Two mediocre books in one, neither particularly well developed or integrated.

I usually like Erica Jong and enter this book expecting the same, especially since I had just come back from a trip to northern Italy and had the luck to be able to spend two whole days in Venice. I figured even if I didn't care for the book, I would enjoy the added insight into Venice. Uh, no.

I think I was mostly frustrated by the tremendous amount of new vocabulary (or rather old, obscure vocabulary). I like to keep track of new words, but I like them to be ones I might have a chance of using in the future.

It has been a while since I read it so this review isn't exactly fair but I do remember it, or I remember the list of words. The story itself? Not really.

This was the worst piece of dreck I've ever attempted to read in my entire life. Half way through the book there was still no solid plot and the same thing was going on as in the first chapter. I had to drag myself to pick up the book multiple evenings in a row. I finally gave up on it.

If I could give this book a minus 5 stars I would do so. Total garbage!!! Don't waste your time.

Quite interesting - the disruption of the film-maker's press conference is pure bedlam...

Imaginative, rewarding fast read with something to think about afterward. The leading characters are a mature actress and the city of Venice.

So much fun to read, especially if you love Shakespeare and/or Venice, as Jong plainly does.
A highly personal account of a literary woman's lust for life, including, of course, motherhood!

Always attracted to Venice but really didn't like it when I read it according to the old notebook

Originally published as Serenissima, this is the erotic tale of an actress who goes to Venice to film The Merchant of Venice. She beomes infatuated with the ancient city and teeters between dreamworld and reality. Are these people she meets real or part of a fantasy...could she be falling for Shakespeare himself?

Plitka knjiga pisana kratkim jednostavnim reDenicama, sa priliDno lo1om radnjom i idejom. Autorica je opsjednuta 0ekspirom i Venecijom na iritiraju7i naDin. Iskreno, proDitala sam je na preskok. Nije vrijedna paEnje.

You don't have to be a Shakespeare groupie, as I am, to enjoy this book, but I think it helps. Jong's novel is a hymn of praise to Venice and Shakespeare. But she does change gears halfway. In the first part of the book, we're with our heroine, Jessica Pruitt, an aging actress and the token woman on a panel of judges at the Venice Film Festival in 1984. There's a lot of name-dropping and brand names (I don't really care who she's wearing, frankly)... and then in the second half, we're in a time-travel fantasy. And now we're in 1592, and Shakespeare is in Venice... and, well, we find out all kinds of things. A good read, but perhaps not for everyone.

This book definitely provided some entertainment and a "carrying away" effect, which was fun. However, the main character, Jessica, didn't develop as deeply as I kept anticipating she would. It's a light-hearted story, and an adventure into the past where she meets up with Shakespeare himself. I found this an interesting and unexpected aspect of the story. Jessica lives a very privileged life, but like many of us, makes decisions that don't allow her to fully realize her potential and connect with those she loves...

What the heck did I just read? !

Found paperback in used bookstore. Maybe this book could qualify as some 1980s "Mom" lit? It was not unlike "chick" lit, but a big theme was about how the main character really wanted to be a good mother, and she obsessed about a baby for half the book.

The other half of the book she obsesses about Shakespeare, and transports back in time because a "witch" gives her a magic ring. Protagonist finds herself living in Jewish ghetto in Venice; she meets and falls in love with a young Shakespeare, who is visiting the city with a rich, young "patron," who wants to behave as badly as possible with as many people as possible.

So, yes, readers definitely see some erotica, but some troubling violence as well. (Erica Jong was probably thinking to herself while writing: "You can't spell 'erotica' without 'Erica'!" Get it? E-R-o-t-I-C-A. Yay!)

The weird vehicle that made all this happen, for the protagonist, is that she is a middle-aged starlet, successfully telling the world that she is 35 while she perhaps is 47. She is attending the Venice film festival, she wears glittery 1980s outfits, she gets grabbed and fondled by various men, and she catches two bad illnesses that are like the flu, or plague, or both! The illnesses cause fever, hallucination, and then her time transportation.

It is WEIRD.