So Shall You Reap

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Donna Leon starts her memoir fondly recalling one year when her family moved to a small house on the farm, then proceeds to the next phase of her life: the university years, first studying, then teaching. She was a curious, adventurous young woman who loved exploring new places and countries, not as a tourist but as a temporary resident. She spent almost four years living and teaching in Iran and then moved to China to teach English. And then, Donna happily agreed when her Italian-American friend Anita suggested she join her to go to Italy because she would study there. It's important to know that Donna Leon's roots are Irish, Latin American, and German. Her blood shows no trace of Italian heritage; her love for Italy is evident. The pacing is very slow, meandering, and full of reminiscence. She writes with wit and humor about her long life and career as an author. Each visit with Guido is different. Sometimes it’s about the shop owners or residents or elderly or theft of art or government or political or navy

After university, Leon accepted teaching jobs in Iran, China and Saudi Arabia, eventually ending up at a United States army base situated an hour’s drive from Venice. Pausing only long enough to give a heavy sigh, Vianello said, ‘I had a call from Fazio.’ It took Brunetti a moment to recognize the name, a sergeant on the Treviso force and someone with whom both he and Vianello had worked. ‘Alvise’s been arrested.’ ‘ She explains the difference on a train between authors and traditional passengers. The passengers see the landscape and the tunnel ahead of them. The author imagines what disaster can happen in the tunnel. In WANDERING THROUGH LIFE, Donna Leon tells the personal and extremely interesting story of her life in a delightful manner. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect as she grows and moves around the globe. Donna Leon is the undisputed crime fiction queen . . . Leon’s ability to capture the social scene and internal politics [of Venice] is first-rate.”— Baltimore SunWhat is unsettling is that Guido spoke to the man only the day before his death, while trying to do his father-in-law a favour. Those who know Inesh Kavinda well pronounce him a good, kind man, so Guido is puzzled to find “the books he’d seen on the shelves: they were morally at odds with the man described to him” on topics like the Tamil Tigers and the Italian terrorists of the 1980s.

The structure of the story seemed loose to me--more like vignettes mashed together to form a short memoir. It's not a bad book, but if I choose to read a memoir, I want more depth and less surface. Donna Leon is a top thriller writer, on a par with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell. Women, so it would seem from literary history, have always been in their element with the genre of murder and violence.” — Sonntags Zeitung (Zurich) She shares amusing anecdotes about selling tomatoes to fund college, and her mother’s disastrous Christmas turkey. She confesses her love of Tosca, of Handel; and she has a moan about music pollution. You become so wrapped up in these compelling characters . . . Each one is better than the last.”— Louise Erdrich, PBS NewsHourIn a series of honest, humourous vignettes about everything from growing up on a farm, to music, food, and teaching in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia, Leon captures a vivid recollection of living an adventurous life. While chronicling events across time from her childhood to current home in Switzerland, Leon keeps a distance between the story and her personal life, narrating almost as though the incidents happened to somebody else. For fans of her bestselling Guido Brunetti mystery series, she doesn’t go into the creation of the books, but instead informs the reader about the city (and the bees) that inspired her. Aptly titled, Wandering Through Life is a collection of thoughts and lessons learned over a lifetime of letting chance and opportunity shape her existence. In between times, the author goes off on tangents about long past terrorist acts in Italy, but most of the time spends paragraphs having the characters justify what they think and say.