Donna Leon

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Donna Leon, Warsaw (Poland), September 27, 2005

Donna Leon (born September 29, 1942) is an American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice and featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti.

Donna Leon has lived in Venice for twenty years. She has worked as a lecturer in English Literature for the University of Maryland University College - Europe (UMUC-Europe) in Italy and then as a Professor and a writer. Some years ago, Donna Leon stopped teaching and has concentrated on writing and other cultural activities in the field of music (especially Baroque music).

Her crime novels are all situated in or near Venice. They are written in English and translated into many foreign languages, although not Italian.

[edit] Setting

The melancholic police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice. Each case is an opportunity for the author to reveal another aspect of the seamy underside of society. The fact that Brunetti can only go so far in attacking the endemic corruption of the system leaves him deeply cynical, although it does not prevent him from trying again and again. Brunetti finds solace in the company of his wife, Paola, a hereditary contessa born to one of Venice's oldest families, as well as their growing children, Raffi and Chiara. Paola teaches literature in the public system and, despite her background, is very much to the left, still fueled by the spirit of 1968. The domestic warmth of the Brunetti family contrasts with corruption and cruelty that Brunetti encounters at work. Venice's head of police, Vice-questore Patta, serves as the vain and self-serving buffo, while Sergente Vianello and the all-knowing and connected Signorina Elettra, Patta's secretary, assist Brunetti on the ground and through research.

Critics say that Donna Leon depicts a cliché-laden Italy the way liberal bohemians would love to see. Some consider the writing unchallenging, constrained by the limitations of the mystery genre. Others appreciate the straightforward clarity of Leon's exposition, and admire its power to evoke Venice through sights, smells and flavors (through the many descriptions of food and cooking). The writing depends very much on stereotypes. People from Southern Italy are often described by Leon as unintelligent and almost always dishonest in sharp contrast to how she depicts people from Venice as intelligent and honest. Almost every woman under 35 years is described as very beautiful. Tourists, especially American ones, are depicted as fat and lacking culture. These stereotypes are repeated throughout the series.