Rating: 
Summary: Too long and winding, needs some sound editing!
Review: Gets worse with each page despite a promising beginning. Some interesting parts and literary effects, but even these get lost in this mess
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Novel
Review: This was one of the best novels I have ever read. Eco throws together Age of Discovery science, mystery, espionage and high adventure into a very readable novel. It is one of those rare books that has you turning pages with a smile on your face. When I tried to put it down at the end of a chapter, something happens and I kept on reading! It may require a bit more stamina (and a dictionary!) from the reader, but above average readers will be well rewarded for their efforts
Rating: 
Summary: Spoiled plot
Review: After reading the Foucault's pendulum I was scared
to read another book of Eco. But this book is an
easy-reading one. The plot initially interesting
looses thrill with every further page and ends
up in a mess of boringness. I cannot recommend
it at all, even if it contains some interesting
information on the development of navigation.
Rating: 
Summary: For those who appreciate Eco in more than story mode.
Review: This is probably not for newbies to Eco. I found that the story line gets a little challenging (lost) when compared to his prior novels.
But if the reader is somewhat familiar with Eco's ideas in the areas of semiology, philosophy, reading and the art/craft of writing, it is a great read, tackling the "perceptions" of both Roberto and the reader.
I am very pleased to see it arrive in paperback!
Perhaps Eco's audience is larger than one would suspect! (g)
Rating:
Summary: An ambitious effort that over-extends and loses focus.
Review: Eco's novel begins as a clever tale of a lovelorn young man who survives a shipwreck only to wash up on another deserted ship, separated from a nearby island only by his inability to swim. Left to his own reflective solitude and his author's ample literary skills, he confronts a host of philosophical issues, which serve to introduce scores of references that range from the biblical to the literary to the historical and beyond. It is on these frequent day-trips from the main path of the story that the author loses his way. Does each of his allusions relate in some manner to one or more of his countless themes? Probably, though the most studious of historians would need a trusty encyclopedia and a lengthy stint of isolated research in order to prove it. But mere relationship between a point of Eco's novel and an obscure historical reference is not always enough to justify its inclusion. Taken individually, these sometimes lengthy asides are most often interesting and informative; as a group, they are overkill, and endlessly divert the reader from an otherwise charming and well crafted allegory. As they increasingly become distractions, they serve only as reminder of the author's impressive body of knowledge, while obfuscating the themes of the novel. Other critics are correct to observe that great works of literature require effort and thought on the part of the reader. However, difficult reading should not immediately be equated with great literature, and while Eco's tome no doubt provides endless challenges, it sacrifices its original center to indulge in its own margins
Rating:
Summary: A splendid voyage!
Review: THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE is a tall tale of Roberto della Grive who after being shipwrecked finds saftey on a ship of wonders which spurs him onto rememberences of his life, loves, and adventures before his abandoned state. These seemingly unrelated treatise on the philosphies and infatuations of the Baroque period are magically blended with the narrative like lines of latitude and longitude, not just crossing, but methodically twisted at the intersection until entwined from end to end, conjoined into an entirely new entity by Eco's Aristotelian telescope. Perhaps more difficult than his previous books, THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE is none-the-less astounding! Eco is an international treasure. He is an intellectual cartographer charting the expanses of our unexplored and underdeveloped imaginations
Rating:
Summary: Superb!!!
Review: I have seen, as a child, the movie 'The Name of The Rose', I have found it to be intricate, gloomy, and very uniqe.
More then ten years later my sister bought me another of his works, this time, a book.
I found it to be one of the true masterpieces that I have read, belongs to to the group of masterpieces who broadened the horizon of literature. 'Gulliver's travels', The Brave Soldier Sveik', and others that have stepped into new uncharted territories in the literiture world, adding something which was not even hidden in earlier writings. Let me say this now, those who have not a good vocabulary, or those who do not seek an intellectual challenge and excitment, had best steer clear of this book, Daniell Steel and Tom Clancey's works will satisfy your needs,and will certainly not bore you with venial details.
It is beyond words to describe properly the masterpiece which Eco and Weaver had written togather. Liguisticlly, this book is of no comparable level, all words assembling togather into a certain rythm, as if it was but a long winding exubernat symphony, exciting all one's senses, untill finally, once finishing reading it, the reader truely experiences the joy of reading a good book.
The plot is funny, moving, tart, exciting, certainly an intellectual intice, regardless of the technique of writing. Lurid and comic, it depicts the 17th century as is, and implies that baisically, the human race back then was the same as it is now, yet refreshinly new and stunningly original.
In the marvelous book "The world According To Garp" it was said that the good writer writes something with leap of imagination, keeps all the charachter alive, especially those who die, and has a very good technique of writing.
Eco and Weaver have accomplished all that, in a book which proved that the Literature world has a not stopped growing, changing, and climbing to higher altitudes.
I have not not written a word about the plot, which hasn't been written on the cover of the book, for I will certainly spoil the thrill and once in a life-time experience of reading this novel.
ENJOY!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Eco's best to date
Review: Eco's books are never simple to read, and anyone who wants a
straightforward, no-nonsense action or romance should give this
a wide berth. But for all those who want to learn about life,
who want to find out everything about everything: romance to
philosophy; war to exploration; the physical to the abstract,
this wonderful tale - the story of a spy-cum-explorer who is abandoned
on the meridien, half way between past and present, creating
a secret world in his mind and questioning the very fabric of life itself - is a must. This is Eco's most wonderful, beautiful
and above all, chaotic work to date.
Rating:
Summary: Eco is slipping
Review: I read this book after Foucalts Pendulum and Name of the Rose. They were both great books, and captivated me. It took a while to get into them, so I hoped that this would eventualy do the same. It didn't. It was a good book, but not as good as his others
Rating:
Summary: Very drawn out
Review: Gripped my attention at isolated spots and bored me silly the rest of the time. Definitely feel that you lose a lot in the translation
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