Book Review

[kenjari]

The Book of Unholy Mischief
by Elle Newmark

This historical novel is about Luciano, a street urchin who become apprenticed to the doge's cook in 1498 Venice. As a consequence of his apprenticeship he not only learns about philosophy and hidden knowledge from his master, he also gets caught up in the intrigue around the search for a book containing this hidden knowledge.
While the setting and characters were quite enchanting (not to mention the incredible descriptions of food), the novel just didn't go far enough. Newmark introduces the idea of the ability of recipes and cooking to impart philosophical lessons about life, emotions, and the world around us. But the examples she puts into the book are too easy, too straightforward, and thus devoid of any real revelation. She also fails to go far enough in her research, or in imparting a real sense of Renaissance Venice. Plus, there are some jarring anachronisms (tomatoes and potatoes in 1498 Venice, flamenco dancing in Spain at that time, etc.). There was so much potential in the story, characters, and ideas, and Newmark only skimmed the surface.

Comments

[alphacygni]

Tomatoes in the Renaissance? That would deeply throw off any sense I had of the novel being "historical". Does the author purport to have done any research?

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

The author does claim to have done research, and in the afterword, she had a flimsy excuse for the presence of New World vegetables. I think she did the general research - political situation, major figures, etc. - but failed to do in-depth research about the detailsof how people lived and what they thought. It's especially disappointing since Renaissance Italy is something we have quite a lot of information about.