“One of the books that best captures this short circuit of a city in harmony with its environment, of a troubled city caught up in times it was not made for, is that by the American journalist Neal E. Robbins, Venice, an Odyssey: Hope, anger and the future of the city… In his reporting, Robbins moves from the tormented Venice of 2018 to the one knew half a century before, making for a sort of counterpoint with the interviews of residents. This gives a measure of the distance between one and the other and, also, serves as a lighthouse that shows the way, a path perhaps toward the possibility of partial change.”
Best Venice Guides.it Apr 25, 2022
“Neal Robbins’s Venice, an Odyssey: Hope, Anger and the Future of Cities is a present-day successor to Jan Morris’s 1960s bestseller Venice.”
“The Problem with the Undying Conversation About the Death of Venice,
Inside Hook, Nov 22, 2021
“The book, which tries not to be only a voice of the laments about Venice but also a active proposal, puts itself forward as a candidate as a real and true ‘long seller’, a volume that will become a point of reference for many years for the citizens of the world who want to understand the many faces of Venice more profoundly.”
Lorenzo Miozzo, “Speranza, rabbia e futuro di Venezia in un libro,” Il Gazzettino 16 October 16, 2021
“[The first pages] drew me in immediately because… the author makes you feel at ease… Neal discovers that the city… is a continuous paradigm of modernization of relations of transformation… It is a well-constructed book from the point of view of the narrative… because … it succeeds in integrating and weaving in the present in through the 150 voices [of Venetians interviewed]… It delves into the history… [while] the element of water unites it all. Neal has done well because in the city [he finds] … other realities other cities on the terra ferma… that he brings them in in their own right attempting to find keys to interpreting them…. That’s not simple… There are many aspects of [Venice]… the institutions politics movements culture society and Neal has sought to transmit this idea of Venice… giving it perspective.”
Marco Borghi president of the Municipality of Venice
remarks at IVESER Venice Oct 15 2021
“This book has been one of the most outstanding pieces on Venice and her current struggles that I have ever read. You have beautifully balanced your personal history the city’s history and detailed the various loses and campaigns that are currently being fought for on the Lagoon. If you are after a book that helps you to understand Venice and her society to help to understand how Venice really is in the back streets to get to know her more than just a ‘Hot Spot’ Tourist Trap then this is a book that will deliver on that need.”
Aaron Crossley, 24 October, 2021 Keys To Venice
“This is an interesting book that is worth reading and could also be another basis for future in-depth investigations discussions…”
Luciano Mazzolin associazione Ambiente Venezia Aug 26 2021
“He defines the work as non-fiction, but in reality, it is a gripping narrative that falls between diary and reflection, between the coming-of-age novel and in-depth report… It is an innovative contribution that puts together (with his capacity in exposition as a journalist and creativity in narration) the eyes of a foreigner and the heart of a “Venetian”…, the volume will certainly be of great interest, whether you are Venetian and/or someone who knows the city.”
Mario Santi, The Venetian foreigner, 19 June 2021, Ytali online magazine
“An intimate rediscovery of La Serenissima’s magic that sees it not just as a town or a landscape, but a core of stories, and gets to the reality of Venice for the people who live there.”
Isabella Panfido, poet and author of Venice Noir: The Dark History of the Lagoons
“…the layers of knowledge and web of revelations Robbins records in these pages is so easy to read. At the end of this immense work, you are a more cultivated, cultured individual than when you began – but the prose flows and hooks you in. This is travel writing at its best.“
Anne Garvey, The Cambridge Critique – Discerning Views, Thoughts And Debate On The Cultural Scene
“Nonfiction essay? A guide? An historical text? An autobiographical story? There’s a bit of everything in this accurate, interesting, original work… Neal is the Venetian Ulysses… With wisdom and judiciousness, Neal confronts the fundamental themes — historical, environmental and social — seeking to overcome cliches, invented traditions, and prejudices….“
Giorgio Crovato, historian and a director of Ateneo Veneto, the foremost cultural institution of Venice, describes Venice, an Odyssey.
“I would very much like to recommend… “Venice, an Odyssey” by Neal E. Robbins. … in easy-to-read, unacademic English … A research on history, but primarily on the current situation in Venice with all overwhelming problems … Discussions with “all of Venice”… for anyone like me, struggles with the local papers and the unspeakable local politics … you can better understand developments, connections and perspectives here.”
[Google translation from German original]
Brigitte Eckert, Unterwegs in Venedig / Out and about in Venice / Venedig Reiseblog /Venice travel blog
From the Prologue
I borrowed a little Venetian boat, a sandolo. My friend’s Mamma watched from her window over the canal, perhaps a bit apprehensively, as I rowed by in the slender vessel, silently gliding over the glassy waterways that crisscross Venice….
From Chapter 3 – Scenes
Climate change may force Venice to face unimaginably hard choices, between saving the world heritage city and saving the lagoon. But this raises scary unknowns… How can you pull apart nature and man thoroughly intertwined for so many centuries without destroying them?
From Chapter 11- Origins
Traditional history surrounding these early beginnings early in the first millennium is based on self-serving origin stories touting alleged Roman origins. … Recent archaeology tells us a very different story; Venice was in reality less Roman more a pirate nation than many like to admit.
From Chapter 16 – Synanthropes
These omnivorous birds have even been known to pick off the odd rat, sparrow, swift, swallow or pigeon. They spark exclamations of horror at dinner parties over extraordinary incidents where they have made a meal of chihuahuas, puppies and kittens.
From Chapter 17 – Abandoned
Woody vines crawl over the facades; collapsed roofs clutter the floors with debris and let sunlight and rain fall into the rooms and corridors still painted in unappealing, institutional pea green. No wonder novelists, film and TV producers and writers have adopted the island…
Venice, an Odyssey
Neal Robbins examines Venice, reflecting on the changes he has seen since he first encountered it in the late 1970s—living with a Venetian family while he was a high school student—to quite recently, when, after nearly 50 years and a career as international journalist, he returned to see how the city has endured and changed.