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Available
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Publication
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2015), Edition: 1, 191 pages
Description
"From the best-selling author of The Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery, a novel about the murky world of media politics, conspiracy, and murder. A newspaper committed to blackmail and mud slinging, rather than reporting the news. A paranoid editor, walking through the streets of Milan, reconstructing fifty years of history against the backdrop of a plot involving the cadaver of Mussolini's double. The murder of Pope John Paul I, the CIA, red terrorists handled by secret services, twenty years of bloodshed, and events that seem outlandish until the BBC proves them true. A fragile love story between two born losers, a failed ghost writer, and a vulnerable girl, who specializes in celebrity gossip yet cries over the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh. And then a dead body that suddenly appears in a back alley in Milan. Set in 1992 and foreshadowing the mysteries and follies of the following twenty years, Numero Zero is a scintillating take on our times from the best-selling author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum"--… (more)
Media reviews
"The story is stripped down to the bare essentials, and it lacks the same sense of substance and wonder as his prior works. But there’s enough of the author’s ingenuity at work to make it worthwhile as a quick, entertaining read."
"But then, to read Eco well, it helps to know about everything. Not quite as substantial as The Name of the Rose but a smart puzzle and a delight all the same."
User reviews
LibraryThing member ehines
A return to some of the themes from Foucault's Pendulum, but in a lot of ways a pale sort of return. Now conspiracy theories ARE taken seriously, and are the playthings of the rich and powerful, rather than being the half-articulate protests of the frustrated, the paranoid and the
Foucault's Pendulum was sort of a dark book. In this book the dark forces we could see in FP have made huge progress. Somehow, though, Eco doesn't seem to have the spirit in him to build a great story around them this time.
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resentful.Foucault's Pendulum was sort of a dark book. In this book the dark forces we could see in FP have made huge progress. Somehow, though, Eco doesn't seem to have the spirit in him to build a great story around them this time.
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LibraryThing member Meredy
Six-word review: Eccentric satire of manipulative journalistic practices.
Extended review:
I hardly know what to say about this last work of the late author, who died two days after I finished reading it. It isn't really a novel. In a way it reminds me of some sacred texts of various religions: a
The fictional situation, in barest terms, is that a group of journalists of somewhat dubious repute are hired to put together back-dated issues of a newspaper that will never be published. It will exist only to make certain prospective readers uncomfortable, for purposes of influencing them. The first-person narrator is engaged to chronicle the project. The absurdity of the premise seems to be irrelevant to the development of the story.
Let me acknowledge candidly that the book seems to require a lot more prior knowledge than I bring to it: an awareness of Italian history, politics, and culture that I simply don't have. As I went on, I saw this as a disadvantage because I don't have a way to think about most of the events that Eco writes about, other than what I've gleaned from more or less random readings about Fascist Italy in the first half of the last century. Most of what I know about Europe in World War II has had a more northerly focus.
But this deficiency may be an illusion. On reflection, I'm not sure it matters because the little joke he's pulling on us would, I think, work just as well using any potentially controversial historical event that could appear different in the light of later discoveries. The art of retroactive prognostication seems to be a rather specialized undertaking.
What's of primary interest here, then, is the exposure of journalistic conjuring tricks that might well be working in anything we read, and especially in any medium that delivers news to the public.
I had prior acquaintance with some of them and have even used one or two of them myself (although, I hasten to add, not to con or deceive) in the course of editing several newsletters over a period of years. But I have never seen them presented quite so baldly or cynically. For example, one of the writers questions the overuse of exaggerated language. The narrator replies:
"No," I said, "these are precisely the expressions readers expect, that's what newspapers have accustomed them to. Readers understand what's going on only if you tell them we're in a no-go situation, the government is forecasting blood and tears, the road is all uphill..." (page 83)
There follow two pages of clichés, which lead directly into a discussion of the effects of governments' and institutions' apologizing for something, and how it plays in the press.
How to foster suspicion, how to create innuendo, how to intimidate public figures, and other functions of newspapers are neatly revealed through candid dialogue among the staff.
These particulars are potentially both entertaining and enlightening. Most of us know better than to trust the news media very far, but we may have wondered how to recognize the ways in which we're being manipulated. This book might make us a little bit sharper.
I found the whole secondary narrative, however, tedious and stifling. The wall-to-wall monologues that go on for pages with scarcely a paragraph break, as one character reports to another the results of his exhaustive investigation into the death of Mussolini, seem almost like a literary shaggy-dog story. Was this all an elaborate setup for what I took to be an author's prank disguised as philosophy and political history? Or did I just miss the point entirely?
I honestly don't know. And maybe I'll be embarrassed once I read what others have written about this book. (I don't look before posting my own comments.) But that, at any rate, is how it appears to me. And so I have to say truthfully that I'm insufficiently impressed. A waffly rating of three stars is the best I can do.
Extended review:
I hardly know what to say about this last work of the late author, who died two days after I finished reading it. It isn't really a novel. In a way it reminds me of some sacred texts of various religions: a
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little bit of story to provide context--and pretext--and then long, long speeches on matters of supposedly great pith and moment. Setting the sermon or the polemic within a narrative framework makes it more palatable, I suppose, and also allows the author to remain at one remove from the content; perhaps to ascribe it to a greater authority than his own, or else just to make it plausibly deniable.The fictional situation, in barest terms, is that a group of journalists of somewhat dubious repute are hired to put together back-dated issues of a newspaper that will never be published. It will exist only to make certain prospective readers uncomfortable, for purposes of influencing them. The first-person narrator is engaged to chronicle the project. The absurdity of the premise seems to be irrelevant to the development of the story.
Let me acknowledge candidly that the book seems to require a lot more prior knowledge than I bring to it: an awareness of Italian history, politics, and culture that I simply don't have. As I went on, I saw this as a disadvantage because I don't have a way to think about most of the events that Eco writes about, other than what I've gleaned from more or less random readings about Fascist Italy in the first half of the last century. Most of what I know about Europe in World War II has had a more northerly focus.
But this deficiency may be an illusion. On reflection, I'm not sure it matters because the little joke he's pulling on us would, I think, work just as well using any potentially controversial historical event that could appear different in the light of later discoveries. The art of retroactive prognostication seems to be a rather specialized undertaking.
What's of primary interest here, then, is the exposure of journalistic conjuring tricks that might well be working in anything we read, and especially in any medium that delivers news to the public.
I had prior acquaintance with some of them and have even used one or two of them myself (although, I hasten to add, not to con or deceive) in the course of editing several newsletters over a period of years. But I have never seen them presented quite so baldly or cynically. For example, one of the writers questions the overuse of exaggerated language. The narrator replies:
"No," I said, "these are precisely the expressions readers expect, that's what newspapers have accustomed them to. Readers understand what's going on only if you tell them we're in a no-go situation, the government is forecasting blood and tears, the road is all uphill..." (page 83)
There follow two pages of clichés, which lead directly into a discussion of the effects of governments' and institutions' apologizing for something, and how it plays in the press.
How to foster suspicion, how to create innuendo, how to intimidate public figures, and other functions of newspapers are neatly revealed through candid dialogue among the staff.
These particulars are potentially both entertaining and enlightening. Most of us know better than to trust the news media very far, but we may have wondered how to recognize the ways in which we're being manipulated. This book might make us a little bit sharper.
I found the whole secondary narrative, however, tedious and stifling. The wall-to-wall monologues that go on for pages with scarcely a paragraph break, as one character reports to another the results of his exhaustive investigation into the death of Mussolini, seem almost like a literary shaggy-dog story. Was this all an elaborate setup for what I took to be an author's prank disguised as philosophy and political history? Or did I just miss the point entirely?
I honestly don't know. And maybe I'll be embarrassed once I read what others have written about this book. (I don't look before posting my own comments.) But that, at any rate, is how it appears to me. And so I have to say truthfully that I'm insufficiently impressed. A waffly rating of three stars is the best I can do.
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LibraryThing member JBD1
I will read pretty much anything Umberto Eco publishes, and I'm always delighted when a new novel of his appears in English. In this one, much slimmer than his usual offerings, Eco returns to his frequent themes of conspiracy theories, Italian politics, media criticism, and biting satire of
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journalistic practices and ethics. I suspect those with more knowledge of Italian media and politics may get more out of this one than I did, but the connections to Berlusconi's rise to power are veiled thinly enough even for me to catch. Hilariously funny in many places, and spot-on with much of its evisceration of modern media practices, this is very much worth a read if you're interested in Eco's themes. Show Less
LibraryThing member Limelite
There is little to praise in this concoction of conspiracies except to say that when Eco nests a story within the story of his book, he does so seamlessly. This very short work is a book about a group of losers brought together to serve a master who is conspiring to blackmail powerful politicians
The central character who tells this story is himself told a conspiracy tale by a colleague concerning a conspiracy to deceive the world with Mussolini's faked death, sequester him in Argentina, and return him to Italy and "life" when a fascist figurehead is needed to assure the success of right wing extremists' plans to take over the Italian government, if not the world. It is the protagonist's job to write the "history" of all that occurs while their conspiracy to create a newspaper devoted to recycling information unfolds, resulting in the election of their master who is intimated to be associated with the conspirators' ultimately unsuccessful effort..
The book lacks motivated action, true plot, and character development. But it does tease the reader as to its purpose, beyond weaving together nested conspiracies. The best light one can shine on Numero Zero is that Eco wanted to show how the average man can easily succumb to conspiracies when actual news is subsumed by concocted information; when one wealthy person controls the non-news to make sure it is a useful tool for him, and how a grizzled insider (a reporter) can be seduced by the cocktail of coincidence and imagination and fall prey to conspiratorial thinking himself.
The thrill in this advertised thriller happens when a member of the staff is stabbed to death in an alley; it is the narrator's colleague who has been spinning the story of what 'really" happened to Mussolini. By a twist of fate and the turn of the TV dial, it becomes apparent that the dead man's death is not a consequence of his involvement in "uncovering" this conspiracy. In fact, he may have just decided to recycle a BBC documentary to which he had advance access into a non-story that would be fit to print in issue "Numero 0" of the company of losers' nonexistent newspaper. End of thrill.
None of this is sufficient to make a novel. I'm disappointed that Eco saw fit to send this to his publisher. I'm even more disappointed that they saw fit to publish it. Unless, of course, Eco is tweaking us with his non-novel that he knows is not a novel and knows should not be understood as a one, but as a piece of meta-fiction. Wish I could.
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and public figures so that he can be elected to office by using a fictitious newspaper that will publish fictitious news, incriminating rumors, and useless information but will never be distributed.The central character who tells this story is himself told a conspiracy tale by a colleague concerning a conspiracy to deceive the world with Mussolini's faked death, sequester him in Argentina, and return him to Italy and "life" when a fascist figurehead is needed to assure the success of right wing extremists' plans to take over the Italian government, if not the world. It is the protagonist's job to write the "history" of all that occurs while their conspiracy to create a newspaper devoted to recycling information unfolds, resulting in the election of their master who is intimated to be associated with the conspirators' ultimately unsuccessful effort..
The book lacks motivated action, true plot, and character development. But it does tease the reader as to its purpose, beyond weaving together nested conspiracies. The best light one can shine on Numero Zero is that Eco wanted to show how the average man can easily succumb to conspiracies when actual news is subsumed by concocted information; when one wealthy person controls the non-news to make sure it is a useful tool for him, and how a grizzled insider (a reporter) can be seduced by the cocktail of coincidence and imagination and fall prey to conspiratorial thinking himself.
The thrill in this advertised thriller happens when a member of the staff is stabbed to death in an alley; it is the narrator's colleague who has been spinning the story of what 'really" happened to Mussolini. By a twist of fate and the turn of the TV dial, it becomes apparent that the dead man's death is not a consequence of his involvement in "uncovering" this conspiracy. In fact, he may have just decided to recycle a BBC documentary to which he had advance access into a non-story that would be fit to print in issue "Numero 0" of the company of losers' nonexistent newspaper. End of thrill.
None of this is sufficient to make a novel. I'm disappointed that Eco saw fit to send this to his publisher. I'm even more disappointed that they saw fit to publish it. Unless, of course, Eco is tweaking us with his non-novel that he knows is not a novel and knows should not be understood as a one, but as a piece of meta-fiction. Wish I could.
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LibraryThing member AnnieMod
The latest novel by Eco (and his death a little while after I read it made it also his last) consists of two narratives - separated by decades but still managing to weave around each other.
In the present (which Eco sets at the early 1990s), a newspaper editor is contracted to create a new
And when bad things start happening, an old story emerges - the story of Mussolini and the end of the war; a story that may or may not have been. I do not know enough about Italian history to know how much of that story is true and how much is invented by Eco (or other authors) but the story reads as one that could have been, maybe even one that had been.
The story in the 90s is an exploration of the power of news and responsibility of the press. Setting it at these time allows the research and the printing to be based on the old technologies; it also makes sure that there are no blogs and internet sites that publish when the news break - after all this is as close as we are getting to the news written from the future. If you look at this this way, one wonders if this is not what Eco was planning altogether - putting the story in the 90s makes a bit more sense. But it still does not fully succeed - it gets too long and almost boring at places. The Italy of the 90s is coming alive in the text and that helps - but it still is a bit too thin.
On the other hand, the past story is fascinating and for me, that story makes the whole book worth reading. I suspect that I will be revisiting this book in the future - it may not have as many layers as some of his earlier ones but I have a suspicion that I missed some of the ones that are in the book.
I would not recommend that as the first Eco book to read but if you enjoy his style, it is a decent addition to his works.
In the present (which Eco sets at the early 1990s), a newspaper editor is contracted to create a new
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newspaper. But it is an unusual paper - instead of publishing real test issues, they are instructed to publish the yesterday's news, with yesterday's date - as if they were writing at the day the news happened but the knowledge and the understanding of the day after that. As can be expected, this allows them to print things that noone had never had a chance to - foreknowledge is important. Noone will ever really publish those issues and it is not very clear why they are done this way - the editor may have an idea, his team is really in the dark. And when bad things start happening, an old story emerges - the story of Mussolini and the end of the war; a story that may or may not have been. I do not know enough about Italian history to know how much of that story is true and how much is invented by Eco (or other authors) but the story reads as one that could have been, maybe even one that had been.
The story in the 90s is an exploration of the power of news and responsibility of the press. Setting it at these time allows the research and the printing to be based on the old technologies; it also makes sure that there are no blogs and internet sites that publish when the news break - after all this is as close as we are getting to the news written from the future. If you look at this this way, one wonders if this is not what Eco was planning altogether - putting the story in the 90s makes a bit more sense. But it still does not fully succeed - it gets too long and almost boring at places. The Italy of the 90s is coming alive in the text and that helps - but it still is a bit too thin.
On the other hand, the past story is fascinating and for me, that story makes the whole book worth reading. I suspect that I will be revisiting this book in the future - it may not have as many layers as some of his earlier ones but I have a suspicion that I missed some of the ones that are in the book.
I would not recommend that as the first Eco book to read but if you enjoy his style, it is a decent addition to his works.
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LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I love a good, complex conspiracy theory. I seldom believe them, but I love exploring them and speculating about Machiavellian schemes. So does Umberto Eco. His primary career is as Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna, and there is clearly an osmosis between that and his work as a
Colonna, having nothing better on the horizon, recruits a group of colleagues to help prepare their pseudo stories. This gives Eco the opportunity to parody some hardy perennials in the newspaper publishing world. One of the journalists recruited by Colonna, is Braggadocio, an investigative report who is himself a bit of an addict of the conspiracy theory. Having given an impassioned analysis of the proliferation of faux Masonic fraternities operating in Milan over the last century, Braggadocio turns to a more current investigation, and tries to convince Colonna of his potentially explosive theories about the conclusion of the Second World War, and a conspiracy permeating every level of Italian society.
More accessible than many of his novels, this is a relatively easy read, and utterly gripping. My knowledge of post-war Italian history is non-existent, but Eco has made me want to look into it in detail, if only to appreciate the twists and turns in this novel even more fully.
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novelist. He has already deconstructed the conspiracy theory with great verve in 'Foucault's Pendulum', a sprawling essay in lateral thinking that both predated and outperformed Dan Brown' 'The Da Vinci Code'. He revisits the genre again, more concisely and prosaically, in his latest novel, 'Numero Zero'. Set in 1992 the book represents the recollections of Colonna, a cynical hack journalist, who is offered a post to help in the preparations of a dummy newspaper for a successful businessman who is considering entering into that field.Colonna, having nothing better on the horizon, recruits a group of colleagues to help prepare their pseudo stories. This gives Eco the opportunity to parody some hardy perennials in the newspaper publishing world. One of the journalists recruited by Colonna, is Braggadocio, an investigative report who is himself a bit of an addict of the conspiracy theory. Having given an impassioned analysis of the proliferation of faux Masonic fraternities operating in Milan over the last century, Braggadocio turns to a more current investigation, and tries to convince Colonna of his potentially explosive theories about the conclusion of the Second World War, and a conspiracy permeating every level of Italian society.
More accessible than many of his novels, this is a relatively easy read, and utterly gripping. My knowledge of post-war Italian history is non-existent, but Eco has made me want to look into it in detail, if only to appreciate the twists and turns in this novel even more fully.
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LibraryThing member Romonko
I absolutely loved The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It still remains on my top 10 book list, but this book? I didn't get it, didn't understand any of it, and didn't finish it.
LibraryThing member renbedell
I love a good conspiracy theory story, but this one fell very flat for me. Instead of reading a story of a conspiracy theory happening, with mystery and suspense, it is written like I'm just having a conversation with a friend about his crazy ideas. For the most part it is boring, the characters
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are pointless, and the plot is a guy talking to another guy. Possibly if I knew more about Italian history this may have been more interesting. The narrator, David Colacci, does a decent job for the most part, but you can feel that he is a bit uninspired. Show Less
LibraryThing member ozzer
NUMERO UNO is a satire of Italian politics and modern media strategies wrapped in Eco’s trademark conspiracy motif. The plot revolves around a fanciful attempt to bilk a wealthy investor with aspirations of becoming a media mogul—vaguely evocative of Berlusconi. The farfetched idea is to make
Eco assembles a cast of characters who have been working on the fringes of real journalism and spends an inordinate amount of time having them sit around brainstorming about possible bogus stories for Domani. These characters are interesting enough, but the novel is so short that none are never really well developed. Moreover, the potential stories seem fanciful and none are developed enough to really enjoy the humor that they might have stimulated.
The narrator is Colonna, a middle-aged hack, who has been involved on the fringes of real journalism for his entire career. He is hired to ghostwrite an autobiography, a task that never really materializes. Eco introduces this idea, which shows some promise, but instead abruptly drops it.
The novel takes on a more threatening tone when Braggadocio, one of Domani’s staff, stumbles onto a plot involving the death of Mussolini and a subsequent conspiracy that involves all sorts of outlandish plots involving murder and political machinations. The outcome of the novel seems to suggest that there may have been a grain of truth in Braggadocio’s finding, but it is never resolved.
In addition to all of the conspiracy talk, the novel has a romance of sorts, but like the rest of it, this seems too superficial to be taken seriously.
This short novel leaves one with the impression of an unfinished work that could have been quite interesting if Eco had invested the effort required to achieve that end. However, as the jazzmen say: “That's All There Is! There Ain't No More!”
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up stories that have a ring of truth and are vaguely threatening to this investor’s friends, associates and financial wellbeing. Domani—this is the name of the fictitious publication—will purport to publish these investigative pieces, but in fact will be just using them to extort lira from their mark. Eco assembles a cast of characters who have been working on the fringes of real journalism and spends an inordinate amount of time having them sit around brainstorming about possible bogus stories for Domani. These characters are interesting enough, but the novel is so short that none are never really well developed. Moreover, the potential stories seem fanciful and none are developed enough to really enjoy the humor that they might have stimulated.
The narrator is Colonna, a middle-aged hack, who has been involved on the fringes of real journalism for his entire career. He is hired to ghostwrite an autobiography, a task that never really materializes. Eco introduces this idea, which shows some promise, but instead abruptly drops it.
The novel takes on a more threatening tone when Braggadocio, one of Domani’s staff, stumbles onto a plot involving the death of Mussolini and a subsequent conspiracy that involves all sorts of outlandish plots involving murder and political machinations. The outcome of the novel seems to suggest that there may have been a grain of truth in Braggadocio’s finding, but it is never resolved.
In addition to all of the conspiracy talk, the novel has a romance of sorts, but like the rest of it, this seems too superficial to be taken seriously.
This short novel leaves one with the impression of an unfinished work that could have been quite interesting if Eco had invested the effort required to achieve that end. However, as the jazzmen say: “That's All There Is! There Ain't No More!”
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LibraryThing member indygo88
Despite having a couple of Umberto Eco's novels on my TBR pile, I'd not yet actually read any of his works prior to this one. My impression was that Eco was a respected novelist, and I'm well aware that his The Name of the Rose has received many rave reviews. Numero Zero is more of a novella, and
I'm not sure what happened with this one. In short, it's awful. I read another review which describes this book as satire, and at a very long stretch, that might be the case, but if it is so, it's executed very poorly. The book was basically pointless rambling about the creation of a pseudo Italian newspaper with some questionable conspiracy theory thrown in. It was just very odd and made no sense to me whatsoever. The reader of the audiobook was mediocre, but he drove me crazy when using his female character voice. The only reason I finished this book was because it was short. And honestly, I really only half-listened to most of it. I rarely give up on a book & I rarely rate a book this low, but this one fit the bill.
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in this case, a 5-disc audiobook.I'm not sure what happened with this one. In short, it's awful. I read another review which describes this book as satire, and at a very long stretch, that might be the case, but if it is so, it's executed very poorly. The book was basically pointless rambling about the creation of a pseudo Italian newspaper with some questionable conspiracy theory thrown in. It was just very odd and made no sense to me whatsoever. The reader of the audiobook was mediocre, but he drove me crazy when using his female character voice. The only reason I finished this book was because it was short. And honestly, I really only half-listened to most of it. I rarely give up on a book & I rarely rate a book this low, but this one fit the bill.
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LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
This was well-written and started right in on the thriller, but then it became more about the politics and manipulation behind the newspaper business with a plausible conspiracy theory thrown in, but not much plot.
LibraryThing member eachurch
Billed as a conspiracy thriller, ‘Numero Zero’, is the portray of a rather loopy conspiracy theory. Unfortunately, it has almost no narrative drive. It consists almost entirely of one person telling another person about something that has happened. Usually a thriller involves suspense and
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action, two elements which are sorely lacking here. As a satirical poke at Italy’s former Prime Minister it is more successful, and the premise of setting up a fake newspaper for blackmail purposes is rather entertaining, but overall it falls flat. Show Less
LibraryThing member seeword
Way too convoluted unless you know Italian politics and like conspiracy theories (or spoofs thereof). Library book.
LibraryThing member vnesting
This was an interesting book to listen to. Eco is a remarkably talented writer and the narrator on the audiobook did a good job. But all the Italian political intrigue went over my head and the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying. I received a copy of this audiobook through the LibraryThing Early
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Reviewers program in return for my honest review. Show Less
LibraryThing member tututhefirst
I am posting only to fulfill an obligation to the Early Review program of LT. While I enjoyed The Year of the Rose long ago when I read it, I have never been able to finish any of Eco's subsequent works, and this one is no exception. I could not understand the premise, couldn't warm to the
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characters, and found the story line and setting flat, uninspiring and sadly, not worth my time. I have donated the audio book to my local library hoping that someone else will decide it is worthy of reading. Not for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member dono421846
This spin on Italian political history of the post-WWII years is probably targeted to Italians. Eco offers long disquisitions about events that make better sense to those who lived them, than to outside readers to whom this is all strange and unfamiliar. As far as I can tell the major thrust of the
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story--spies, secret organizations, political intrigues--is based on actual events. For example, there was indeed a 1992 BBC documentary on Operation Gladio. Around the story of Mussolini's possible survival Eco includes a rich if long background story of a fake newspaper. Some of the dialogue is more monologue, with long strings of facts or random opinions and observations. The overall effect is interesting, but in truth these casual and ultimately pointless conversations overshadow the dramatic sequences that are intended to drive the action forward. Show Less
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
Well, that was an alright read, with some interesting content... but it's not going to go down in history as one of Eco's major novels. As a matter of fact, I hesitate to classify it as a novel. It's more like one of Eco's essays, fleshed out with a bit of plot.
The premise: in 1990s Italy, a
The plot summary makes the book sound a bit more exciting than it is. The majority of it is commentary on the news media and its place and function in our society. There are some very funny, witty and insightful bits - but I feel like I probably missed some of it, due to it being very clearly intended for an Italian audience. The 1990s setting made it also feel strangely out-of-date: with the advent of the internet, news reporting has changed a LOT, and it seems like Eco intentionally put his story in the past because he didn't want to deal with any of that at all. it would have required a more complex book, because the dynamics between publisher, journalist, subject and audience which this book deals with are all affected by the changes that have happened over the past decades.
The premise: in 1990s Italy, a
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journalist, Colonna, is hired to work at a news magazine that, he's told up front, will never actually be published. The concept will instead be used to achieve the publisher's political ends, by making certain parties afraid of what the paper MIGHT choose to expose, when it launches. But of course, to make it look like a real business, staffers are required. A motley crew of media misfits are assembled. However, one of them, the paranoid Braggadocio, comes up with a far-fetched conspiracy theory involving military scandal and secrets reaching right up to the Vatican. The idea seems like pure fantasy - but when a very real murder occurs, it seem like someone might want Braggadocio's ideas kept silent. As someone who's known to have listened to his stories, Colonna is now in fear for his life...The plot summary makes the book sound a bit more exciting than it is. The majority of it is commentary on the news media and its place and function in our society. There are some very funny, witty and insightful bits - but I feel like I probably missed some of it, due to it being very clearly intended for an Italian audience. The 1990s setting made it also feel strangely out-of-date: with the advent of the internet, news reporting has changed a LOT, and it seems like Eco intentionally put his story in the past because he didn't want to deal with any of that at all. it would have required a more complex book, because the dynamics between publisher, journalist, subject and audience which this book deals with are all affected by the changes that have happened over the past decades.
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LibraryThing member mamzel
Should I consider it a coincidence or a conspiracy that I finished this book on the same day the new X-Files series started. It felt like I had conspiracy theorists up to my chin!
Colonna is a writer who starts to work for a new newspaper called Domani. The idea of the publisher is to print
Most of the book is Colonna's boss going on and on about what really happened with Mussolini and Pope Paul I. Nothing that was reported is true. Everything is a big government conspiracy. Etc. Etc. Etc. No idea was too remote or utterly stupid to be considered truth. The only thing they knew was that what had been reported was not truth.
The narrator reminded me of George Carlin with his gravelly and cynical tone. It was pretty much the same for every speaker except for when he was the voice for Colonna's girlfriend. And my opinion of George Carlin is that he is great - in small amounts at a time.
This might appeal to someone with more background in Italian history than me.
Colonna is a writer who starts to work for a new newspaper called Domani. The idea of the publisher is to print
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yesterday's news with yesterday's date today so that everyone would think the paper foretold the future. No conspiracy there!Most of the book is Colonna's boss going on and on about what really happened with Mussolini and Pope Paul I. Nothing that was reported is true. Everything is a big government conspiracy. Etc. Etc. Etc. No idea was too remote or utterly stupid to be considered truth. The only thing they knew was that what had been reported was not truth.
The narrator reminded me of George Carlin with his gravelly and cynical tone. It was pretty much the same for every speaker except for when he was the voice for Colonna's girlfriend. And my opinion of George Carlin is that he is great - in small amounts at a time.
This might appeal to someone with more background in Italian history than me.
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LibraryThing member Dreesie
I loved the buildup and idea of this novel: creating a newspaper that will guess/investigate upcoming scandals. But it's not meant to ever exist--it is meant to get the creator/owner into the "inner circle" of publishers. By scaring the existing paper publishers with his incredible newspaper that
It all sounds so absurd.
And then one of the editors begins researching a conspiracy theory involving Mussolini, his double, the WWII left-behinds, the CIA, the Vatican, Argentina, etc. His fellow staff think it sounds crazy (and suspect he is crazy).
Great build up, but I found the ending to be a let down. That guy ends up dead. Was it random, or did the CIA/Mafia shut him up? "Paper" is shuttered. But then the BBC has a documentary that is even crazier than his theories--complete with participant interviews. So was his murder random after all?
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will not report what has happened, but what might happen. And to do this, his team will create 12 "fake" papers based on past dates. Because it's easy to predict the news when it is in the past. And the paper isn't really the point at all--it's actually to be a book on the fake paper that will be ghostwritten by one of the staff. Only the editor and the staff writer know this. It all sounds so absurd.
And then one of the editors begins researching a conspiracy theory involving Mussolini, his double, the WWII left-behinds, the CIA, the Vatican, Argentina, etc. His fellow staff think it sounds crazy (and suspect he is crazy).
Great build up, but I found the ending to be a let down. That guy ends up dead. Was it random, or did the CIA/Mafia shut him up? "Paper" is shuttered. But then the BBC has a documentary that is even crazier than his theories--complete with participant interviews. So was his murder random after all?
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LibraryThing member Opinionated
So in the general context of Eco's oeuvre this is pretty light fare - what Grahame Greene would have classed an "entertainment". But as a final sally from the pen of one of Europe's last true public intellectuals its still pretty powerful. The novel is a kick in the pants to three key targets.
Not Eco's best book but better than most. We'll miss him
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Firstly the Italian press, a body Eco is well familiar with having been a columnist for many years - he portrays them as controlled by vested interests, manipulating public opinion, cynical in the extreme. Secondly the status quo - dismissive of younger and more diverse voices, as represented by the young journalist Maie. And finally Italian government as a whole. The whole Mussolini conspiracy thread is clearly farcical - and yet, Eco suggests, it could be true. How can you logically explain the dead hand of the elites on public life, without a good conspiracy to explain it? Possibly this book has more resonance to Italian readers than non Italian but for the rest of us, its still entertaining enough - Eco is back in familiar territory weaving true events into a silky cogent thread of conspiracy . Yes the love scenes are a bit clunky but overall we are still hooked in. Not Eco's best book but better than most. We'll miss him
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LibraryThing member bookworm12
A light thriller from a famous author, this one fell a little flat for me. It reminded me at times of Carl Hiaasen's Basket Case, but I enjoyed that one more. The premise is overly complicated. A man wants to create a fake newspaper that will investigate scandals in Italy. There's a romance with a
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younger woman and a mystery involving the possible faking of Mussolini's death. There were amusing moments, but not enough to leave a lasting impression. Read The Name of the Rose instead for a much more fulfilling mystery. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This is so bad.
I love Eco, but this book is really really bad.
Let me sum up the entire book in one short sentence: [spoiler]Main character meets a guy who tells him his conspiracy theory, and then when they guy is murdered the main character is afraid he might get murdered too because he knows the
To add insult to injury, on top of this totally asinine and non-existent plot, we have the awful trope of middle-aged mediocre dude wins the gorgeous young brainiac woman for no apparent reason.
I love Eco, but this book is really really bad.
Let me sum up the entire book in one short sentence: [spoiler]Main character meets a guy who tells him his conspiracy theory, and then when they guy is murdered the main character is afraid he might get murdered too because he knows the
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guy's conspiracy theory, but then he sees a BBC documentary about the same conspiracy theory so everything must be okay.[/spoiler]To add insult to injury, on top of this totally asinine and non-existent plot, we have the awful trope of middle-aged mediocre dude wins the gorgeous young brainiac woman for no apparent reason.
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LibraryThing member Charon07
Reminiscent of my favorite book, Foucault's Pendulum, in that it involves convoluted conspiracies and a man who knows too much, but sadly, it’s nowhere near as good. It does, however, make a satisfying jab at people’s apathy and acceptance of “fake news.”
LibraryThing member Castlelass
Having read and liked The Name of the Rose, I decided to try another book by Umberto Eco. This book is not in the same league. It satirizes conspiracy theories and the manipulation of the populace to believe in them. The premise sounded promising – the possibility that a body double was
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assassinated instead of Mussolini. Unfortunately, the execution falls flat. It reads like contemporary fiction, which I was not expecting. The romance is insipid. The plot is scattered, skipping to different scenes with little context, so it was sometimes difficult to keep track of what was going on. It is short and reads almost like a screenplay, except the dialogue is long and rambling. I just did not connect with it. Show Less
LibraryThing member steve02476
Some good writing and humor, but kind of disappointing. I lot of the stuff that was supposed to be funny seemed pretty weak. Three and a half stars, I guess.
Awards
John Florio Prize for Italian Translation (Commended — 2016)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Fiction — 2015)
Language
Original language
Italian
Original publication date
2015-11-15
Physical description
191 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
9780544635081