Truth be told, no one at the eCool Compound has read this book yet. Though our many New Year’s resolutions include more time reading and less time surfing the web, we’ve not yet managed to break open Robert Clark’s Dark Water. Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces.
But we’re going to read it. Soon. In fact, there’s a kind of war going on in the Compound as we try to decide who gets first dibs on what is sure to be a great read.
So why are we recommending to you, faithful eCoolers, a book that we haven’t vetted? It’s because one of our favorite book critics, Laura Browning, gave Dark Water a great review in the latest issue of Contrary Magazine.
Dark Water, as Browning tells her readers, is about the flood that ravaged Florence in 1966, turning the city’s streets into rivers; its museums, houses, and churches into cold, dirty swimming pools; and its works of art into muddy messes that took decades to restore. But it’s also about urban development of Florence over the centuries, those who suffered and died in the flood, the art that was ruined and damaged, and the angeli del fango or mud angels who descended on Florence from every part of the globe to help rescue the city and preserve its cultural heritage.
