Florenzer

I'm somewhat at a loss: by rights, I should've been enthralled by a book mostly set in a city I fell hard and fast and permanently for when I lived there very briefly a couple of decades ago. I should, furthermore, have been enthralled by the historical setting: Lorenzo de Medici rules Florence; Leonardo is making art, messing around with a 5ex-working goldsmith's apprentice named Iac, and also learning the perfectionist's art of agonized procrastination; Francesco Salviati is busy scheming for advancement in Rome, under the della Rovere pope Sixtus IV.The narrative suffers from its shifts in point of view among these three men, because neither Salviati nor, especially, Lorenzo is any kind of pleasure to spend time with. It's not that I require all the characters in a book to be likeable, but the inside of Lorenzo's head, in particular, is a repellent place and I didn't want to be there. Salviati's scheming is high-stakes for him, less than a draw for someone who doesn't come to the story well versed in curial politicking: it's a writerly trap, I guess, because if a reader's to care about the ins and outs of the papal court she needs to, okay, be rooting for the schemer, and I didn't care enough about Salviati for the stakes to matter. As for Leonardo, he's by far the most sympathetic of the three, but his inner life is tortuous and torturous.All that having been said, once the Pazzi conspiracy gets going, so does the story. After Salviati's death (that whole sequence is terrific in all senses of the word) the perspective is Leonardo's, and since he's finding his right vocation -- no matter how awful the circumstances -- there's a sense of movement and opening that I found lacking in the book's first half.I also found myself thinking, often, of K. J. Charles, whose historical settings are impeccably researched and fully realized, but who wears her learning lightly. Phil Melanson's historical setting is impeccably researched and fully realized, but -- I won't say the result stinks of the lamp, but I definitely knew the lamp was there.But "Florenzer"'s flaws are all owing to its ambition, and how can I object to a writer trying to do something complicated and interesting and not quite succeeding? Three and a half stars rounded up, with thanks to Norton/Liveright and NetGalley for the ARC.

I would like to thank W.W. Norton and Company for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. I have traveled to Florence several times and have visited the galleries and churches. I have also read and studied books on Lorenzo de Medici, and Leonardo da Vinci. I was interested to read this book. It follows the path of 3 men, Lorenzo, Leonardo and Francesco Salviati. It is also the story of Florence, and Italy in the 15th century. It was a time of art and literature. It was also a time of war, plague and political intrigue. It is a well written story, with lots of plot and characters.There is a cast of characters at the beginning, which helps, but it is still a lot to follow. It is also the story of gay men in the 14th century, how they lived and survived. I enjoyed this book. It is well written. One thing I will mention is that it can be difficult to follow as it is told in 3 POV's. Each chapter is a different one, and they are only marked by numbers, so it was hard at times to determine who was speaking for the first few sentences. Again, thank you for the opportunity.I look forward to other books by this author.

This starts out so dry and boring I almost put it down. It does pick up in the second half, but the writing is still pretty dry. I also hate the mecahanism where each chapter you spend the first several paragraphs figuring out who the chapter is about. I spend all that time out of the story obsessing over WHO ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

written so well by debut author phil melanson! looking forward to reading more of his work.

Absolutely stunning! From the very first page, I was completely transported to the streets of Renaissance Florence. I could not put this book down, and I still can’t stop recommending it to anyone who will listen. Read it!