Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Foucault's Pendulum
Book Review: An engrossing story, large in scope...
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't expect to be drawn into this tale of cosmic associations and reveberations as much as I was, but then good books have the tendency to sneak up on you. This is like the Illuminati series, but for people who don't consider themselves "conspiracy theorists" and who appreciate a writer who can "name drop" without name dropping, whose command of European history (as well as cultures abroad) is vast in depth and scope. This book made me want to visit my local science museum, where Foucault's Pendulum swings free, unencumbered; it made me want to sit and have coffee with my rabbi and chat about cabala; to see out fellow med students who are Muslims and discuss their religious beliefs and to rejoice in the existence of the Mysterious...I didn't rate it a 10 because at times, this novel definitely makes the reader feel like an ignoramus. I'm not an Oxford trained philosopher or semiologist. I'm consider myself to be a fairly broadly read 25 year old medical student. But certainly, many (heck, most!) of the names dropped in this text sail over my head and I cringe in hearing the dull thud as they splat against the wall behind me. Too bad paperbacks don't have imbedded HTML links to footnotes or a mini encyclopedia of history. I woulda felt less like an imbecile.
If you've ever seen the show Connections (where inventions, politial movements, etc. are all linked together throughout time so that the host can describe this historical arc from horses to horsepower, from turbans to turbines...), then you have some idea on how the interconnections in this book are arranged...
Book Review: An intriguing but intellectually dense work.
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all, I agree with every reviewer who felt intimidated by the numerous historical, scientific and occult references that saturate this ocassionally profound book. Don't dare to try reading it without a set of encyclopedias close to hand -- and it wouldn't hurt to be fluent in about a dozen languages, either.That being said, this is (at times) a thrilling read with a truly original plot. Unfortunately, the book's density and wildly uneven pacing threaten the reader's attention span constantly, preventing it from attaining page-turner status.
Also, I have tried (at least twice) to re-read this novel, in an effort to recapture the initial interest it generated in me, only to be stopped less than halfway through each time.
In short: great idea, not so great execution.
Book Review: Another recommendation for you
Summary: 5 Stars
To all lovers of Eco, let me recommend another sensational author you will love: Glenn Kleier. His novel, THE LAST DAY is nothing short of brilliant and I believe you will find it just as astounding as I have. It's become my all time favorite novel and I'd like to share the great enjoyment it gave me.Book Review: Arcane wiseguys cook up plot, get squashed
Summary: 4 Stars
Three men in Milan, working in a small publishing house that produces works on the occult, the esoteric, and the downright bizarre, decide to recast world history in terms of a Plan. Why they do this is part of Eco's most unusual novel. FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM is not an action novel, though there are some gripping action passages; you do not find sex to any degree, nor is there much development of characters' psychology in the usual sense of that phrase. This is an enormous compendium, a vast vat of olive oil in which you may dip the bread of your curiosity. It is a semiotics text masquerading as a novel. Swirls of madness, esoterica, the weird, and the twisted logic of paranoid history fill the pages with a tongue-in-cheek talent that very few authors could manage. On page 386, the narrator-one of the three planners---says, "I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing." Eco's parody of occult writing borders on this itself. The three cross this boundary and realize their picture is true even though it was meant to be a parody. Did their efforts create the reality or was that reality extant all the time ? We witness the concoction of an insane explanation of European Man's activities over the last thousand years or more, an attempt to deny common sense and objectivity in favor of mysteries, plots, counter-plots, and secret cabals. The secret document which sends them off in these paroxysms of paranoid plotting could be one handed down from the mysterious Knights Templar of Crusader times. Or else, it could be a 14th century merchant's delivery list---hay, cloth, roses. There is a well-known American artist, Joseph Cornell, who created works of art from small, unusual items placed in tiny pigeon-holes inside a large frame. Eco's work reminds me of that. Where else could you find, side by side, in an amazing soup of crazy ideas, such different things ? Rosicrucians. Hitler. the Holy Grail. Trumpet dreams and cabbage soup. Occultism run amok. The Druidic College of Gaul. Masonry. Numerology. The hollow earth theory. Shiism and the Assassins. Bacon, Shakespeare, and Cervantes and all their ghost writers. The Tsarist secret police. Ayers Rock (Uluru). Old maps. Kabbala of cars (the motor, axles, etc. as the Tree of Sefirot !) Macumba. Manifestoes. Sepulchres. Alchemy. Heresy. Immortality. Rare books. Luminous wheels in the sea. Enigmas. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Mages. Secret brotherhoods. Jesuits. Menhirs. Minnie Mouse. The golem. Greek migrations into Yucatan. Tauroboliastes. Telluric currents. Self-financed authors. Osmognosis. Queen Elizabeth I. The Gregorian calendar reform. And I'm just scratching the surface here. "History is a Master because it teaches us that it doesn't exist." I think this is a kind of pseudo-Zen dictum, but FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM will certainly give your brain a run for its money. Is history what we think it is? Why ? Maybe the book isn't for everyone. You need a bit of patience to wade through all the crazy theories, and rabid reasonings, trying to connect all the signs and symbols to the real world outside the book. As the characters muse early on, there are four kinds of people in this world---cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics. Let us add the fifth-those who can read FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM. I must be one of them.
Book Review: As good as the Name of the Rose
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed this as much as the Name of the Rose. It's different in that it has a different focus but the focus is still an informative and entertaining one. Unlike the Name of the Rose, this book is set in modern-day (1970's) Italy. The historical and arcane context is one of people today looking back at history.The book is about three academics who get together based on their common interest in subjects such as the Templars and their trial, secret societies, mystical traditions and Kabbalah. They set up a publishing house for books of the occult, part of which involves a desire to publish the most crazy theories, in order to entertain themselves about how stupid some beliefs are. However, then they decide to formulate a theory of their own. They make up a Grand Scheme, the Great Conspiracy involving every major event and mystical society/concept from the last few centuries. The problem is - their theory starts to take over...
Many readers accuse Eco of being pretentious in the level of erudition of his prose. In this book, certain passages are especially of that nature, quoting obscure historical references, names and texts by the hundreds. But it's after reading this book that it becomes clear - it's a parody. This book is a great and genuinely funny parody of the New Age movement with all the occultism and gnosticism. No stone is left unturned in the quest to connect pieces of the world in an obscure way.
The book, like The Name of the Rose, is full of tension and lamentation on the limitations of knowledge and the like. But, it is much more funny and playful. There's the sense of modern-day irony which was harder to achieve in The Name of the Rose as that was from a medieval point of view. Finally, the book has a great, weird and unexpected ending that ties some ends together in a very interesting way.
If you've ever been interested in the occult OR cynical about it, chances are you'll absolutely love this book.