Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Mariner Books (2006), Paperback, 480 pages
Description
When book dealer Yambo suffers amnesia, he loses all sense of who he is, but retains memories of all the books, poems, songs and movies he has ever experienced. To reclaim his identity, he retreats to the family home and rummaged through the old letters, photographs and mementos stored in the attic. Yambo's mind swirls with thoughts, and he struggles to retrieve the one memory that may be most sacred--that of Lila Saba, his first love.
User reviews
LibraryThing member comfypants
Disappointing. The concept seemed good -- a man loses his personal memory, has no identity, but can remember every word he's ever read. For about the first third of the book, it's good. Then the protagonist spends the second third of the book doing nothing but reading books and listening to music
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from his childhood, which is even more boring than it sounds. It starts to pick up in the last third, as his memories begin to return and he relives them. But then the ending is a dream sequence, which is just horribly anti-climactic. It's a lot like an old surrealist art-house film. Show Less
LibraryThing member libraryhermit
I am a huge fan of Umberto Eco. I also am in awe of the writers and illustrators of comic books, illustrated books for children, graphic novels, and serial fiction publications of any sort. But I still had a very difficult time understanding what this book was all about. I will have to go back and
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try again. I guess it would help if I understood Italian, instead of reading it in an English translation, even though I am sure the translation is of a very high standard. I wonder if other people feel that The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum were the peaks in quality of the literary production of Umberto Eco, and that somehow the novels that came after might not be of quite such a high quality. But that does not really matter. Eco is not bound to produce clones of his earlier books. He is fully entitled to do whatever he wants next. So I should just quit complaining and read another Dan Brown book if I am so hungry to read a thriller novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member billiecat
The only section of this book that got me interested in turning the page was a section in which the narrator recounted his experiences as a child during the waning days of World War II. For the rest of it, there is little 'plot' and less as the story enters its last third. By the time we get to the
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unveiling of 'Queen Loana', you couldn't care less about it, so the abrupt ending is hardly a disappointment - more a release. While the book does enter some interesting sidestreets exploring the ephemera of Italian life in the first half of the 20th Century, as a novel, this is a failure. Show Less
LibraryThing member lkernagh
I approached this one with some trepidation. My struggles with The Name of the Rose had me a little worried I would struggle with this one, too. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a story that started out sharp and witty with accessible prose. Sadly, I found the story gets bogged down
Overall, I have not completely given up on Eco - I did finish this one, so that is something! - so at some point I will either re-attempt [The Name of the Rose] or tackle something different of his, but not right away.
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in the middle as Yambo is fixated on retrieving his childhood memories of growing up in Fascist Italy. For me, the best part of this story is the first part where we get to experience with Yambo everything from learning once again what tea is ("drink it slowly, don't gulp it") and other common place experiences that are suddenly new due to Yambo's episodic memory loss. Also, in the first part is some wonderful witticism and word play dialogue between Yambo and his wife (who is a psychologist - or psychiatrist - and seems grounded in helping Yambo deal with his memory loss). The extensive references to popular culture, and comic books in particular, reminded me a lot of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a book I appreciated for its literary merits but failed to be "wowed" by it as a reader. Same experience with this book: I can appreciate Eco's skill as a writer and a storyteller, but by the end I was quite happy to be finished and move on to something else. I think my lack of enjoyment is in part due to the abundant use of intertextuality (yes, I had to look this up), turning the story into more than just a story when all I want to do is read a story, if that makes any sense. Overall, I have not completely given up on Eco - I did finish this one, so that is something! - so at some point I will either re-attempt [The Name of the Rose] or tackle something different of his, but not right away.
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LibraryThing member the_awesome_opossum
"Memory is a stopgap for humans, for whom time flies and what has passed is past." So says Yambo, an amnesiac who wakes up with no personal memories but with a retention of all the knowledge he has learned out of books. This becomes a hindrance to his very identity, so he delves back into all of
Yet Yambo must ultimately come to a more holistic self-identity, greater than the sum of its parts. He is an antiquarian who sells rare books, an embodiment of the way we try to grasp and preserve the past as something sacred. And it is, to some extent, but memory and identity are both necessarily dynamic and not tied to media or any other object. That is the "mysterious flame" of the title - as emotions and perceptions shift and grow, which is the "reality," what you experienced first or what you experienced upon reflection?
The illustrations were great; it made my reading experience feel more like looking through a scrapbook and added to a sense of memory as a multimedia and complex experience. If other reviewers would like to complain that Yambo's re-discovery of his childhood mementos made for a boring read, perhaps they should reconsider Eco's point of these scenes. Our identity is less tied up in what *happens* to us and more to how we react emotionally and grow during and after the experience.
Identity's a funny thing. Yambo's amnesia forces him to, artificially, reconstruct his sense of self - but at the same time, it evokes a mental and emotional growth in him as he works through this process, making himself into something both nostalgic and new.
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the media he has ever encountered to reclaim what once "made" him: academic material, children's books, pulp and comic books, his stamp collections.Yet Yambo must ultimately come to a more holistic self-identity, greater than the sum of its parts. He is an antiquarian who sells rare books, an embodiment of the way we try to grasp and preserve the past as something sacred. And it is, to some extent, but memory and identity are both necessarily dynamic and not tied to media or any other object. That is the "mysterious flame" of the title - as emotions and perceptions shift and grow, which is the "reality," what you experienced first or what you experienced upon reflection?
The illustrations were great; it made my reading experience feel more like looking through a scrapbook and added to a sense of memory as a multimedia and complex experience. If other reviewers would like to complain that Yambo's re-discovery of his childhood mementos made for a boring read, perhaps they should reconsider Eco's point of these scenes. Our identity is less tied up in what *happens* to us and more to how we react emotionally and grow during and after the experience.
Identity's a funny thing. Yambo's amnesia forces him to, artificially, reconstruct his sense of self - but at the same time, it evokes a mental and emotional growth in him as he works through this process, making himself into something both nostalgic and new.
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LibraryThing member murraymint11
A third of the way through the book, and I was REALLY struggling - so many quotations from literature I am unfamiliar with - I found it really hard work, and nearly gave up.
Half-way through, and it hooked me in more, references to life in Italy during the Second World War were interesting. Then the
Two-thirds of the way and although I will admit to skipping some paragraphs here and there, it looked like I would make it to the end.
Three-quarters of the way through, and Eco lost me again..... I'm guessing Yambo's had another stroke, but we seem to have entered another foggy 'dream' world where he's regained his childhood memory, and all is confusion again.
And the ending.... did he die, or not? To be honest, I don't really care. Just relieved to have finished the book.
Half-way through, and it hooked me in more, references to life in Italy during the Second World War were interesting. Then the
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discovery of the chapel room pulled me in a little further.Two-thirds of the way and although I will admit to skipping some paragraphs here and there, it looked like I would make it to the end.
Three-quarters of the way through, and Eco lost me again..... I'm guessing Yambo's had another stroke, but we seem to have entered another foggy 'dream' world where he's regained his childhood memory, and all is confusion again.
And the ending.... did he die, or not? To be honest, I don't really care. Just relieved to have finished the book.
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LibraryThing member grero
Umberto Ecco is one of my favourite authors and this book follows the others I've read by being brilliant, thoughtful, intricate and beautiful. The book is a testament to the fascist era of Italian history, but more than that an absolutely fascinating account of how ones own life might look when
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you yourself become a third party observer of it. As always, Ecco manages to create a wonderful mix of science, philosophy, psychology and history in an insightful and engaging story. Show Less
LibraryThing member lriley
Interesting that this book has already got several reviews. I love the format with all the photos and montages and memorabilia--the graphic art of Yambo the amnesiac bookseller trying to reconstruct his life beginning with his youth growing up in Mussolini's fascist Italy. Very nice story--a kind
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of non-violent detective story and the books format is excellent and it's worthwhile just scanning all the pictures even if you don't read it.. Show Less
LibraryThing member literarysarah
As I made my way through this book, I kept thinking to myself "This is Umberto Eco's best book yet!" Then I'd get bogged down in a bit of poetry or a narrative about Flash Gordon and I'd think "Perhaps it's not quite as good as Foucault's Pendulum." In the end I found it impossible to decide which
The narrative about a sixty year old Italian man who loses all personal memories as the result of a stroke seems touchingly personal. The narrator spends the first part of the book trying to comprehend what has happened to him. In the second part, he returns to his childhood home to rummage through the attic and rediscover his past through paper. In a heart-rending tradeoff, he is finally able to relive his memories but nothing else.
In a way, Eco is giving us three books in one: First, the intriguing novella about losing personal memories; Second, a rather eclectic review of literature and pop culture in 1940s Italy; Third, a gripping account of some of the most significant events in a young boy's life. By turns humorous and poignant, this wonderfully-illustrated book is definitely worth reading.
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was better (and perhaps it's irrelevant anyway).The narrative about a sixty year old Italian man who loses all personal memories as the result of a stroke seems touchingly personal. The narrator spends the first part of the book trying to comprehend what has happened to him. In the second part, he returns to his childhood home to rummage through the attic and rediscover his past through paper. In a heart-rending tradeoff, he is finally able to relive his memories but nothing else.
In a way, Eco is giving us three books in one: First, the intriguing novella about losing personal memories; Second, a rather eclectic review of literature and pop culture in 1940s Italy; Third, a gripping account of some of the most significant events in a young boy's life. By turns humorous and poignant, this wonderfully-illustrated book is definitely worth reading.
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LibraryThing member primalprayer
Initially I liked this book a lot. It grabbed me quickly. But after 160 pages (about 80 of them I skimmed through) I decided to quit the book. A good story put to waste as the only reader to find this interesting would be a 60 year old literary Italian.
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
I listened to it, and read it at the same time as it has many illustrations, and one would miss a lot by only listening to it. Actually, I’m wondering why my library decided to buy this particular book in its audio version, as it’s the most inappropriate of Eco’s works to have in this form.
The plot is rather simple. A man wakes up from a coma and finds out that even though he remembers thousands of books in detail, he is a complete amnesiac in his private life. He goes on a quest for his identity to his childhood home, and there re-lives his early life.
It was delightful at the beginning because of the numerous references to English literature, but as it went further, it became more and more bogged down with details I had no reference to that went back to Italy in the 30s and 40s of the twentieth century, to comic books, in which I am not really interested in, and people I have never heard of.
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They don’t have any others. Oh, well. I shouldn’t complain because I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t in the audio form. It just gets boring in the middle. The plot is rather simple. A man wakes up from a coma and finds out that even though he remembers thousands of books in detail, he is a complete amnesiac in his private life. He goes on a quest for his identity to his childhood home, and there re-lives his early life.
It was delightful at the beginning because of the numerous references to English literature, but as it went further, it became more and more bogged down with details I had no reference to that went back to Italy in the 30s and 40s of the twentieth century, to comic books, in which I am not really interested in, and people I have never heard of.
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LibraryThing member ragwaine
Interesting but not very exciting. Not much of a plot but cool ending.
LibraryThing member tronella
I do like Umberto Eco, and this book was at least as good as his others. It felt a little lighter to me than, say, The Name of the Rose, which made it a quicker read than I'd expected, but it was still excellent.
This one is about a 60-year-old Italian man who, at the beginning of the book, wakes up
This one is about a 60-year-old Italian man who, at the beginning of the book, wakes up
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in a hospital with amnesia. The most part of the book follows him searching through the attic of the house he lived in during World War 2, rereading books, comics, school notebooks and so on in an attempt to remember his past. Very interesting... as it says, what he finds is more the story of his generation than his personal story, but it provides Mr. Eco with a great opportunity to write long lists, as he seems to love to do. It was strange to read a novel with colour illustrations - strips from the comics he used to read, book covers, record sleeves, his old stamp collection - but it added to the atmosphere really well. Show Less
LibraryThing member leore_joanne
[close] I expected a lot from this book when I bought it, and I have to say that I was quite dissappointed.
I liked the lead character a lot, and the offset for the plot was excellent, but it seemed to me that he (Eco)didn't play around enough with all the possibilities which his character's
At Solara, the idea of trying to recover his history by surrounding himself with his childhood things was very appealing to me, but at some point I got sick of rummaging through old vinyl discs and stamp collections with him. I enjoyed the stories about the books, but these too grew old after a while. Though it was interesting to learn about Facist Italy from the perspective of a boy.
*spoiler*
I liked the "twist" (since it's not really a twist), when he found the old book, had a stroke and started floating amongst his memories again.
It was very satisfying to finally understand who he is, and where he comes from. But what wasn't satisfying was the ending. The idea of all the characters from the comics and books which inhabited his life to come to him in his final moments is charming, but it also left me with a sour taste in my mouth, since the author left all the ends rather loose. I still would like to know what happened with the book he found.
Highlights - Gragnola (I think that was his name) and his long speech about why god is a facist sent me hollering.
Also, Yambo's musing about whether he's dreaming, or dreaming of dreaming, or perhaps just existing in a sort of suspended state, as just a brain floating in fluid into whom someone sends images as he wishes. Reminded me of the 'Matrix'.
So to sum it up - I wasn't too thrilled by this book, though it had its' moments.
Quote: "By war's end I had learned a great deal, not only how babies are born, but also how jews die".
7.5.07
I liked the lead character a lot, and the offset for the plot was excellent, but it seemed to me that he (Eco)didn't play around enough with all the possibilities which his character's
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situation allowed. At Solara, the idea of trying to recover his history by surrounding himself with his childhood things was very appealing to me, but at some point I got sick of rummaging through old vinyl discs and stamp collections with him. I enjoyed the stories about the books, but these too grew old after a while. Though it was interesting to learn about Facist Italy from the perspective of a boy.
*spoiler*
I liked the "twist" (since it's not really a twist), when he found the old book, had a stroke and started floating amongst his memories again.
It was very satisfying to finally understand who he is, and where he comes from. But what wasn't satisfying was the ending. The idea of all the characters from the comics and books which inhabited his life to come to him in his final moments is charming, but it also left me with a sour taste in my mouth, since the author left all the ends rather loose. I still would like to know what happened with the book he found.
Highlights - Gragnola (I think that was his name) and his long speech about why god is a facist sent me hollering.
Also, Yambo's musing about whether he's dreaming, or dreaming of dreaming, or perhaps just existing in a sort of suspended state, as just a brain floating in fluid into whom someone sends images as he wishes. Reminded me of the 'Matrix'.
So to sum it up - I wasn't too thrilled by this book, though it had its' moments.
Quote: "By war's end I had learned a great deal, not only how babies are born, but also how jews die".
7.5.07
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LibraryThing member SirRoger
An epic journey as we expect from Eco, but this time it's a journey through a man's forgotten memories of childhood, awakened by the power of the printed word.
LibraryThing member MarieTea
Author of The Name of the Rose
LibraryThing member benjclark
It was okay. I'm not sure why I didn't love it. I liked the illustrations, the story was well told. Eco was certainly throwing around names and characters I was not familiar with, so the many illustrations were a welcome addition. They also made me feel like I was looking over the shoulder of the
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main character. I certainly would have enjoyed a little more biblio- in this alleged biblionovel. I guess I went in with expectations, and they were not met. Show Less
LibraryThing member JenneB
This book was a lot like looking at slides from somebody's vacation. Interesting for a while, but goes on too long, and unless you were there, doesn't have much personal resonance.
I recommend this unreservedly to all elderly Italian men. They will be charmed and fascinated. Everyone else: the
I recommend this unreservedly to all elderly Italian men. They will be charmed and fascinated. Everyone else: the
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pictures are neat. Show Less
LibraryThing member fyoder
I actually didn't manage to finish this, something of a disappointment with regard to an author of this caliber. But being a book largely about a man going through things in an attic, it has all the suspense and interest of attending a relative's slide show. I think in casting this material in the
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form of a novel, Eco really missed the boat. What it needs to be is an interactive web site where people can sort through the attic's contents themselves according to their own interests -- viewing pictures, reading stories, and listening to audio clips. Show Less
LibraryThing member alice443
It took me a long time to get into this book and I really didn't quite get into it -- although by the end I was following it avidly. It is a bit too much of a "boys" book. Too much longing for a past that wasn't as it might be recollected.
LibraryThing member ffortsa
This is alternately lovely and very slow going. The sheer detail of WWi and post-war Italian cultural detail can be overwhelming - the personal interactions rendered sweetly and accurately - the one truly war-related story chilling. This is a late Eco book (maybe his last?) and you can see his
However, the ending was ultimately unsatisfying if relatively expected.
In brief, the story concerns a man who has had a stroke, and who may or may not be recovering from it, or merely remembering his life while dying of it. Hard to tell, even at the end, which way Eco means us to understand the circumstance.
The book does have some wonderful illustrations of those cultural artifacts the protagonist finds as he excavates his childhood, and more illustrations as he presents his more and more extraordinary dreams. Beautifully printed even in the trade paperback edition.
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semiotic love of detail and icon throughout.However, the ending was ultimately unsatisfying if relatively expected.
In brief, the story concerns a man who has had a stroke, and who may or may not be recovering from it, or merely remembering his life while dying of it. Hard to tell, even at the end, which way Eco means us to understand the circumstance.
The book does have some wonderful illustrations of those cultural artifacts the protagonist finds as he excavates his childhood, and more illustrations as he presents his more and more extraordinary dreams. Beautifully printed even in the trade paperback edition.
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LibraryThing member FPdC
In an effort to regain his lost memory after a stroke, the narrator revisits places, magazines and books of his infancy, and slowly reconstructs his roots in 1930's and 1940's Italy. This book by Eco, tinged with a fair amount of autobiographical stuff, is not only very intriguing, but visualy very
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beautiful due to the enormous amount of colour reproductions taken from book and record covers, magazines, objects, comic strips, that help the narrator reconstruct his emotial memory and give the book a distinct appearence, quite unlike any of Eco's other works. Show Less
LibraryThing member Joycepa
Sixty-year old rare book dealer Yampo wakes up in a hospital in Milan after a stroke with only one aftereffect—a complete loss of his personal memory. He can remember every line of every book he ever read, but does not know who he is, who his wife and children are, what he looks like, what he
What follows is a journey for Yampo into recovering his past. The process of recovering his immediate past—what his house looks like, where the bathroom is, how to find his way around the neighborhood—is very evocative, written from a perspective I never have considered personally. How would I go about first of all doing without, then recovering such personal details that I never once think about them or even that they exist? What would my reaction to seeing my face in the mirror for the first time be?
Some parts of that immediate recovery are really funny. For example, sex. He asks his wife if they made love, she answers “in moderation, mostly out of habit.” Later, when he recovers enough strength and they do have sex: “After all, it was my first time. It really is as good as they say.”
There follows a short dialogue so delicious that I will not ruin the sheer fun for anyone reading the book for the first time.
He discovers that in his studio, he employs a very beautiful young woman, Sibilla, feels attracted to her—and panics. What if he’s had an affair with her? How should he act? But then what if he didn’t? The whole scene is truly hilarious.
Finally, impatient with his lack of progress, he follows his wife’s urging and decides to spend time at his family’s home outside of Milan. There he spent critical years of his childhood during World War II, when his family evacuated Milan during the bombing. There Yampo hopes to reawaken his memories by going through old diaries, school notebooks, and other memorabilia stored in his ancestral home.
The book is subtitled: An Illustrated Novel. There is one drawing, the author’s right in the beginning, but when Yampo returns to his family home and starts rummaging around, we see photographs of all sorts of things: the cover of a treasured old comic book, of costume designs, of Napoleonic War toy soldiers—in color and in black-and-white as appropriate. As he delves deeper into his past, there are marvelous photographs of cocoa tins, old cigarette packs, Vogue posters of the late 20s, cartoons, covers of boys’ books popular in the 30s—a treasure trove of memorabilia. As Italy entered the war, there are photos of propaganda posters, Fascist Youth boys’ books—but record covers and movie posters as well. It’s eye-opening, as it reveals a childhood most of us never had. It’s breathtaking in its scope, and a veritable feast for the eyes and the imagination.
Yet the images are never there just for themselves but do indeed illuminate the life off the young boy and young teenager who entered the world through these means. Text and images are integrated, each complementing the other.
As Yampo progresses ever further into his past, he comes to notebooks and poems that reveal that he had a First Love who was also a Lost Love. This is really interesting, because the first time you run into that them with Eco is in Foucault’s Pendulum, where it is background material, although important, in one of the major character’s lives. In this book, it assumes major significance in Yampo’s life.
Also, as we accompany Yampo on his journey, there are words and images that resonate with Yampo, producing a feeling of a mysterious flame within him, a reaction he does not understand.
But in the last section of the book, we will understand as does Yampo when the flood gates of memory are opened and a secret he has carried since the war comes rushing to the fore, demonstrating its major influence on Yampo’s life. This, too, is a theme touched on in Foucault’s Pendulum and explored very deeply here. It’s so prominent and so interesting that Eco should choose to write about this type of experience in two major works 20 years apart that I wound up extremely curious as to what part such an experience might have played in Eco’s own life. the age he gives both characters—Belbo in Foucault’s Pendulum and Yambo in this book—is indeed Eco’s age, and he would have been exposed to the war at the same age as his protagonists.
The ending of the book is spectacular, both in the story and in the illustrations.
I finished this book both greatly satisfied and once again convinced that Eco is one of the major writers of our time, and also intensely curious about Italy under Mussolini. You can’t go for a month, I would think, without in some way or another being exposed to books, movies, articles, whatever about Nazi Germany in World War II, but this book brought home to me that there is very little in the popular literature about Italy during the same period. As a matter of fact, Italian Fascism pre-dated the German version. Previous to this book and to Foucault’s pendulum, I would have to say that I, an Italian-American who loves history, knew about Fascist Italy only in conjunction with the history of Nazi Germany and the interactions between the two countries in pursuing the war. A brief Internet search revealed what I had already suspected—that there is a real dearth of popular material on the topic.
I think that a great book pushes you in some way, either to consider moral questions or to increase your understanding of the world. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana did the latter for me. But regardless, this is a marvelous work of fiction, one of the best books I have read in many years.
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feels like (he has no memory of what his skin feels like)—in short, his whole personality is gone.What follows is a journey for Yampo into recovering his past. The process of recovering his immediate past—what his house looks like, where the bathroom is, how to find his way around the neighborhood—is very evocative, written from a perspective I never have considered personally. How would I go about first of all doing without, then recovering such personal details that I never once think about them or even that they exist? What would my reaction to seeing my face in the mirror for the first time be?
Some parts of that immediate recovery are really funny. For example, sex. He asks his wife if they made love, she answers “in moderation, mostly out of habit.” Later, when he recovers enough strength and they do have sex: “After all, it was my first time. It really is as good as they say.”
There follows a short dialogue so delicious that I will not ruin the sheer fun for anyone reading the book for the first time.
He discovers that in his studio, he employs a very beautiful young woman, Sibilla, feels attracted to her—and panics. What if he’s had an affair with her? How should he act? But then what if he didn’t? The whole scene is truly hilarious.
Finally, impatient with his lack of progress, he follows his wife’s urging and decides to spend time at his family’s home outside of Milan. There he spent critical years of his childhood during World War II, when his family evacuated Milan during the bombing. There Yampo hopes to reawaken his memories by going through old diaries, school notebooks, and other memorabilia stored in his ancestral home.
The book is subtitled: An Illustrated Novel. There is one drawing, the author’s right in the beginning, but when Yampo returns to his family home and starts rummaging around, we see photographs of all sorts of things: the cover of a treasured old comic book, of costume designs, of Napoleonic War toy soldiers—in color and in black-and-white as appropriate. As he delves deeper into his past, there are marvelous photographs of cocoa tins, old cigarette packs, Vogue posters of the late 20s, cartoons, covers of boys’ books popular in the 30s—a treasure trove of memorabilia. As Italy entered the war, there are photos of propaganda posters, Fascist Youth boys’ books—but record covers and movie posters as well. It’s eye-opening, as it reveals a childhood most of us never had. It’s breathtaking in its scope, and a veritable feast for the eyes and the imagination.
Yet the images are never there just for themselves but do indeed illuminate the life off the young boy and young teenager who entered the world through these means. Text and images are integrated, each complementing the other.
As Yampo progresses ever further into his past, he comes to notebooks and poems that reveal that he had a First Love who was also a Lost Love. This is really interesting, because the first time you run into that them with Eco is in Foucault’s Pendulum, where it is background material, although important, in one of the major character’s lives. In this book, it assumes major significance in Yampo’s life.
Also, as we accompany Yampo on his journey, there are words and images that resonate with Yampo, producing a feeling of a mysterious flame within him, a reaction he does not understand.
But in the last section of the book, we will understand as does Yampo when the flood gates of memory are opened and a secret he has carried since the war comes rushing to the fore, demonstrating its major influence on Yampo’s life. This, too, is a theme touched on in Foucault’s Pendulum and explored very deeply here. It’s so prominent and so interesting that Eco should choose to write about this type of experience in two major works 20 years apart that I wound up extremely curious as to what part such an experience might have played in Eco’s own life. the age he gives both characters—Belbo in Foucault’s Pendulum and Yambo in this book—is indeed Eco’s age, and he would have been exposed to the war at the same age as his protagonists.
The ending of the book is spectacular, both in the story and in the illustrations.
I finished this book both greatly satisfied and once again convinced that Eco is one of the major writers of our time, and also intensely curious about Italy under Mussolini. You can’t go for a month, I would think, without in some way or another being exposed to books, movies, articles, whatever about Nazi Germany in World War II, but this book brought home to me that there is very little in the popular literature about Italy during the same period. As a matter of fact, Italian Fascism pre-dated the German version. Previous to this book and to Foucault’s pendulum, I would have to say that I, an Italian-American who loves history, knew about Fascist Italy only in conjunction with the history of Nazi Germany and the interactions between the two countries in pursuing the war. A brief Internet search revealed what I had already suspected—that there is a real dearth of popular material on the topic.
I think that a great book pushes you in some way, either to consider moral questions or to increase your understanding of the world. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana did the latter for me. But regardless, this is a marvelous work of fiction, one of the best books I have read in many years.
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LibraryThing member sm23
Would have been 5 stars, but the last couple pages ruined it for me.
LibraryThing member Periodista
I lucked onto this in the unsightly bookcase in the bungalow resort where I stayed on Koh Lipe (in the Tarutao islands, very far south of Thailand) over New Year's. Especially lucky considering that the second-hand book stalls were packed only with John Grisham and The Devil Wears Prada in six
So it was a great holiday read, though it isn't particularly intellectually, philosophically stimulating in the way you might expect an Eco to be.
So the narrator character, a man probably about Eco's age, has a stroke and loses his memory. How to recover it? He goes back to the ancestral farmhouse and discovers the comic books, comics pages, music records, news magazines and other detritus of his youth. Which stimulate memories.
Since the character, Yambo, was a boy during World War II, the general terrain we're covering is awfully familiar. The great part is that there are actual pix of this stuff, translated lyrics of songs and so on. What happens to the American comics when the US becomes the enemy? (Who knew how Terry and the Pirates started out?) How was Mussolini depicted?
How I wish there was a novel, memoir--anything remotely like this--set in Malaysia, China, Burma, etc., during World War II and in a bordering era. That is, an absorbing, easy read. Well, there are a few Japanese novels, I guess ...but there are just so many European ones on the era.
I can well imagine many a potential reader glancing at this book and thinking: "Enough already. I've read that."
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languages. I traded Jonathan Lethem for it.So it was a great holiday read, though it isn't particularly intellectually, philosophically stimulating in the way you might expect an Eco to be.
So the narrator character, a man probably about Eco's age, has a stroke and loses his memory. How to recover it? He goes back to the ancestral farmhouse and discovers the comic books, comics pages, music records, news magazines and other detritus of his youth. Which stimulate memories.
Since the character, Yambo, was a boy during World War II, the general terrain we're covering is awfully familiar. The great part is that there are actual pix of this stuff, translated lyrics of songs and so on. What happens to the American comics when the US becomes the enemy? (Who knew how Terry and the Pirates started out?) How was Mussolini depicted?
How I wish there was a novel, memoir--anything remotely like this--set in Malaysia, China, Burma, etc., during World War II and in a bordering era. That is, an absorbing, easy read. Well, there are a few Japanese novels, I guess ...but there are just so many European ones on the era.
I can well imagine many a potential reader glancing at this book and thinking: "Enough already. I've read that."
Show Less
Awards
SF Site Editor's Choice (2005)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2005)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2005)
Language
Original language
Italian
Original publication date
2004 (original Italian)
2005 (English translation)
Physical description
480 p.; 7.58 inches
ISBN
0156030438 / 9780156030434