Baudolino by Umberto Eco, William Weaver Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Baudolino
Book Review: The Elusive Nature of Truth
Summary: 5 Stars
This may very well be Eco's must under-rated work. It is, at first blush, simpler than his other works. It is less dense, and has a slightly more coherent storyline, albeit laced with Eco's encylopedic knowledge of history that makes any of his works a challenge.
The brilliance in this novel lies in the fact that it recognizes itself to be a complete fabrication, laced with bits of historical fact that Eco plays with as if they were his own toybox. He tinkers with history and the events of the time masterfully, weaving them all together in a story that is at once funny, clever, and even a bit poignant.
Book Review: Faith makes things become true
Summary: 2 Stars
Baudolino utters this remark 400 pages into this 500-page anything-but-a-quick-read. You kind of wish Eco had spared us the history and mythology surrounding Baudolino's life by mentioning this a little sooner.
This book is a chore. Some of the history is interesting, but the overriding themes about false faith and effort in vain make the reader question the task of plowing through the book.
If you're a big history buff, there might be enough in here to keep you interested. However, if you liked Eco's Name of The Rose and you're hoping this will be as good, forget it and pass this one over.
Book Review: Tedious
Summary: 2 Stars
You can tell by this book that Eco really knows his medieval lore, but the long rambling descriptions become tiresome about halfway through. The only other Eco book I have read was "The Name of the Rose" which I enjoyed immensely. I was hoping that this book would be as gripping but instead I found the plot to be convoluted and occasionally the story veered off into sub plots that seemed to have no bearing on the actual story. I found myself skimming over big sections near the end in an attempt to get to the conclusion. After I finally finished this book, I wished I had put it down a lot sooner and just started on something that was actually worth my time. Book Review: Picaresque novel about the Middle Ages in modern comic style
Summary: 4 Stars
Maybe you have to be in the right mood to read Baudolino, since it is not a short novel and you must be willing to accept some tall tales. Because Baudolino is a story within a story within a story that has several offshoots and sub-plots to thicken the brew. Very much in the tradition of "Lazarillo de Tormes" or "El Busc?n", Spanish novels from the Siglo de Oro that most English-speaking readers are not familiar with, but which Umberto Eco surely is, Baudolino is initally just a very talented smart-aleck trying to trick his way through a trip around the world. Perhaps what makes it so much different from the novels I mention above is that the line between what is imagined or invented and what is real starts to fade more and more as the novel moves across the Old Continent and into lands to the East. You may or may not like Baudolino because of his literary mocking of you, the reader, but he certainly weaves a tale worth reading.
Book Review: LMAO Funny
Summary: 5 Stars
Eco is astonishing! I read this in English translation, but his love of language is evident and delightful. His grasp of history is expert; really funny stuff and really sad stuff ... shows how tragedy spawns comedy.
The character Baudolino is endearing as the reader joins him on adventures from medieval trangressions to scientific endevour, to Pliny's book on the Natural World.
A rollicking book, bawdy, humorous, visual and full of enough symbolic stuff to keep any 'seeker of secret knowledge' turning the page.