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End of September, 2006 Loaned to me by my Granny.
The blurb on the front cover of this book states "Even more intricate and absorbing than his international bestseller The Name of the Rose." Well, I enjoyed that book, (the only one of his books that I've previously read,) so I thought that this one could be interesting. When I think of it though, I didn't notice the Name of the Rose being especially intricate. Absorbing, and deliciously involved, but not Intricate; Intricate for me would mean many many threads of different stories all getting twisted and woven together. That book only had one central story though, and less than a handful of auxiliary plots. I have no objection to that, and found the complexity of the central mystery quite satisfactory, but I wouldn't call the book intricate.
ANYHOW, I'm supposed to be writing about THIS book. Foucault's Pendulum. Was it more "intricate and absorbing?" Absorbing, no. I would say that I was more caught up in the story of the Rose, and more transported into that world. -But then, it was a much easier world to be transported into; the Rose is set in a Benedictine Monastery hundreds of years ago. This book in contrast is set in cities of Italy and France, in the last fifty years. If the reader IS transported into the book's world, he won't notice; it's too similar to the world that he was transported From.
Using the definition of an "intricate" story which I've just given, this book is without doubt more intricate. The story is literally about the drawing together of many small stories and occurrences to produce one central, grand Conspiracy. What could be more intricate than intricacy?
I liked the treatment of the Conspiracy though; It was shown that there are... perhaps, some unexplainable phenomenon in the world... or it could simply be that the human mind is more complex and disturbed than we thought. There exist a great deal of small, devoted sects in the world, who believe that they are the followers of the Great Secret, and are members of the Hidden Power. -Not that they know what that Secret is, or how the Power works.
Into this world of arcana, secret societies, occultism and so forth comes three researchers for a publishing house. They have countless manuscripts about these themes, and as an amusement, they try to find a common or root story; an explanation that links all the secret societies of the ages, and tells of the hidden , ruling group that has been the controlling force behind them all. It's a fun game, and they work all kinds of events and coincidences into it. The problem arises though, when some of the groups, (silly men with too much time on their hands, who believe themselves to be the last true believers in the ancient Truth,) find out about their explanation of the world; This group understands that the Deep secret has been revealed.
(Blah, Blah, Blah.) MY Point of saying all that too much was this: That the societies are portrayed as people who believe in the superstition, and adhere to the rituals, in the conviction that they can be a part of the Deep Truth, (which they are sure must exist. Why would people vehemently deny it's existence otherwise?) They Have no secret. They just want one. Very badly. They first convince themselves that there is a secret controlling force in the world, and then set out to make themselves a part of it. What the characters of the book do, is make up a plausible basis for a secret, which the groups will then kill to possess.
I don't know how to express this; But I find it so wonderful. It's so... thought provoking. It's such madness, and I'm at first incredulous about believing that people could act that way. -And then I'm convinced that they would. It's also a charming interplay between telling a story, and having the story actualised; They make up the story that the Templar Secret society is looking for ways to tap the Geological magical forces through key cathedrals in Europe... and very soon after, people who consider themselves to be the descendants and members of the Templars are doing exactly that.
But that was a gross, unrefined example. In the book, there are many such interplays, but done very subtly. Perhaps more like this: The characters pretend to have a secret map. Pretending Not to have this map, makes others certain that they do have it, and it's secret. As far as the world is then concerned, they Are keeping the secret of the map. That is now their reality.
I know: I haven't been able to communicate what I mean, and it's time to give up trying.
So, what I liked was the drawing together many many many little points, and joining them into a central plot, (to take over the world, naturally. But not by the ones who are telling the story; they're only making up a quasi-plausible story about the possible existence of others who have been the controllers of history. -And then come the people who want to be such controllers of history.) Also, as I take an interest into what people believe about the super-natural, I found the descriptions of people's occult beliefs to be of interest.
But overall, I enjoyed the Name of the Rose more.
November, 2007 Birthday gift from my flatmate, Andrea.
The first ten pages of this book were enthralling; I was sucked in, intrigued, excited, and curious about so many things. There were glimmers of plot possibilities flickering through my mind for the next half day. On resuming, alas, I found it much more mundane. The magic of this small intro was barely reflected, much less matched. And though my interest and enjoyment increased somewhat while reading the rest of the book they never reached the heights achieved by the first few pages.
(As an aside, I'm amazed at my ability tonight to write long, verbose sentences, regardless of the fact I feel there's very few ideas in my head.)
As with the other two books by this author I've been exposed to this one was packed with historical details which gave a very strong impression of the past; I was transported into twelfth century with a skill particular to Eco. I was aware that some parts had more attention to detail than was necessary for the story alone, but they didn't jar the nerves of the reader or detract from the telling of the story.
The actual story didn't please me as much as The Name of the Rose had. I would say that it was even a little less than Foucault's Pendulum, although the setting of this was more interesting than the afore mentioned.
There is an interesting theme of this author which I'm half-way to noticing: that of the story-teller being full of lies. More accurately, it's an idea of telling a story, and making up increasingly complex and interwoven "facts" which further the story. "Facts" that end up being accepted by most as being truth. And eventually the "facts" even achieve a sort of True status; Enough people believe it, accept it, and the effect is the same as if they all Were true. (If that makes sense.)
I wonder if this is an exploration by the author of his own role: Of telling lies upon lies, each increasingly interwoven with the lies told before. They become so tangled and convincing that the author himself gets caught up in thinking about them, and trying to imagine what the total solution could be, (believing faithfully that there Is in fact a hidden solution to be discovered.)
What does the book say about society, humanity, and human nature? Continuing with the last idea, it seems that this book says people have a willingness and a need to believe stories and explanations. There is also a fair amount of pettiness and some of the darker side of humanity: It is more than once noted that people are war-like, destructive, and violent with their enemies, whom they have little trouble collecting. From the humblest village dweller to the emperor himself all people are too ready to take cruel revenge, and to abuse any advantage over others that presents its self.
Oh, one last note, there were detailed descriptions of foods in a few places in the book. One of them sounded quite nice... and I decided to make a fish soup very similar to what was mentioned in the text. (It didn't taste at all bad.) To summarise, Incredible introduction, Somewhat slow plot, realistic and fallible characters, detailed and perfectly painted historical setting. It's not a bad read at all.