{"product_id":"9781311050649","title":"Meanwhile, In Italy","description":"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eEleanor Stills is a music journalist\u003cbr\u003e working out of Washington, D.C. She's divorced, on the declining side of her\u003cbr\u003e twenties, and wondering if her career is really the dream she always hoped it\u003cbr\u003e would be. Amidst this quarter-life crisis, Reginald Sly falls back into her\u003cbr\u003e life. He's now the frontman for a bizarre indy band, and seeing him reignites\u003cbr\u003e Eleanor's memories of a long summer spent in Italy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e~~~~~\u003cbr\u003e Excerpt ~~~~~\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Even if most of it has\u003cbr\u003e disappeared.” It is a Venetian proverb. No citizen of Venice can ever find his\u003cbr\u003e way with ease. That is the nature of the city. It has risen and fallen so many\u003cbr\u003e times over the centuries to accommodate its sole tenant, water, that what\u003cbr\u003e remains of its canals and bridges and cobblestones cannot service human beings\u003cbr\u003e in any way. Only birds, it is said, understand Venice. And most of them don’t\u003cbr\u003e speak the language.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is considered a throwback to\u003cbr\u003e their Roman ancestry that Italians will settle where they please. No one ever\u003cbr\u003e says, “I live in Venice.” They say, “I live with Venice.” Rather than be\u003cbr\u003e embarrassed to lose themselves in their own canals, Venetians have learned to\u003cbr\u003e lie with a style beyond reckoning. Lying is highly fashionable in Venezia, much\u003cbr\u003e like concrete is in Milano. A man cannot be judged by his car or his house\u003cbr\u003e (since anything one owns is forfeit to memory in this town), so he must be\u003cbr\u003e judged by his wealth of dissimulation. If a Venetian man attends a party he was\u003cbr\u003e not invited to and, by way of excuse, takes the hostess by the arm and\u003cbr\u003e proclaims that she is his wife, he is applauded for his boldness of action.\u003cbr\u003e Unless of course the same maneuver was already executed earlier in the evening,\u003cbr\u003e or afterwards by a more debonair rogue.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eLies make history here, and everyone\u003cbr\u003e remembers a good one. Poor liars are eventually weeded out and seeded somewhere\u003cbr\u003e else to grow roots of honesty. Frequently in my travels I heard it said that\u003cbr\u003e there is nothing so honest as a Venetian abroad. Whether that springs from an\u003cbr\u003e honest relief (or simple lack) of professional competition remains a mystery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eHouses in Venice are seldom\u003cbr\u003e permanent homes. Venetians walk until they are tired and then occupy the\u003cbr\u003e nearest crooked tower. This would be a hygienic nightmare if cleanliness and\u003cbr\u003e coziness were not preeminent virtues. Mind you, no house in Venice is neat, but\u003cbr\u003e few are misused. Poor housekeepers do not last long, and they are always found\u003cbr\u003e out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this transitory world, most\u003cbr\u003e everyone will be someone’s guest in their life, and generosity is the city’s\u003cbr\u003e currency.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eThat sense of kinship is strong in\u003cbr\u003e Venice. Families cannot exist without it. Siblings and uncles are lost in the\u003cbr\u003e endless shuffle to be raised by other parents, other couples, or even other\u003cbr\u003e children. Grandparents are switched and spouses are rearranged to lie and wait\u003cbr\u003e for new love and solace that lasts in the knowledge that Venice changes\u003cbr\u003e forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eMaybe it’s the lies, maybe it’s that the cityscape is\u003cbr\u003e rewritten by the moment or that each night grants them new families and lovers\u003cbr\u003e to entertain, but Venetians are widely regarded as the nation’s best\u003cbr\u003e storytellers. It is how they communicate with their city. They tell stories\u003cbr\u003e about themselves. They tell stories about stories. These stories pass on to new\u003cbr\u003e homes and canals. After several years of spending evenings this way, a keen\u003cbr\u003e Venetian has an ear for who has said what, when, but rarely where. And because\u003cbr\u003e lying is so stylish, the protagonist of these stories is an eternal variable.\u003cbr\u003e But sometimes a yarn is so fresh it must have an author. Proud friends will\u003cbr\u003e know their companions survive somewhere in the city by the fables that return\u003cbr\u003e to them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"PublishDrive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146319151344,"sku":"9781311050649","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781311050649_p0.jpg?v=1763706190","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781311050649","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}