Baudolino

Rating:
Summary: *yawn*
Review: The Amazon.com reviewer flatters this book by calling it a "giddy and exasperating romp". Giddy? No. Exasperating? Yes, and regretfully so, for I am a longtime fan of Eco's books (both academic and literary). "Baudolino" finds Eco plumbing his considerable knowledge of medieval exotic travel literature and imaginative geographies, and it reads less like a novel than like the effort of a schoolboy trying to impress his teacher with the long bibliography at the end of his essay, rather than the essay itself. The story suffers as a result. The characters are flat, lifeless, often one-note caricatures (Niketas, the man to whom Baudolino narrates his life's story, is made particularly grating by Eco's insistent mention of his love for fine food and drink). Presumably we are meant to be fascinated by Baudolino's (and, by extension, this novel's) negotiation of truth and falsity, storytelling and lying, but this negotiation, for all of its attempt to masquerade as Deep and Philosophical, comes off mostly as Dull and Ploddingly Obvious. Eco's working with magical story material here -- the Old Man of the Mountain and his assassins, Prester John's gemmed wonder of a kingdom, the court of cosmopolitan and militarily-minded Frederick II -- so it's a special pity that his own narrative is considerably far less magical. This book -- chock full of discussions of wonder -- could use a good injection of wonder itself.

Rating:
Summary: Great medieval epic only Eco could pull off.
Review: Baudolino is a story of a habitual liar whose lies get him in and out of the most outlandish type of trouble imaginable.

Monsters, creatures, cities to conquer! Battles, crazy emperors, artifacts! These are just a very few parts of Bauodolino's adventures. In a way, this novel is even better than Eco's famous The Name of the Rose as it covers the medieval world and its myths in a broader and more lighthearted way, mostly amusing the writer while taking from the world of mythology, mysticism, history, and politics.

Eco is a great creator of powerful characters with whom we laugh and cry in the novels. Baudolino despite his habits is a thoroughly likeable characters and regardless of his lies, even he once in a while offers valuable advice.

I plan on re-reading this novel many times for I am sure that I have missed on many intricacies that Eco purposefully put in the novel. Also, I want to re-read it to once again enjoy the excitement of traveling to the end of the world, speculating how the world is shaped, and planning on visiting the earthly paradise.

Rating:
Summary: Baudolino is tedious
Review: Page after page of Eco spinning his wheels, never really saying anything. Every sentence pokes fun at something. Baudolino reminds me of Catch-22; both make you laugh, and after 500 hundred pages of the same jokes over and over you get tired. I started putting it down for a week every once in a while, and I never missed it. When I picked it back up again it was always amusing for the first day, then I would get bored again.

The novel is tedious. Zero stars for readability.

You do learn a little about the history of language, and Eco does an excellent job of making you feel like you relate to, humans living in the 12th-13th century. 2 pity stars.

Read Calvino if you are looking for a contemporary Italian novelist with fascinating prose and something to say.

Rating:
Summary: picaresque, Gulliverian travel
Review: Historical fiction is where Umberto Eco found narrative success in The Name of the Rose, and it's where he finds success in Baudolino. The Europe of centuries past provides Eco with room for both flights of fancy and detail-rich history buff trivia. This book divides nearly in half along those lines: the first half is straight -- albeit fanciful and amusing -- historical fiction, told by a narrator with a talent for embellishment. But the second half of the book drops the reader into pure fantasy-land as the character Baudolino and his archetypal ragtag group of adventurers go on a quest to the edges of the medieval maps -- into the region of the margins, where fantastical creatures and perils limited only by imagination await the traveler. There are nods to Gulliver here, and all the utterly invented history of travelers eager to entertain and impress the folks back home with their feats of daring, turning the exotic into the ever more exotic. Of course, Professor Eco's observations on human nature, politics, and philosophy shape his story as much as his desire to entertain. In the last chapters of the book, philosophy threatens to overwhelm narrative, and there are moments of new-age corn that challenge all but the most sympathetic reader. Of course, long, nerdy descriptions of European micro-politics occasionally swamp narrative too, as they did in Foucault's Pendulum. But the book's sheer joy in telling its fabulous yarn makes those missteps moot.

Rating:
Summary: FLUID PROSE AND PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS
Review: Renaissance man Umberto Eco continues to enthrall with a return to the era he so masterfully painted in "The Name Of The Rose." An intrepid, nonparallel story teller he again visits the Middle Ages with Baudolino, a marvelous blend of history and imagination.

It is April 1204 and a northern Italian peasant, Baudolino, is in Constantinople, the resplendent capital of the Byzantine Empire. The city staggers under the relentless onslaught of the knights of the Fourth Crusade who pillage and burn. Oblivious to his own safety Baudolino rescues an important personage, a historian from sure death at the hands of the marauding warriors. This is the person to whom Baudolino recounts his life story - a colorful narrative laced with fantasy and adventure.

Although of humble birth, we learn that Baudolino is rich in two areas: the art of inspired prevarication and an aptitude for learning languages. When still a youngster he was adopted by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa who later sent the boy to the university in Paris. Affable and quick, Baudolino soon made friends in France with those who shared his somewhat reckless taste for adventure.

Together a group of them journey to the east and embark upon a search for a mythical priest-king, Prester John. It is believed that Prester John's domain is a fabled land inhabited by eunuchs, unicorns, beautiful maidens, and bizarre beings with misplaced orifices.

As is his wont the unsurpassed Eco weaves his story with ruminations of weighty matters such as theology, politics, government, and history. He does this with fluid prose and provocative thoughts that inevitably draw readers into the author's unique land of enchantment, a magical place that one is reluctant to leave.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Magniloquently Mad
Review: Yes, yes of course this novel isn't for everyone, and I must confess that I had a bit of a lark composing the negative reviews in my head that I was sure this lush novel would receive after reading it. In general, I was spot on. See here, if you don't enjoy immersing yourself in the arcana and minutiae of the Middle Ages, if you don't enjoy taking off through the picaresque pages of a book as if upon a fiery charger bent on some epic quest, regardless of the exhilarating fact that you don't quite know where you are heading, than this book is not for you---Neither is the classic, Don Quixote, I might add---But if you do enjoy such adventures, saddle up with ye olde lance in hand and prepare for a richly imaginative trek.-I might also add that I found the story of Baudolino's love for Hypatia quite beautiful and moving in its own right. 5 Swirling stars!

Rating:
Summary: a captivating adventure
Review: The first book that made me truly love Eco's writing was The Name of the Rose, and Baudolino is a welcome return to the sense of mystery, myth, and adventure that I found in the former. Baudolino's tale is funny, exciting, philosophical, and thought-provoking, and kept me interested from the beginning to the end. His medieval Europe and the fantastical lands beyond are detailed and lush, at times realistic and at others beautifully surreal. The issue of the unreliable narrator in this book is especially interesting as the theme becomes intertwined with that of false relics, false deaths, false loves, and false kingdoms. Eco's style means a lot of descriptive detail that you may find yourself skimming over, and I think his novels can be difficult to get into for many people, but give Baudolino a chance for 100+ pages and I guarantee you will become as immersed as I did. I read the second half of this book in one weekend, unable to put it down until I reached the end. I didn't think that Eco could write a tale more capivating and fascinating than The Name of the Rose, but he's done it with Baudolino.

Rating:
Summary: This book is for Italian History buffs...
Review: I'm still wading through the book, but I have to agree with the gentleman who said that this story is tedious, because it is. I'm not really engaged in the character Baudolino. I could care less what happens to him. The setting feels incomplete. I don't have a good picture of where the characters are at any point in time. I think that fans of Italian or Middle Age history may enjoy this more as it seems to reference a lot of history that I am not well-versed in. It makes for a good book to put me to sleep every night, however.

Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Journey
Review: Baudolino is an amazing tour of the 12th century, the value of lies and perception, fantastical tales, the creation of myth and legend, and the reality of language - A story of great depth and so some mischief. Absolutely brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: History made fun... and frustrating
Review: This is actually a novelization of Umberto Eco's essays in Serendipities, as most of the ideas here are present in the aforementioned book. Mr. Eco is in top form here, mixing history, comedy and wordplay but also, his penchant for obscure facts and dense writing are also part of the package. The novel starts out fast enough for an Eco book. The title character who seemed to be inspired by Baron Munchausen, and his cohorts seem like interesting people, the kind you would want to have drinks with in a pub or tavern somewhere. However, things bog down when Baudolino and friends embark on their search for Prester John. Yes, it's vividly written but there are lots of idle conversation that the story suddenly plods along. In fairness, it helps in conveying the idleness and the slow passage of time the characters experience. It's a fun medieval story but I still think The Name Of The Rose is still the best Eco work.