Vaporetto 13

by Robert Girardi

Plagued by insomnia, currency trader Jack Squire takes regular midnight walks along the damp wintertime Venetian streets. In a labyrinth of alleyways and bridges, he meets the ethereal and perplexing Caterina -- a woman wrapped in the past but unwilling to share any of her own history.

Genres: Fiction, Ghosts, Italy, Adult, Contemporary, Italian Literature

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Robert Girardi is the author of four previous novels and one volume of novellas, all of which have been widely translated. He has written for film and television. His nonfiction pieces and reviews have been published in The Washington Post, Washingtonian, The New Republic, The National Review and Landscape Architecture Magazine, among other publications. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and USC Film School, Girardi has received a James Michener Fellowship. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his three children.

Reviews

[msleighm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much. It would get six stars, if I could. I read it first in 2000, either when I was in Venice or shortly after I returned from my trip (my honeymoon for my short-lived marriage). My ex-h and I were both opera singers at that point in time. My Crohn's was in remission, or at least under control. Italy seemed the obvious place to go.

When I got to Italy, I was mesmerized. I literally said, send all of my things (including my cats), I don't want to leave. I came away from that trip to Italy with two things... 1) the knowledge that a couple should *always* take an overseas trip before they get married, even if you've been living together, you learn a lot about how a person handles new stressors & 2) a nasty case of bronchitis, because everyone there smokes, 24/7, especially the concierge in our hotel who was right down the hall from our hotel room and the smoke came up under the door; day and night. Leaving was the only option.

Unfortunately, I missed a few of the sites we had scheduled for the last few days of the trip; and though he dragged me out of the hotel room for a gondola ride, I have no memory of it and it wasn't in the least bit romantic.

This book has haunted me all these years. I've wanted to read it again. It's a short read, less than 200 pages. It has everything I would have liked to see and more. Cats, Venice in the moonlight, gondola's, ancient Palazzo's (both renovated and being reclaimed), dank churches, and cemeteries. When I found it in a box of books, I pulled it out and put it back on the shelf. It's one of those works that stays just behind my shoulder with it's own particular hum frequency.

A United Stated stock market trader, with a tenuous relationship with his father, and an obviously mismatched fiancé, is sent to Venice by him firm for a year to report on financial and political issues leading up to the Italian elections. He is haunted by the death of his mother's cat, at the Vet's hands due to old age, and his leaving the country; the cat was the last link to her, a surrogate sister, his mom having died in a car accident when our hero was 12. The book is so tightly written, we've learnt most of this by page 13, and he's off to Italy.

There are very few books I'd read more than once, and even fewer that I'd read more than twice. This is one of those special, magical books for me. This one won't go back into the bottom of a box.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - a good read. Now I want to see Venice more than ever!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Venice, cats, what's not to love! Or really like.

[Rod Zinkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fictional novel, by Robert Girardi, takes place in Venice, and the setting is important to the story, as the city is sinking. The protagonist, Jack Squire, is an American currency trader abroad, sent to get the inside scoop on the frequently changing politics of Italy. Money is central because he deals in it; his pager keeps him up on money changes globally. In Venice he meets a mysterious woman, Caterina, who takes his mind off the money, because she knows there are more important things. She talks of bygone periods as though from first-hand experience, of days of the Barnabotti, of Paolo Sarpi, of political intrigue and assassinations and of tragedy In Venice. Squire is fascinated by the woman and her world, what little she reveals to him. He thinks of her to the point of neglecting all else. Their meetings are always at night, as she must catch the early-morning vaporetto (a water bus) back to the Lagoon. She is religious in her own way. She is cool in her manner. And she is private, so much so that Jack must spy out where she lives. She has only told him it would not be good for him to visit because she has an overprotective father who would not allow the relationship.
Girardi is excellent in developing the mysterious woman, giving enough to allure, as she does Jack Squire, and in building suspense by Jack’s obsession to find out who this woman is. The setting in Venice is beautiful, but also conveys the antiquated past eroding. Knowledge of something of the history of Venice, and a map, are helpful in reading, but not essential.

[Baret Magarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rather underrated and neglected book but in many ways it's an impressive achievement. Principally because it is one of those rare books that allows the reader to dream, to get immersed in a kind of trance. The evocations and descriptions of Venice are wonderful, nuanced, palpable. Girardi really allows you to experience the city on a audio-visual-olfactory level, with all of its damp, its phantasmagorical charm and melancholy. The book is really about how to live: whether mere being is life, or living actively is life. This duality is reflected in others: money versus love, Italy versus America, the past versus the present. Towards the end Caterina, the heroine, tells a long story about Celestina: the story within the novel is a classic narrative; riveting and devastating and seems to be the key to the whole book. The book leads to, and away from, that diamond-like core. With it, Girardi seems to be saying, the past remains for ever present, continually tipping the present towards the void of history, towards abstraction, towards loss. This is a novel that seductively calls to you, leading you into a cul-de-sac, into a trap, into an awakening. Like Celestina, like Jack, like Caterina, you end up transformed, searching ever and again for the "thing", the central nugget of meaning, until at last you abandon your odyssey and slip into the maelstorm of history... a beautiful read.

[kvazimodla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since "Madeleine's ghost", which I absolutely loved, I wanted more. Finally! And with Venice, and cats... be still my heart :)


Right, we open with this guy at the vet, putting a perfectly good cat to sleep, because she inconveniences him?? Well, hopefully all kinds of horrible things happen to him next, and we don't need to feel sorry.

This confirmed by his various thoughts we are unfortunately privy to, including the memorable summary he himself gives us: "I had succeeded as an FX trader despite Plutarch and Montaigne and the rest, by exercising those very qualities the humanities deplored - namely, ruthlessness, self-interest and a single-minded devotion to material gain." Argh!!

Then:

Melancholy dark Venice setting beautiful as ever, past echoing all around in the ghostly mists, whole atmosphere decidedly of the "Don't look now" flavour, slowly poisoning our unlikeable MC, while we wait for him to connect the dots about lovely Caterina.

Although, by the time Venice spits him out, he's a thoroughly changed man, so, well, redemption.

And the lush, dark Venice imagery! The black dinner at San Michele, the abandoned Campo dei Gatti, the decaying palazzi, the ghostly streets... Omg I so need to go back there...

Beautiful ghost story.

But so much more than just a ghost story ❤️

P. S. I now talked myself into a 5 :)

[Tuhkatriin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suurepärane teos kohtades, mis kirjeldasid iidse Veneetsia ajaloo kopitusest läbiimbunud õhkkonda. Mõne napi sõna ja lausega saavutas autor nõidusliku efekti, mis pani fantaasia tööle ja toitis kujutlusvõimet.
Tõepoolest, kirjeldused rändurite Mekast niisugusena, nagu see on tegelikult, mädanev, roiskuv, vajuv, öösel, vaba turistide kõike labastavast uudishimust ja soovist iga hinna eest pildistada-filmida, tulvil salapärasuse hõngu ja müstilisi vaime, olid muljetavaldavad.
Kas tänapäeva inimene suudabki enam taluda ajaloo ilu, sest kui sellesse süveneda, jääb vaid surm...

[Sue Corbett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a bit creepy but certainly gripping as he spirals into a shady world. Not very fond of Jack, but the Venice setting was spot on and his friend and workmate awful but believable. Why the cat but at the beginning?

[Janet callan · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ghostly beauty that is Venice

[Justine Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A curious book. I wasn’t too mad about the characters but the intrigue was All consuming.

[Anna Moritz · Rating 3 out of 5]

ahem....it's ok

[NIna Wachsman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books about Venice because it evokes the spooky atmospheres of the campos at night, the sound of the lapping waters, and the undead quality of it.

[Ranjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite supernatural novels.

[Marian Deegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the pleasures of friendship is coming to know someone well enough to recognize flashes of personality in their style. With confidences and intimacy and time spent together, you find yourself able to predict when a friend will respond enthusiastically to a particular artisan's jewelry, a specific architectural style, or an eclectic work of art. Even when the bauble at hand is not one which appeals to your own yens.

I was reflecting on this as I considered Vaporetto 13. Sometimes I read a book which I come to love for its originality, lyricism, and depth; it's simply a great novel. And sometimes I read a book which I cannot help but love because it pushes all of my personality buttons; so much so that it is difficult to set aside the emotional appeal and make an unclouded judgment. Me, I think you are allowed to love a book for whatever reasons seize you. But if one is jotting down impressions for other potential readers, and the personal appeal card is on the table, I feel a responsibility to flag it.

And so we come to Girardi's tale of Jack Squire, a corporate American Golden Boy sent to Venice to report on Italy's political and financial climate. Practically in the act of stepping into the seductive ambiance of Italy's most notorious merchant city, Jack is waylaid from his mission and coaxed into intrigue by a caped Venetian woman who wanders the canals barefoot by night, feeding cats. It was naturally impossible for me to avoid falling under the thrall of this story, and it's only fair to tell you that from the outset.

Girardi paints Venice gorgeously; as he does the cultural disorientation which befalls every stranger brave enough to open themselves to a foreign city. He understands how certain places caste spells. He quotes Sarpi, the clever Venetian priest who stood against the Pope in defense of Venice. Sarpi, whom I first discovered in Winterson's work through his crafty motto: "Never lie to anyone; but do not tell the truth to everyone." As one who tends to tell stories in snippets, I've felt a kinship with this sly Italian priest from the first.

Girardi writes of the glittering face of Venice, and the darkness lurking behind her mask. He writes of events which cannot be completely explained, and leaves the loose threads dangling untied, just as life does. He writes of hidden private clubs and fabulous liquids in valuable bottles. He observes straight-faced that true Venetians are as terrified of Disney as they had been of the Nazis. This is a tale of focused American commerce colliding squarely with a Jungian world of light and shadow, and that is the intersection I've been drawn to all my life. So I loved this story. If your proclivities run along similar lines, you might love it too. If they do not, well. Whether you elect Girardi's guided tour of Venice is up to you.

To make up your mind, I offer you this snippet of Girardi's writing:

“I could not sleep in Venice. At first it was jet lag and an unfamiliar bed, then something more sinister. The beauty of the city was unsettling to my nerves. Every evening the sun dropped round as an onion behind the big green dome of the Salute, turning the Giudecca channel a fantastic shade of deep rose; the facades of the ancient, delicately crumbling palazzos glowed with muted sadness in this forlorn, beautiful light. It was unbearable. Beauty has a place, of course-between the pages of a book, in pictures on the walls of museums, in high and inaccessible mountain valleys-but a daily diet of beautiful things can be difficult for the aesthetic digestion. American's banal landscape of fast-food chains mall, parking lots, high voltage transformers, and glass-rounded office towers is, in the end, easier on the soul. The Venetians call the hour between six and seven pm l'ora d'oro, the golden hour, when the dying light paints the whole city the color of longing.”

Decide for yourself. But I would cajole especially anyone who loves travel to open these pages and surrender to Venice through Girardi's eyes.

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

On est ici dans le fantastique léger, et on suit les pérégrinations de Jack machin (ben oui, j’ai oublié son nom), qui doit se rendre pour affaire à Venise et y faire un voyage d’études. Durant ce voyage, il va plonger dans le rêve et explorer Venise, accompagné de la mystérieuse Caternia…
Soyons clair, ce roman reproduit la trame classique du récit fantastique, qu’on peut retrouver sans problème dans des livres comme Neverwhere, de Gaiman. L’originalité essentielle réside ici dans le décor, ou plutôt le troisième personnage : Venise. Venise, cette ville fantasque et sans pareille, dont le roman reprend bien l’essence pour en faire une ambiance palpable de déliquescence, de fin éternelle et sans cesse recommencée. Venise et son athmosphère, si vénitienne. A la décharge de l’auteur, je suis fort enthousiasmé car j’ai eu la chance de visiter ce décor de théatre somptueux, et donc de saisir cette ambiance, au romantisme noir, où la putréfaction semble cachée au pied de chaque palais, au fond de chaque ruelle. Et Girardi retranscrit à merveille tout cela, en y ajoutant la touche ultime : une aventure sentimentale, ajoutant juste le climat d’érotisme nécessaire à la création d’une vraie ambiance glauque, avec cette Caternia, dont le mystère, une fois révélé, clôture naturellement le livre, sans qu’il y ait eu le moindre mort (façon de parler), ni la moindre violence. Trêve de lyrisme. Lisez-le, vous apprécierez sûrement, comme moi, cette douce folie.

[Justin Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read a Robert Giradi novel is to view a pile of bones in a crypt and ache with melancholy; to yearn for the most sumptuous and intimate moments of the flesh they once bore — and to live this imagined life in the fullest and most decadent reverie, in the shadow of a solemn Heaven which nevertheless resolves most often to forgiveness.

This work of male fantasy, which ascends to Girardi’s particular gift for seduction (the location of which is the intersection of voyeurism and nostalgia), is a touristic projection of the highest order.

It does not align with the times. It does not proceed correctly. It perhaps even reads a bit too easily. It’s a better book for travel than anything; the story passes without challenge, the pages turn quickly.

The touch of genius it possesses is in literary escapism, and in this way, it soars.

I know that Caterina is not real, and couldn’t be, and shouldn’t; and I know that Venice is reduced to a paragon of decaying romance only in the earnest, naïve gaze of a North American. But I am still one of Girardi’s victims.

At the end of the story, I find I still wish I lived there, and that it collapsed into me — that this collapse also stole my ambition. And I still wish Caterina also chose me for a starless, putrid moment. And I will be haunted by the ossuary of Sant’Ariano as long as anyone else who finally arrived there while still living.

An imperfect novel, but quietly, stubbornly perhaps, like some of his others, a great one. At the very least, it will not leave you easily.

[Monika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Squire on ameerika valuutamaakler, kes läheb ajutiselt Veneetsiasse tööle, emafirma jaoks finants- ja poliitanalüüse kirjutama. Ajavahe tõttu pole tal öösiti und ja nii uitab ta mööda magavat linna ringi. Ühel sellisel jalutuskäigul kohtab ta salapärast naist, Caterinat, kes väljakul kodutuid kasse söödab. Lugu areneb omasoodu ning Jackist ja Caterinast saavad armukesed.
Saan aru, et raamatule lühikest ja tabavat sisututvustust kirjutada, on keeruline asi, kuid "Vaporetto 13" puhul rikub see üksainuke lause kõik ära.
Seda lugedes ning loogilist mõtlemist kasutades on kohe selge, Jack ei saa vaim olla, naine aga küll. Caterinat puudutav lõpp oli minu jaoks ootamatu ning jättis mõnusalt kõheda tunde sisse, kuid see preestriga jutuajamine oli lihtsalt veider. Oleksin ka tahtnud teada, kuidas Jacki ja ta isa suhted edasi arenesid, kuid sellele kahjuks vastust ei saanud.
Lugedes tabasin end mitmeid kordi mõtlemast, et raamat on küll hea, kõik need linna kirjeldused olid nii elavad, et mulle tundus nagu kõnniksin ise peategelasega koos, aga kui tegemist oleks paksema raamatuga, siis oleksin ma selle arvatavasti käest ära pannud. Miks täpselt, ei teagi, võibolla pole ta stiil päris minu oma. Proovin kunagi sama autori "Madeleine's Ghost-i" lugeda ja see ei meeldinud mulle üldse.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story of Venice. Author was Michener Fellowship recepient.
Story is about Jack Squire, an American currency trader, who is sent by his company to work at a bank in Venice. He meets a strange woman at night who he thinks is another insomniac. (Since his arrival in Venice he has not been able to sleep). Caterina is the woman’s name and she won’t let him know anything about her. They meet at night and he never finds out where she lives or anything about her. He learns from her to let go of material things and his material world. He also develops another skill while he is with her, he can look into people’s eyes and see their illnesses.

Great story that gives a lot of flavor and history of Venice. Should read before you go to Venice!!

[Roz Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The protagonist is drawn to a mysterious woman he meets feeding stray cats in Venice at night and spends much of the novel wondering about her. But to us she seems a cardboard cut-out - not mysterious but deliberately vague. There are some lovely visual descriptions and it's full of Venice atmosphere, but I couldn't feel any fascination for the woman - and also I didn't particularly engage with the deeper issue the main character was grappling with. However, there was a nice scene near the end where it all came into focus - although I still can't see why the Venice stuff was necessary.

[PJ Who Once Was Peejay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Girardi tells a fantastic tale set in two eras--contemporary and historical Venice, Italy. He has a wonderful ability to make you see and feel this dark, labyrinthine, and corrupting city. He writes beautiful and his characters are satisfyingly real—Wilson Squire, the currency trader, and the mysterious Caterina, whom he falls deeply in love with. In unraveling the mystery of Caterina, he unravels the mysteries of the black core of Venice itself, past and present.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that is set mostly in Venice. The narrator describes Venice well and provides much info on its history and its traditions. Though it describes a pre-euro Italy, the political players include Berlusconi, showing not much has changed over the years. The story line is a strange one, but interesting. Worth the read for its evocative descriptions of Venice. I enjoyed the journey.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read about Venice. There are several surprising references to St. John's College, which the protagonist says be attended, although part of his description of that education is erroneous. !*Spoiler alert!
I didn't expect this book to include the undead.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another well written book by Robert Girardi. Again, he weaves a compelling story this time set in Venice. You are still thinking of the characters long after you reach the end of the story.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A currency trader moves to Venice and begins a torrid love affair with a dead woman. And, Boy, is his fiancee back in Virginia pissed.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in Venice, with a strange cast of characters. Not much to the story.

[Suzanne Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has all of the necessary Venetian elements--history, mystery, beauty, decay, sex, and myth. A must read for any fan of the city.

[Pjpollard]

Make the clam caterina.

[Kaylol · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I think back and try to describe what the book was about I can't seem to find a word not a phrase for it.

[Carole Noman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly original and surprising story line. Probably not for everyone but I loved this dark story set in Venice.

[Ros · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slightly strange if evocative book about how Venice forces an American to reevaluate his life