*Disclaimer: Brief spoilers are revealed in this review.
I received this book a few weeks ago from LibraryThing as part of a program that I am enrolled in called Early Reviewers. I have always thought that those who get to review books for a living had a pretty cushy job, unless they got stuck with a dud that they had to finish reading then still have to review, so I just prayed that that didn't happen to me. LOL When I found out about the program, I was too eager to sign up. I enjoy the concept of getting to review the books I read anyway (and will be including more book reviews on here in the future) so a program dedicated to just providing my reviews sounded like cake and I thought it would help me expand the type of books that I normally read. This is the first book I have had the pleasure of reading for the purpose of a review and overall, I wasn't disappointed. If you'd prefer a shorter review of the book, I left one up as part of the Early Reviewers program on my LibraryThing page.
Moving on, this story was set somewhere in either the 17th or 18th centuries, told through the eyes of a young opera singer who got thrown into a murder mystery among the higher society ranks of Venice, Italy. The book begins with a rather long preface about what should and shouldn't be believed, as well as a stern warning from the narrator that he, too, is a rather unsavory character and probably shouldn't be believed either. I guess at this point that it's time for a preface/warning of my own. I'm still working out the kinks of how I review a book; I always get stuck deciding whether I should include what happens in the story as part of my review or if I should just review how I felt about it and what I walked away from it with. I'm thinking more on the latter; I don't really enjoy spoiler alert reviews and don't want to ruin it for someone who just wants to hear an opinion on the story without finding out the events. I'll figure it out. lol
So as I said before, the main plot point is the murder of a high profile member of Venice society that throughout the course of the novel brings every person's character (no pun intended) into question as the 'whodunnit' thread is explored. Ludovico, a gay castrato who performs as a soprano opera singer/actor to the elite of Venetian society, serves as our main pair of eyes throughout the story, getting thrust into the thick of the plot but maintaining the viewpoint of outsider. It is mainly his narration and experiences that we have to go on although there are memoir entries from one or two of the characters as well as sprinklings of correspondence between several people, identities anonymous of course, which adds on to the mystery. At first it's easy to look past these seemingly meaningless letters as the plot initially has not yet introduced any helpful clues, but about halfway through the novel the letters begin to make sense and the authors (or recipients) start to slide into place like puzzle pieces. At that time things become much clearer, as the plot has since successfully set up certain things that your eye is now looking for. However, you have to keep in mind that our narrator cannot be trusted either, and his retelling of the events may or may not be factual. It really brings up how much we as readers trust the narrators of the stories we read. We trust them to tell us the truth; usually the narrator is the person who has decided that they will fully and truthfully enlighten the reader, but Ludovico does not fully do that. Instead, he plays games and decides what we will be privy to know, being so bold to tell us when he is withholding something but not always saying why. At the end, you realize you can no more trust Ludovico than you can his story, which then calls every single thing you have read into question, therefore putting the 'joke' on you.
At first, the murder looks to be a matter of robbery, but takes a religious turn as fanatics and Masons are exposed and it is uncanny how, when the bad person is bad but not for the reason believed and the good is actually bad as well due to his/her intentions, the two can irreversibly blur the lines between good and bad. The book explored all of that and added in the extra boost of mystery due to the masks everyone wore out in public, which brought forth bits of dialogue that initially you don't put any further meaning to. It's funny how many people think that if their faces are concealed, their secrets are easier to spill. However, is this no more different than confessing at church? I found the religious parallels with the unsavory practices implementing much of the same concept pretty intriguing, although I don't know if this was the author's intent. One complaint I had with the book was the language. It was very complicated, sometimes seemingly for the sake of being so, and took 30 words to say something that could have been easily summed up in 12. I'm not sure if this was how people really spoke during this time or if this was just for the book, but either way I could have easily done without it. Another reviewer called the language 'bloated,' which I'm inclined to agree with. It is mainly because of how complicated the language was that I started losing interest in the book and initially put it down. I guess I just prefer more straight-forward books.
In the end, you'll have to draw your own impressions as to who committed the murder, as it is not cleanly resolved. And such is the nature of the 'joke,' both the one played on the reader by the narrator, and in an Inception like theme, the one played by the author on the reader, since he created the narrator. But within the book, you will get to explore the nature of the joke in its entirety as the narrator's inquisitive nature calls everything into question and forces you to do the same. The finish, such as it is, is pretty anticlimactic and I didn't like that at all. Scherzo was far out of my comfort zone and while I didn't hate the book, I can't say I loved it either. For all the hype in the preface about the events to follow, I thought leaving so many ends open to speculation didn't really allow it to live up to said hype. I found myself eager to figure out the mystery but rather bored with how slowly it unfolded. While the story was good, it wasn't great.
Bitchy Rating:
*** (out of 5)
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