Through a series of essays, Donna Leon tells the story of her life. She shares experiences about her early life and about her experiences teaching English in the Middle East and also in China. Her Middle East adventures included being in Iran during the revolution years of 1978-1979. She later was in Saudi Arabia. She details the game "Saudi-opoly" that she and other teachers created and played but kept a closely guarded secret so they wouldn't land in prison. Eventually, of course, she made her way to join the ex-pat community in Italy, especially her beloved Venice. We see her fascination with bees which led to the plot of one Brunetti work. Her love of opera which appears in a couple of novels is the subject of an essay, and in it we see how her love for this musical genre was birthed. She also describers her love of Handel's music. Her dislike of the cruise ships coming into Venice is the theme of one essay and frequently arises in comments in her novels. Of course, her intense dislike of that led her to move to Switzerland. My library only had the audio version of the book, and although I knew it wasn't Donna Leon reading the book, the narrator's voice seemed to match what you might expect if the author herself had been reading it. ( )

Donna Leon is the author of a long-running crime series set in Venice, so I expected her memoir to focus mainly on Italy. It takes her a long time to get there! After talking a bit about her childhood and early life, she moves on to her years teaching English in the Middle East and Asia. I found those chapters especially fascinating, particularly the years she spent in Iran leading up to the 1979 revolution and her time in Saudi Arabia. I wasn’t surprised by the pages she devoted to bees and bee culture since it found its way into one of her mystery plots. Her lifelong love of music, especially opera, also wasn’t a surprise, since music has featured in several of her mystery plots and the epigraphs in her books are nearly always from a libretto. The audio narrator’s delivery is a good match for the tone of the book, and it’s a great way to experience this memoir. ( )

An interesting and sometimes quirky collection of vignettes about Leon’s life. For those interested in creativity, it has less on her writing, but shows how her creativity expands beyond the pen/typewriter – although there is a little about this near the end of the book in a chapter called ‘Bees’.

She is curious, in many way’s a risk taker, has primarily just said ‘yes’ without allowing her mind to sensor possibilities, so she has had a wide and various life, and made many interesting friends.

For classical music lovers, she is one of you, and shares her passion especially for Handel – I shall certainly be revisiting his work. I did once visit a private home that he had once stayed in, and where his ghost was alleged to reside! Boo. ( )

“Wandering Through Life,” by Donna Leon, is marketed as a memoir. However, it is actually a collection of essays about such topics as Leon’s childhood, musical tastes, love of travel, and affinity for Venice, where she lived for three decades. Surprisingly, Leon says little about the series that made her famous—her thirty-two crime novels that feature the literate, compassionate, and insightful Commissario Guido Brunetti.

In this slim volume, Leon discusses her passion for reading and admits that she becomes obsessed with subjects that intrigue her. For instance, she writes eloquently about bees, those fascinating and productive insects who are an essential part of our ecosystem. In addition, Ms. Leon is a devotee of the composer Handel, whose works have moved her to tears. Leon has taught English in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Italy, and might have finished her doctorate had her dissertation not been confiscated by the Iranian government.

Leon’s prose style is concise and charming. We feel as if we are sitting on a couch in her living room, listening to her chat about whatever strikes her fancy. She does not take herself too seriously and, having just turned eighty-one, remains engaged with her friends, appreciates the wonders of nature, and is outspoken about what annoys her (Wagner’s music, pushy shoppers, and cruise ships that are ruining Venice). Although “Wandering Through Life” is entertaining, it might have had a greater impact had this talented author—who clearly values her privacy—had been a bit more candid about her writing career and personal life.
( )

In WANDERING THROUGH LIFE, Donna Leon tells the personal and extremely interesting story of her life in a delightful manner. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect as she grows and moves around the globe.
She describes her family’s background and her early childhood in New Jersey. Her German grandfather made it a condition of employment on his farm that the itinerant men he hired gave him 25% of their salaries, which he sent back to their families.
In another chapter she describes the clever way her brother saved a lot of money when the apartment building he managed switched from oil burners to gas heat.
She notes that children don’t recognize the weirdness in their own families. They are too busy observing and learning.
When she discovered discovering that words could mean different things as opposed to objects which like a bicycle moves forward and a ball runs downhill she became enthralled with words.
She later taught English in Iran and was there when the Shah was overthrown. She and her friends created a game they called $audioply to play when they were caught after hours and could not be outside. They referred to it as “a bored game.” When she left Iran, the government confiscated all her papers, including the final draft of her doctoral dissertation on the changing moral order in the world of Jane Austen‘s novels. She decided to not continue her studies.
In 1979, she became a professor of English literature in China. The students had many misconceptions, particularly about Blacks and Jews. Considering they had never met anyone from those groups, she realized it was the most likely result of what did they’d read from Anglophone writers.
She gave a lecture about the stock market. The students were stunned with the idea of private property and companies, buying stock, and profiting without working.
Eventually she arrived in Italy where she fell in love with the people and the country and made it her home.
Leon discusses Italian war through the perspective of little, old Italian women. Their mission is to cut in to the front of the line at stores and markets. She explains their strategy, the reaction of other people who were in line ahead of them, and how they respond to not being able to complete their mission. At the end, she offers a reason for their actions: Consider for a moment, how little honor and renown left these women as they move toward the end of their lives; consider a shrunken are there, battlefields, or once, in the youth in their prime, they could do come badge in search of respect and power. Strength gone, perhaps, widowed or living alone, they’re forced to use other means to obtain victory.
She explains the difference on a train between authors and traditional passengers. The passengers see the landscape and the tunnel ahead of them. The author imagines what disaster can happen in the tunnel.
When an author wants to write about a topic, they do a lot of research first. Her chapter about bees is a fantastic example.
It was a pleasure to read the very untypical story of how one of my favorite authors, Donna Leon, came to be the person she is. ( )