Pros: Brainy stuff, fascinating exercise in the recovery of amnesiacs and light-hearted humor of Eco.
Cons: Requires PhD to comprehend scope of culture references, mental images of naked old men.
The Bottom Line: Another brilliant and possibly the last work of Umberto Eco. Light-hearted presentation of one's identity and the importance of memory. Eco's smarter than you so bring an encyclopedia.
SpookyMonkey's Full Review: Umberto Eco - Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
Back home, I spent a sleepless night, and Paola stroked my hair. I felt like an adulterer, yet I had done nothing. On the other hand, I was not troubled for Paola's sake but for my own. The best part of having loved, I told myself, is the memory of having loved.Some people live on a single memory. Eugenie Grandet, for example. But to think you have loved, yet not be able to recall it?
So tell us how you really feel, Monkey.
I have a heterosexual hard-on for all things Umberto Eco. The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum are two of the greatest literary works ever written, according to my peanut-sized simian brain.
I think you're posturing.
Not at all. Eco is the writer's writer. He's a professor of Semiotics who can cross-reference Mickey Mouse and Dante's Inferno with anus jokes in the same sentence. Who else among today's scholars can do that?
Aside from you?
Yes, aside from me.
Chuck Palahniuk.
Aside from him.
Jim Norton.
Aside from him too.
Eddie Izzard.
And him.
Billy Conno--
Oh, shut up.
So let's talk about the book.
Given that this is a translation (the text was originally written in Eco's native Italian tongue as La Misteriosa Fiamma della Regina Loanna), it's hard to for me to accurately gauge the impressiveness that is an Eco work. Derrida and Lacan would make arguments that I am so far removed from the text due to the linguistic barrier that I should just sit in the corner with a dunce hat on and fingerpaint Sesame Street dioramas.
Good thing they're both dead and can't have opinions.
Oooh, too soon.
Sorry.
Eco's story deals with a man who wakes up with amnesia. Due to an accident of sorts, his entire life is removed from memory like a shaken etch-a-sketch, leaving him to piece together the puzzle from the fragments he's given. He slowly learns who he is by his implanted subconscious routines - his uncanny ability to quote from every text he has ever read where it is relevant to conversations, all daily tasks that he was able to do without conscious interference (how to brush his teeth, how to drive, how to dress himself) and the people around him who love him, despite the fact they are all strangers.
The text tells a touching story of a man trying to recover memories of his true love while exploring the bizarre nature of memory and identity. Eco's novels are always peppered with gratuitous language use at the sake of self-flagellation. Reading novels requires a context greater than the novel itself. Sitting with a dictionary and Google at your side would be beneficial to make sense of all the oblique references he makes to things ranging from popular culture to obscure writings of medieval philosophers on religious doctrines.
It takes detours into the history surrounding his life as he tries to remember who he is. It's either intensely graphic and detailed or mundane and excessive, depending on your point of view. Eco pulls no punches when he examines how propaganda warped Yambo's childhood mind and how the faults of others shaped his own.
Sounds daunting.
It is. But all that aside, this isn't the densest of his works. It retains a casual air and even has colored illustrations. This gives the reader the illusion of following our protagonist, Yambo Bodini, through his self-discovery. The reader's ignorance is akin to amnesia and we experience the same sensations anew as he does. Eco provides graphic details on every new discovery ranging from his favorite meals in the local restaurants to the smell of centuries-old books in the antiquities dealership he runs to the smell of his bunghole while he craps in the woods.
That's touc--- what?
There's four pages dedicated to waxing philosophical on the separation anxiety and identity crisis of bowel movements.
I'm weirdly compelled and repulsed at the same time.
At least I warned you.
Bung diatribes aside, is this enjoyable
It's slow. Memory recovery is a slow process and Eco devotes exactly the amount of time required to give it the realistic tone it deserves. He's a learned man and throws more information at you than you can possibly expect to absorb in one sitting. His sense of humor propels the story as endearing rather than ridiculous. Not a lot of blowy-uppy action here, but more of a cerebral look at the pain of lost memories and the fear of discovering who you are.
His best work?
Hardly. But a nice change of pace. He's a talented writer, in his language or any. The translation is strong and stands alone as a great work. The only reason for the four stars is due to the bar he set for himself in his other works.
So - summarize.
Be prepared to run to an encyclopedia to look up authors and quotations. But don't worry about feeling lost - you're merely sympathizing with the protagonist.
How witty.
Eat your Dante fart St. Augustine heart out, Jim Norton.
Anything else to add?
If you haven't read Eco, you need to. There's rumors abound that this will be his last book (I can't begin to imagine the stress that creating his works must take) and anyone who hasn't read Foucault's Pendulum yet needs to. Dan Brown sucks! Hard! Like 'bowling-ball-through-a-garden-hose' suck-hardness!
There's also a couple of annotation guides available online for those of you too lazy to look everything up by yourselves. The story is enjoyable without knowing each and every pop culture reference, but the intertextual nature of the story helps the reader learn more about Yambo and who he is.
Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory-he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every li...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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