of the fifteenth century, including the Pazzi conspiracy. Suddenly, though, Ana becomes the target of threats and blackmail, and finds himself fearing for her own life and the lives of people dear to her...


The author herself acknowledges in her afterword that she delayed writing this novel becuase the bookshops were full to burst by historically related mysteries. I'm glad she made the effort to be patient - it's quite payed off. This book to [book:The Da Vinci Code|968] is what [book:Wolf Hall|6101138] is to [book:The Other Boleyn Girl|37470] - while the latter is light and enjoyable passtime, the former is a glorious interpatation of history as it could be, of the human character in all aspect of their lives. Much like [book:The Rule of Four|18431], it stands out in comparison, in the best possible way.

Who among us book-lovers never felt like Ana did, passionate about a subject, a period of history she gets lost in while the real world doesn't act according to her expectations. A Spanish woman alone in Florence, she dives into the history of the city with a passion, tracking the one killer that got away 500 years ago. There is some violence, offcourse - this is Italia, but the threats and blackmail boil down to a conclusion so prosaic, one couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised.
No, the core of Ana's story is her lovely relationship with her mentor, an old friend of her father, Professor Giulio Rossi, whose modest help and input drive Ana on the most important discovery of her life. And the discovery of the illusive killer, too.

Written in a style made familiar to me by [book:The Sherlockian|7810380], the story divides in half - every other chapter takes us back to the bloody year of 1478 and the Florence that was, with its beauty and its passions, its jealosies and violence, seen through the eyes of the master painter Pierpaolo Masoni and his apprentice Lucca, as they are unwilling participants in one of the city's bloodiest events, and in the end Ana's guides in flashing out, 500 years too late, the true architect of what is now known as the Pazzi Conspiracy.

קורא אחד אהב את הביקורת

אהבת?

» ביקורות נוספות של מרינה מ.
» ביקורות נוספות על קנוניית אפריל