The Medusa's Smile

Marina Renier Anderson on the collapse of her marriage, returns to Venice, her native city, to try to come to terms with something that happened there when she was seventeen. On a vacation at the Venice Lido, she was befriended by two adolescents, brother and sister, and through them introduced to a glamorous world of wealth and movie stars. It is a seduction of the mind more than of the senses, that would bring her to misjudge everything around her and make her the unwitting catalyst to a tragedy. The story moves between the present winter in Venice and that distant summer. And behind the story is Venice, the city of masks and illusions, in all her misery and glory. In the end, Marina will come to realize that the past cannot be amended or forgotten, but simply accepted.

A masterful novel, with a telling sense of place woven into a story of emotional depth. The tale takes hold at the start and moves readily through past and present to keep up its pace throughout. Bravo. The Medusa's Smile deserves wide readership.ö --Eli Flam, cultural arts reviewer, Editor Emeritus, Potomac Review