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| Suffer the Little Children | 
 enlarge | Author: Donna Leon
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 5360
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0099503220
EAN: 9780099503224
ASIN: 0099503220
Publication Date: March 6, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 You win some you lose some August 31, 2008
I like the writing of Donna Lean. It's extremely evocative of Venice, and I feel comfortable in the company of her detective Commissario Brunetti. Her style of writing is fluent and enjoyable, her plots well thought out and intriguing. Normally! Perhaps she was having an "off period" while she was writing "Suffer the little Children", perhaps she was distracted by something, but it is not up to the usual standard. I'd be hard put to, to give a reason, but for me it just didn't seem to work. It somehow felt awkward and ill fitting, if indeed a book can be ill fitting. Read this novel by all means, but don't make it your first excursion into the world of Brunetti.
 Biased and grossly inaccurate August 17, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I began reading this book upon advice of a friend, and I was terribly disappointed: many times I was tempted to dump it, and I reached the end in the (vain) hope of a coup-de-theatre that never came.
Ms Leon has a very limited knowledge of Italian history and criminal laws. At the same time, she has lots of prejudices and doesn't hesitate to recur to lies and slander in order to justify them.
For instance, it is obvious that she doesn't like the military. That may be one of the reasons that made her hero Brunetti a member of civilian Polizia and not of military Carabinieri. To substantiate her dislike for Carabinieri, Ms Leon repeatedly questions their competence as an institution and has no problem in trying to ridicule them with a cartoonish description of a Captain wearing riding boots during a criminal police operation (total nonsense: even if Carabinieri officers are perfectly legitimated to wear riding boots, being all mounted officers, they are bound by explicit fragmented orders to wear the prescribed uniform for each and every operation they are involved into. A Carabinieri Captain leading a programmed criminal police operation wearing riding boots makes sense more or less like a Grenadiers Guard guarding Buckingham Palace with only his Government Issued underwear on). In her prejudice (soldiers = Fascists) Ms Leon reaches the point of stating (through Brunetti) that too many Carabinieri love acting "as Mussolini were still in power and no one to say them nay", willingly or unwillingly ignoring the fact that Mussolini used for his repression (besides his own Black Shirts) Brunetti's Polizia, and not the Carabinieri of which he never had the loyalty, which was unquestionably devoted to the King.
Moral relativism and double standard permeate the whole novel. Ms Leon deftly manipulates her readers, making them sympathize with people who broke the law or their vows/obligations with their spouses/partners, disdaining those who unveil their wrongdoings. The ultimate villain of the novel is someone who has dared to stick his nose into the personal data of some less-than-virtuous persons, informing the victims of their bad actions. Wow, what a criminal! More or less like a person who, seeing a burglar breaking into a house, calls the police. Poor burglar! How can he work if people (some religious zealots, undoubtedly) instead than minding their own business have to intrude in his life making it harder than it already is? Ms Leon should move to Sicily, where her love for Omerta, for the "code of silence" would be much appreciated.
All Ms Leon's prejudices float in the usual and trite collection of oversimplified generalisations on Italy: nothing works, everything and everybody is corrupted, all TVs belongs to one man, the media are not independent, everybody is on a permanent strike, Northerners are racists, all cities but Venice are stuck in an everlasting traffic jam, the Church controls everything with a Mafia-like grip, several new Saints are made daily, football players are constantly arrested, and so on and so forth. The only good things in Italy are food, Commissario Brunetti and, of course, Venice (which should be dismantled and rebuilt in some Eastern European country, like Bosnia or Bulgaria, to save it from those barbaric Italians. At least, Eastern Europeans appreciate it...) If a similar picture was given on any developing country, Ms Leon would immediately be labelled as a hardcore, dyed-in-the-wool racist. But against Italy and the US (which - even having nothing to do with the novel - are repeatedly lashed upon) all is fair, right?
 Donna Leon Triumphs Once Again! May 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Attacking corruption seems to be a favorite theme of Donna Leon. And along the way, there's usually a murder or two to solve. And in the case of her latest Commassario Guido Brunetti thriller, Leon is, once again, on target.
This time the venerable Venice police officer is confronted with the issue of illegal child adoption practices and the accompanying ramifications therein. As in the previous 15 Brunetti novels, Leon looks at her home city and addresses one or more of its myriad problems, social and otherwise. Still, this series is not about Venice, which she loves, but those characters and issues that attack the sheer beauty and even moral turpitude of the Pearl of the Adriatic.
In "Suffer the Little Children," Brunetti early on is called to the hospital after learning that one of its doctors has been beaten almost to death by a police team, which had stormed the doctor's home and, aside from the beating, had taken the doctor's 18-month old son, which, as it turns out, is an adopted son. Thus the plot kicks into a higher gear. Brunetti learns, from his various sources and own initiative that adopting children is not only a lucrative business but also highly illegal in some circumstances. The ramifications of such adoptions, of course, is wide open. A second running issue in the book is the investigation of a pharmacy-doctor scam that seems to be widespread.
With Brunetti's ace team (Signorina Eletra and Sgt. Vianello, especially), the cases eventually come to a conclusion. Of course, as is usual for a Leon book, the endings are not always satisfying to the reader who is looking for the "happily ever after" approach. Brunetti (and Leon) do not solve the corruption and other socially significant issues, as, of course, these issues continue right along, but they do work on "justice, one person at a time." The murderer usually pays for his (or her) crime. Leon, though, says she's not about to give up on Venice, but sometimes "political corruption is simply a way of life there."
Leon's Brunetti series is first rate, beginning with "Death at La Fenice." (She's a big fan of opera.) Leon's sharp narrative skills, fast-paced plots, and incredible character development are always great reads. In "Suffer the Little Children," however, the book seems to be rushed and Leon doesn't take the time to explore further her central characters (they are all gold mines!), although she perhaps feels that the previous books have said enough. Fast-paced is one thing, but "rushed" is another and in this one, more time and deliberations should have been devoted. She says she's already finished the next Brunetti and is "thinking about" the one after that--news that will make her legions of fans happy!
Donna Leon - Suffer the Little Children April 21, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
As John Peel said of The Fall, "always different, always the same"; it's a sentiment that could equally apply to the Venetian novels of Donna Leon. Always different in the plots, the players, themes, always the same in terms of wonderful style, rigid social engagement and interrogation, and Guido Brunetti and his family. These elements don't really vary from book-to-book: Leon's style, her intense interest in the social issues effecting her fair city, and the comforting presence of Brunetti and his warm, reassuring family. That's why so many people are drawn back novel after novel, thanks to these reliable elements. And it's no different here. All these things are present, correct, and as attractive as ever. They make every Leon novel a guaranteed pleasure. However, it's the differences that add the spice and flavour of each novel, that stand them off in competition with one another, and that make "Suffer the Little Children" one of the strongest entries in the series, certainly the best since the career highlights that were Uniform Justice and Doctored Evidence.
Three Carabinieri officers burst into the apartment of a local Venetian paediatrician and his wife. After trying to defend his family, the doctor is left in hospital, and one of the officers is the victim of "assault". Their 18 month old son is taken. Brunetti is summoned to the hospital in the aftermath to try and find out what's gone on, what motivated such a violent reaction from the military police? Why was their son taken? This initial event will set Brunetti into a practical and moral maze of policework involving illegal adoption, infertility clinics, desperate parents, fraudulent pharmacists and nefarious moralising doctors. And, as always in Leon's Venice, the long influential arms of those who wield the real power.
If there any crime-writer alive guaranteed to provide a complex moral or social issue to mull over, it is Donna Leon. Past novels have taken a beating-stick to the military, conflict diamonds, lagoon pollution, and this 16th novel takes a long hard uncomfortable look at unwanted children and illegal adoption. Better that babies go to loving homes rather than stay with parents who don't want them and would (and do) sell them for paltry sums? Better to stick to the law rather than set a precedent? Better to remove these illegal children to orphanages? As always, no answers are provided (though Leon's politics and probable views aren't exactly difficult to work out), but much for food thought is given. As intelligent social and moral tracts, they're almost unrivalled.
It's hard to describe what is so attractive and engaging about Leon's novels, and it's all the hard with this one for some reason. They're just immensely readable at the same time as being immensely... "important" sounds too pretentious, but that's essentially what I mean. They're readable but there's also a deep seriousness and darkness to them, like the dark murky waters of the Laguna. It's sometimes a shame that Leon isn't a little more ambitious with her series, considering what she can do when viewing it (as she does) as merely an easy hobby! Given that she seems to view her novel writing almost as just a pleasant distraction, it seems to allow her a freeness with the form, and, though not exactly "ambitious" she displays an incredibly admirable and liberating willingness to disregard conventions of the genre to very good effect, and she partly does that here. It's almost like a crime novel in reverse in some respects, in that the burst of violence comes at the end. Suffer the Little Children is, in a way, an examination of the build-up to a crime. It's also admirable in that there is no murder! How odd, for a crime novel! No murder, but still a deeply unsettling crime (the traffic of children). It's a good lesson, to other crime-writers. The power of these very real issues is quite enough to power an engaging novel and fill it with suspense etc., the puzzle doesn't necessarily have to come in the form of a dead body.
Suffer the Little Children is the 16th in the series, and one of the best. It's a supremely refreshing read, and, despite the comforts of its humane protagonist, a nicely unconventional and challenging crime novel. I recommend it to all (though it is probably not the best to start with). The final 20 or so pages are completely brilliant. But then, Leon has always been wonderful at messy endings. Do read her.
 Good, But Not Her Best April 12, 2008
Once again we visit the wonders of Venice alongside Commissario Guido Brunetti. The theme this time around is the racket in illegal adoptions of children, usually from abroad or foreign mothers in Italy.
All of the Brunetti books are excellent, but I had one problem with this one. Every single sensible person in the story thinks it was completely wrong to take a toddler away from the family who has brought him up for 18 months after an illegal adoption and to turn him over to social services (and presumably an orphanage). The implication is that breaking the law should be ignored, and the possibility that social services might find a loving family to legally adopt the child is not even considered. But considering the point made about the demand for children, one would think that there should be no problem finding suitable parents.
Moreover, there seems to be an immediate leap from bad news at fertility clinics to buying a baby from an illegal immigrant. Perhaps in Catholic Italy there are no surrogate mothers, but if that is so, it would have been nice for someone to comment that such an alternative didn't exist.
Sometimes the conversation seems a bit forced as well, as if Donna Leon was in hurry to get the book written. On the other hand, the depiction of a very unsavory right wing extremist anti-immigrant political party is very good, and somewhat frightening.
There are some surprises at the end, and the book is a fine read. Just not as good as some of the previous stories in the series. There could have been more as well about the baby buying racket. We really only get an insight in one particular, and apparently untypical, case.
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