Fiction. In Curt Leviant's new tragic-comic novel, PARTITA IN VENICE, "we follow Tommy M., who has written speeches for some Very Important People, in his so-suave, so-certain sophistication toward his so-boorish, so-certain downfall. As Tommy becomes more uncertain...we become more certain. A doom stretching straight from Grecian times is after you, Tommy, isn't it? And all your male nonchalance and coy humor won't help the least when its lone, fine talons grab hold.Rarely will you read the heavy hand of tragedy played so lightly. It's as if Leviant were a transmigrated Vivaldi whose strains had dipped into Venice's canals to find--surprise --both Wagner and Sophocles."