This book was a disappointment. It started out great. Exciting. However, I was eventually let down. It was like sex without orgasm, which for a book about a courtesan is ironic.
The story isn't really about the courtesan. I think that's where I was first disappointed. I was promised a courtesan. I expected sex. A story of a woman selling her body but making it look like art. It was written by a woman! Instead, I got the narrative of a cynical imp. It wasn't so bad. He was funny at times, and saw the world around him for what it was. But it wasn't what I was promised! Funny thing, the Hungarian title is much better. It's "The Courtesan and the Dwarf”. Much more fitting.
The narration was mostly good. The author presented me with a lot of historical details. The streets and settings came alive. However, it did sometimes ramble on, freezing the story too long for thoughts and descriptions. If I wasn't listening to an audiobook, I would have skipped a lot. The reason why these weren't edited out was probably that the book would have been too short.
Which brings me to the main problem of this book, and which upon completion annoyed me the most. The story was too simple. I write spoiler free reviews, but if I were to write down the story, it wouldn't be more than 5 sentences. Everything is resolved far too quickly and easily. There are bits of excitement, but blink, and you'll miss them. The author is far too preoccupied with the setting, the philosophy, and the men in the book, to really give us a story. In fact, if you think by the title that the main focus of the story was going to be women, you will be sorely disappointed. The main focus is actually men. I've probably never heard the word "cock" so much in my life listening to the audiobook.
The greatest disappointment to me about this book was that I wanted to like it. I actually did like most of it, but I would have liked it more, had it delivered on the premise. While the history was great, the story itself didn't draw me in. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen. Even the revelation at the end didn't make me gasp in surprise.
Overall, I feel sad about this book. It had such potential to be great. The story just wasn't there. I do recommend it to people who want to learn more about Venice in the Renessaince period. The depiction of streets and customs was meticulous. However, you can't be bothered by a shallow story and the words “cock” and “fuck”, because they appear frequently.
