This isn't really one novel - it is two short novels / long stories in one book. Both stories did a great job describing the cities in which they were set and the various people (locals and visitors) who inhabit those cities.
I thought the first story, "Jeff in Venice," was a perfect hyperbole (or maybe not) of today's "peter pan" culture --- booze, drugs, art, fashion, sex, yachts, etc.
Unfortunately, the second story, "Death in Varanasi," relied heavily on some sort of parallel between the author's view of the world and classical Indian music, which I know nothing about. I didn't even know what the instruments he was describing looked like, much less what they sounded like. Therefore, I sort of breezed right through this story just to get it over with. I did, however, like the way Dyer described the people (and animals) the narrator encountered in Varanasi. I also couldn't really figure out why the narrator stayed there so long - what did he do all day? Why? How long was he even there? Seemed like months....
I thought the first story, "Jeff in Venice," was a perfect hyperbole (or maybe not) of today's "peter pan" culture --- booze, drugs, art, fashion, sex, yachts, etc.
Unfortunately, the second story, "Death in Varanasi," relied heavily on some sort of parallel between the author's view of the world and classical Indian music, which I know nothing about. I didn't even know what the instruments he was describing looked like, much less what they sounded like. Therefore, I sort of breezed right through this story just to get it over with. I did, however, like the way Dyer described the people (and animals) the narrator encountered in Varanasi. I also couldn't really figure out why the narrator stayed there so long - what did he do all day? Why? How long was he even there? Seemed like months....
