Umberto Eco

[Michael_Mayo]

Anyone read him? Enjoy him?

I started with *The Name of the Rose *way back in 1983. I enjoyed it.

Then my brother-in-law gave me Island of the Day Before.
Some intersting things there but kind of crazy and tedious and I thought a disappointing ending.

No I am reading Foucault’s Pendulum.
Love/hate relationship with it. Hard to tell historical from fictional sometimes and really complex but I am determined to finish it even after putting it down for several months.

Anyone read his otheres:

The Prague Cemetery (2011)
Baudolino (2002)
Mouse or Rat 2004
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2005)
On Ugliness (2007)
Turning Back the Clock (2008)
The Infinity of Listss (2009)

Maybe I should try one of his books for children:

“The Bomb and the General”
“The Three Astronauts”

more my speed.

 

[Deltadeliquent]

I’ve been trying to read Pendulum for years now. It’s fascinating in the beginning, but I always get bogged down and confused and I give up. Then a few months or years later, I try again.
I’ve had the same copy for about twenty years now I think…
It’s the only thing on my bucket list I have no chance of ever actually doing.
I think I’m not smart enough for it.
If you can get through it with mostly understanding it, I salute you!

 

[Michael_Mayo]

I printed out the plot summary at wikipedia. Maybe that will help.
I am about 2/3 finished.

BTW, *Island of the day Before *sat on my book shelf 15 years before I was determined to read it through. I had to make a vocabulary list with it since on just about every page there was a word I did not know.

 

[Catholic1954]

I managed to get through “The Name of Rose”, but I am not desparate enough for sleep to try anything else he has written.

 

[Baelor]

I loved The Name of the Rose; definitely thought-provoking. May try the others at some later time.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

I’ve only read “The name of the rose” and loved it, but have not read anything else.

 

[Bobby_Jim]

I read “Foucalt’s Pendulum”. I enjoyed it. It dragged in some parts but overall it was a good read. It had sort of a quirky quality about it as I recall. The whole “vanity publishing” setup was entertaining. The boss, I forget his name, was a pretty funny character. At one point they were talking about various conspiratorial organizations and “the Mormons” come up, with a line like “are the Mormons still around?” Pretty funny.

This was also a good example toward the end of the “unreliable narrator” - a plot device that sometimes leads to interesting shades of complexity particularly when you go back and think about earlier parts of the book with the thought that you don’t entirely trust what the protagonist is saying.