Gregory Dowling on The Lover of No Fixed Abode

In Venice I've been lucky enough to spend time with Gregory Dowling, author of the Alvise Marangon novels and translator of a Venetian classic, The Lover of No Fixed Abode, now available for the first time in English from Bitter Lemon Press.

Gregory is a fascinating chap, Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari, a long-term resident of the city, an expert scholar on Lord Byron, and a selfless and generous source of advice for itinerant foreign authors drifting through the city in search of local colour.

He’s certainly saved my skin a good few times when I stumbled over one of the many more obscure pitfalls those of us who set stories there often fall into.

Here is talking about this fascinating new but old book.

The authors.

Franco Lucentini (left, 1920-2002) and Carlo Fruttero (right, 1926-2012) wrote six works of fiction together, the most popular in Italy being The Lover of No Fixed Abode, published in 1986. It has never before been available in English. In 2025 Bitter Lemon Press will be publishing Runaway Horses, their murder mystery set in Siena during the Palio, the city’s colourful annual horse-race.

Transcript

[00:00:00]

David: It's lovely to be back in Venice, seeing you again Gregory. You are one of the busiest people I've ever met, , you're Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari , you've written your own books as Alvise Marangon, great stories. And, you've found the time to translate a really interesting book that hasn't been available ever in English. It's a fascinating story and I'd like to talk about the story but it's also a fascinating story about how the book proceeded, because it was published in Italy in what, 1986?

Gregory 1986, yeah.

David And the authors haven't been with us for quite some time, but did you meet both of them?

Gregory: I met both of them, yes, back in the, 1990s.I translated, , three of their novels, actually, while they were, , still both alive, and, they were very keen on going through the translations, so I went to Turin and, Franco Lucentini's house, and we sat there for the whole day as Franco Lucentini read one page, passed it to Carlo [00:01:00] Fruttero, and occasionally they would make a comment I'd never spoke to them in English, so I never heard their spoken English, but they both knew English clearly very well, and they, , and the comments they made were always to the point.

Occasionally they picked up a nuance which I might have missed. You know, I was fairly fresh to translating at the time. I can imagine. Um, and occasionally they questioned some word choice of my own, and I was able to You know, to justify it and they, and they accepted it. It was a very fascinating experience,

I did three of their novels. The first one I translated was a book called The D Case, which was a continuation of Edwin Drood, and that was published, , that came out in America and then in the UK with Chatto and Windus.

And then I did the novel that had just come out, the Enigma in Lugodimare, which was a, what was it called in English? A Riddle by the Sea, I think. And that came out with Chatto and Windus. And then I translated this one, The Lover of No Fixed Abode. , but [00:02:00] unfortunately, I don't know what the reasons were, but with.

The first two novels published with Chatto and Windus just didn't make any headway and, , and they decided not to go ahead . Although they paid me for the translation, they decided just to leave it and, uh, and so there it was and nothing, nothing changed.

David And do you think it's the best book of the lot?

Gregory I think it was definitely the best book of the lot, yeah. And if, if, if they'd started with that one, I think things would have gone very differently. .

David: And what were they like? Because, were they journalists,

Gregory: They were, um, they were both, they were journalists, they were very, very literary people. I mean, they, they spent their life in in the world of journalism, but mainly books and literature.

They were , they were anthologists, they published humorous articles, , and then they published this series of, , novels. The first two novels, which were translated into English, I think in the 1970s were very big hits, , both in Italy and abroad. I'm not so much in the uk in, in English, I don't think.

But the first one, they actually made a film of it [00:03:00] with Marcello Mastroianni. It's a very good film. And the second one was then made into a television series again with Marcello Mastroiann playing this, the lead. And that's also a very good series. I have seen the English translation and I think it needs a makeover if they decide to republish those two.

I think they would need to rework that translation.

David: The thing that I found very interesting is that , today, writers are pinning down, you're a crime writer, you're a genre writer, you keep writing the same kind of book all the time.

These guys were all over the place, weren't they? I think they did science fiction. Oh, they were, they

Gregory: didn't write science fiction, but they, , they ran the most important, , publishing series of science fiction novels by Mondadori in Italy. You might say they introduced science fiction to the Italian .

Because there wasn't much Italian science fiction. It's mainly an imported genre, but with a big following in Italy. And this, , series they created called Urania, was very popular. Very, very, very simple, cheap editions published by [00:04:00] Mondadori.

David: But they obviously didn't feel constrained by anything, I got the impression that they could go pretty much anywhere they felt like.

Gregory: Exactly, yeah, yeah, yes. They also translated, I think, both from French and English.

And as I say, they were publishing regularly short articles, often of a humorous type, satirical articles. , I think for La Stampa, or maybe Corriere della Sera, I'm not sure.

David: Did you ever see them again after that?

Gregory: No, I never saw them again, we had some correspondence, and then when, , when the, they didn't publish, , the Venetian novel. I was very disappointed, obviously. I didn't think of it for a long time until I, I It just struck me, it was a good novel, and so I wrote a blog article about the, the missing Venetian novel, in the sense that, many people , were missing out. Readers who are interested in Venice, there is this novel which has been a best seller in many languages. And for some reason, It just wasn't available to English readers. And so I wrote this short blog piece [00:05:00] with a sample of their prose. And I'm not sure whether it was that, but it wasn't long after that that I was contacted by Bitter Lemon Press.

And they said they were interested in publishing and they asked me, there was the whole question of the rights.

David Which can be complicated.

Gregory It was very complicated. I didn't know who had the rights. I eventually got in touch with Chatto and Windus, etc. and sorted it out. And they paid me , a reasonable amount to tidy up.

Because I felt that, I translated it 20 years ago, I was I think my pro style has developed, my knowledge of Italian is certainly a good deal better now.

David: So you had to type it all into the computer and start afresh, basically?

Gregory: No, I had an Amstrad, a version I'd done on an old Amstrad, which I was able to convert and work on that.

David: Well, I'm glad you wrote the blog post because I'm sure If you hadn't done that, I mean really you've been a flag bearer for this book for years and it's great To see [00:06:00] it out and it looks good. It's a great cover.

GregoryIt's got a lovely cover , they've done a very good job with that

David if we talk about the book It's kind of difficult to categorize. It's not crime. It's, I suppose it's a mystery. It's a mystery. Um, uh, but it's not like anything else I've ever read, really. It is a very unusual style of book.

And it paints this picture of the Venice of what I guess must be what, the 1970s, 1980s?

GregoryI guess it's the 1980s, yeah.

DavidUm, that is extraordinarily Vivid. In a way that , somebody's been coming here for, you know, 25 years, I recognize the place has changed and I can see the difference between the Venice of the book and the Venice of now.

Gregory: n I don't think it's necessarily a period piece somehow. No, I don't. That's not the way I think of it now. Yeah, I think , because so many things of Venice don't change, you can read it and still see the Venice, we know and, we love obviously, you know, there wasn't the There was [00:07:00] certainly tourism, there wasn't the mass tourism that there is now.

But tourism plays a big role in the novel, obviously, because the main character is a tourist guide. Or is he? You know, this is the, this is part of the mystery.

David: Without giving any spoilers, how would you describe the story?

Gregory: Um, well it's a love story. It's written partly in the first person of this Roman , let's say she's a, she's an art dealer, , and she's obviously from the, , the Roman aristocracy, uh, and she meets this rather down at heels tourist guide and unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with him.

But then, Becoming intrigued as to, you know, who is he? Why is he doing this job? He just doesn't see, there are aspects of his character that just don't seem to fit with the, um,

David: the job. Is he a spy? Is

Gregory: Is he a spy? Exactly. Is he, there is something Is he on the run? Uh, etc. And so she's, if the mystery is basically that, [00:08:00] who is Mr. Silvera, there's also a side plot which is to do with, chicanery in the, in the art world, that part of the, the story is, is very intriguing as well, and convincing, you feel that they, they, they know what they're talking about, the writers, And you get a picture of Venice in, sort of, not all seasons, because it's set just over a few days, but all weathers, certainly., and you get, Venice, the high society, you get a wonderful, , dinner party in a, In a palazzo. You get Venice of the Backstreets, the very cheap hotels.

David: Do you think they came here to write it, or they obviously knew Venice very well? They knew Venice very

Gregory: well, yes, yes, yes. I imagine they came very regularly. Because it's not a novel you could write just after, you know, a few days.

David: No, very definitely not. It just has that feeling of authenticity to it. And it also has that sort of 1970s, 1980s it's before AIDS and all the rest of it. It's quite sexually liberated as well, isn't it?

I'm not sure we [00:09:00] would write books quite like that. It's not a book that could be written today, I don't think,

Gregory: The publishers were worried about one or two expressions here and there which they felt might not be acceptable to, modern readers,

I don't feel there was anything actually offensive in it, but, uh, and in most cases it was just, this was the character, this was the way that that person would speak. One of them is a, is a, uh, the doorkeeper, the concierge of a hotel. And his thoughts are not necessarily politically correct, but, uh, but, um, but perfectly.

People are like that. People are like that,

David: exactly. Yes, and are there more books by them to be done?

Gregory: Well, there's one that's already, I've now got the first proofs that should be coming out next year.

David That's A Bitter Lemon as well?

Gregory: That's A Bitter Lemon, yes. And that one is set in Siena, uh, during the Palio. So it's the annual me dirty tricks with horse racing, dirty tricks with horse races, and a certain amount of, there's a supernatural element as well in this novel. And what will that be called? Uh, for the moment?

The, [00:10:00] um, because the Italian title is Il palio delle contrade morte which means the, the Palio of the Dead Contradas, because Sienna is divided into all these contradas and they take turns to run in this race. Uh, but there are also, uh, I think it's seven. Contrada de morte, contradas that no longer exist, but sort of, um, have a virtual presence.

That is the explanation of the Italian title. Bitter Lemon thinks, that would be too complicated for what most, many people wouldn't know what a palio is, just to start with. So for the moment, we have this provisional title, which is Runaway Horses.

David: Are there more of their books to come?

Gregory: , well then there's the, the one which is set on, which is a kind of traditional detective story, set on the coast of Tuscany, which was 1990s by Chatto and Windus, um, and I think could now be republished, and I think Bitter Lemon is looking into the question of acquiring the rights for that one.

I think the first two novels ought to be reissued, though I would [00:11:00] advise a new, a fresh translation.

David They need you to translate.

Gregory: Well, I'd be very happy to do it, I must say.

David: I know very little about translation, but authors tend to be translated by the same translator, because that means the style is consistent, and the voice is consistent, I know I always ask you this question, but when are you going to start writing your own books again?

Gregory: Uh, very good question. , and I am just coming up to retirement, as I will be leaving the university at the end of this academic year, so that means in September.

I'm teaching my last courses now, and so when these courses end in June, I will then feel liberated.

David You'll be a free man.

Gregory: n Yeah, I'll be a free man, yeah.

David: I have a suspicion that your free time will soon get eaten up, though .

Gregory: There are many other things that I'll be doing,

David: One of the things I have said that you do is you are incredibly generous offer of advice and correction for those of us who swung through Venice trying to write books and make them sound authentic.

I [00:12:00] couldn't have done certainly, with the Arnold Clover books. Your insight was, was really, really useful and much appreciated on that. So you need to back off on that and just start writing your own really, don't you?

Gregory: Well, that (helping authors) doesn't take much time

David: time. How long have you lived in Venice now?

Gregory: I've lived in Venice now since 1981. Wow. So that's 40, it'll be 43 years this September.

David: So you are not planning to go back to England then?

Gregory: No. This is, this is my home. I visit England, um, regularly, well, not so regular, regularly as I used to, but, when we had small children, we always spent every summer. Basically all summer in England.

David: Do you feel you're half a Venetian yet?

Gregory: I have children who speak Venetian dialect, so I think that gives me a kind of, you know, I think you always are where you grew up. If you grew up in England, , that's basically who you are, and you're not going to change that. But I feel very settled in, in Venice, and I feel [00:13:00] I understand Venice now, and, but, nobody ever takes me for a Venetian the moment I open my mouth. I have an English accent, and there's not much I can do about that. You know, my children both pass both for English or for Italians.

David: You do know this city, very, very well. you just told me the story about the wellhead outside that's the only one that's got, still got a winged lion on it because Napoleon's soldiers never found it. You must have spent an awful lot of time just walking around, looking at things and finding out what they all were.

Gregory: Probably, my first Two or three years I spent just doing that really. But you know, I've never really stopped. But I remember, you know, certainly for those early years in Venice, I was always walking around with my Lorenzetti or my touring club guidebook. So, yes, I feel like I do know the city pretty well.

David: I'm very grateful for all the help you've given me, and I'm sure everybody's going to be very grateful that you managed to get this great book back into circulation in English again, I'm sure it would not have happened without your efforts. [00:14:00] And it's a really good read, and I enjoyed it enormously.

So are there other lost authors you want to bring back into circulation with a translation?

Gregory: I would love to translate the plays of Goldoni, , because when I wrote my Alvise Marangon novels, which are set in Venice in the 18th century, one of the best ways I found of getting a sense of what the city was like was by reading the authors of the time, particularly Casanova and Goldoni.

There's no shortage of translations of Casanova, but Goldoni is, um, there are not many plays of his. It's easily available in English. There's a Penguin edition of, I think, three or four plays. You know, despite the fact that there have been plays which have proved enormously successful in certain adaptations.

David: The Two Masters one is Exactly, exactly. I don't think anybody realises that was Goldoni. One Man, Two Governors.

Gregory: Yes, yes. It was extraordinarily successful. But somehow this didn't sort of bring [00:15:00] Goldoni into the popular awareness. Um, but you know, his plays are, the best of his plays are extremely funny, very witty, very perceptive, wonderful pictures of, , Venetian society, but not only Venetian because they're not all set in Venice, but they certainly give you a wonderful feeling for the period. And they're very good, but both on the stage, but they can also be very good reads. , I'm not offering to translate all of Goldoni because he wrote something like 120 plays. Um, but I'd certainly like to do. Some of his, some of the best ones. And of course the wonderful things about translating an author from the 18th century is, you get all the royalties.

David: And I think, they obviously are of the period, but they're quite modern in some of their approaches, and the subjects that they're addressing.

Gregory: exactly, exactly, exactly. They're not just historical pieces. No, no, no. I mean, you know, they're very lively plays.

As was shown by the great success of One Man, Two Governors, it was just basically updated to, what was it, [00:16:00] Brighton in the 1930s, I think, or 1950s perhaps. But, it was absolutely very faithful to the original story, it was just in different costumes.

Probably the, Goldoni's best play would be La Locandiera, um, which is actually set in Tuscany. There's also another wonderful trilogy, , the Trilogie della Villeggiatura, which is about, , the Venetians who go to the countryside, to a villa outside Venice.

David: I think you need to write another blog post.

Gregory. I do. You're right. You're right. Thank you. That's a, that's a good point. I'll do that.