I liked The Name of the Rose a great deal. I liked Foucault's Pendulum quite a bit. So I read this on the strength of Umberto Eco as author. Didn't work out as well.I never really did figure out what Eco was up to in this one. It's worth reading because there is a ton of interesting things floating around - ideas about the efforts to figure out longitude; politics and battles at the time of the 30 Years War; Richelieu and Mazarin; etc.; long discussions about knowledge, religious belief compared to scientific method, role of imagination; etc.
So I think the best aspect - and perhaps what Eco was up to - was giving the reader a window into the mindset and conversations of the first half of the 17th century.
As far as the plot - the protagonist (Roberto) is shipwrecked, and ends up being washed up onto an abandoned ship moored just far enough off a south seas island such that Roberto - a non-swimmer - is pretty much trapped. The abandoned ship relates to the intrigues surrounding the efforts to be the first to reliably calculate longitudes, and Roberto explores. While imagining things with a woman back in Paris whom he hopes to love.
No comments:
Post a Comment