Book Review: In the Company of the Courtesan

Plot Summary: A courtesan flees the fall of Rome with her dwarf companion, and sets up shop in Venice, surviving by their wit and charm.

Almost? 

That’s my main opinion of every most aspects of this book.  It almost is compelling, it almost wins me over with lush narrative, it almost has characters that win me over.  It almost has a plot? 

Almost doesn’t mean bad; if you liked Sarah Dunant’s other book The Birth of Venus, you’ll enjoy this one for sure.  I think her characters (Fiammetta the courtesan and Bucino the dwarf) are fun enough.  The story is told from Bucino’s point of view and the prose is easily readable, not too flowery, and I always love a historical setting.  Throw in some references to art (the artist Titian makes an appearance), and Venice in the 16^th century and you’ve got good potential. 

To me, this book never takes any of these elements far enough to make it REALLY interesting.  For example, the premise of setting up shop in a new city?  The story takes you right up to her first few struggles and then BAM, suddenly 8 or 9 years have passed and she’s already super established.  What happened to all the drama in between?  There’s a second subplot that pops up about then that gets resolved shortly thereafter but I feel the novel loses steam because there’s not the sense that any of this has a point, or is building up to a climax.  Stuff just happens.  And, there’s no really steamy scenes despite the subject matter.

I picked up In the Company of the Courtesan because the back cover made me think I was going to get a variation on this movie, only with a dwarf (it’s not really like this movie at all besides having a 16^th century Venetian courtesan):

Eh.  I think the book is pretty forgettable.  Maybe a beach read? 

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