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In the Company of the Courtesan: A Novel
Sarah Dunant

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stevenlight, August 18, 2006

Set in Venice and Rome, In the Company of the Courtesan is Dunant's second book about Renaissance Italy. In this book, a Roman courtesan, Fiametta, and her dwarf, Bucino, are victims of the sack of Rome in 1527. Barely escaping with their lives, they end up in Venice where they have to live off the gems they swallowed to ensure their fortune when arriving in Venice.
Hopeful about coming home, Fiametta is devastated to learn that her mother had recently passed away. From this point forward Fiametta, Bucino, Meragosa (their house servant) and La Draga (the healer) are wrapped in a series of events that eventually lead to one's disappearance and one's death.
In the Company of the Courtesan is a good book. The writing is captivating and the story is very interesting. I couldn't wait for my daily reading time to find out how things were going to progress. The story is told from Bucino's perspective, so we have a first-person account of the life of a dwarf and the pains--both physical and emotional--that he endures as a result of his deformity. Intrigue, sexual politics, and the mystery of Venice supply ample setting for a fulfilling read.
The only complaint I have about the book is that the characters are not as rich and inviting as they could have been. It isn't until the end that I really feel sympathy or notice a complexity to the characters. Having enjoyed the characters so much in Birth of Venice, I was a bit disappointed in this aspect of the book; however, it is not so distracting that I wouldn't highly recommend it to readers interested in historical fiction.
Also recommended: Conversation with Spinoza by Goce Smilevski, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.

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