Baudolino

Rating:
Summary: Dense and Delightful
Review: Umberto Eco enjoys telling a thick story. Baudolino is exactly that. A pseudo-historical novel, it chronicles the life of Baudolino, a master of languages and lies. Eco tells a fantastic story, taking Baudolino from a poor peasant to searching for the mythical preacher-king Prester John. What makes Baudolino so intruiging is the aspect of the unreliable narrator. Since Baudolino the compulsive liar is telling his own story, the reader can never be sure what the truth really is. This leads to some very wild tales that complicate the story to no end. Baudolino was an extremely enjoyable novel, but requires the reader to have a little patience to weed through this dense thicket of a story.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Adventure
Review: This imaginary quest for the Kingdom of Prester John and the holy grail is a creative mixture that reminds me of the Odessy, Sinbad and the Arabian nights tales. The story is stimulating and, as with Eco's work, brings historical events to life, dispite the mythical creatures and geography incorporated into this engaging and compelling adventure. The writing is wonderful, the story is playful, but contains enlightening philosophical, religous theory and compelling veracity. Skip the DaVinci Code and immerse yourself in real literature.

Rating:
Summary: Baudolino is Magnifico!
Review: I'm a big fan of fantasy, and when I saw this work of historical fiction by famous semiotician Umberto Eco sitting on the library shelf, I knew I just had to pick it up. Three days of pure enjoyment later, I'm glad I did.

In Baudolino, Umberto Eco takes the reader on a most picaresque journey through late 12th century Europe and the Near East, exploring Italy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Byzantium, Palestine, and mythical lands of the East from one of the strangest perspectives of all- that of a complete liar, Baudolino of Alessandria, a man who made a career of self-inflation and half-truths. Yet you can't help but love the earnestness of this lifelong liar at the end of his road, and believe his story- a work of fiction wrapped in a work of fiction!

Eco writes with style and depth, as well as a dry, bawdy wit. The historical figures parade through the story in a method that suggests a satirical self-parody, while the fictional characters seem more real than the non-fictional. But more than just a good tale, Eco's book is a postmodern novel, in that it explores the notions of truth and meaning themselves from a contradictory perspective- one that is completely false. The book, at it's end, leaves one with a profound meditation on the nature of truth worthy of Nietzsche.

Crack open the book, pour yourself a nice glass of red wine, and put some Verdi on the CD player- and prepare to enjoy one of the finest novels of the decade.

Rating:
Summary: A Medieval Candide Explores Loyalty
Review: Before you decide if you want to read Baudolino, remember whether you liked Candide or not. If you did, this book will be fun. If you know very much about medieval history, as well, then this book will be a must!

If you did not like Candide, you will probably hate Baudolino.

One of the central tenets of medieval society was loyalty owed to those to whom one was tied by fealty or by custom. Baudolino was a northern Italian peasant, and owed loyalty only to the knights and lords with rights over his father's land. Then, an event intervenes and he becomes bound to Frederick Barbarossa (red beard) who becomes the first Holy Roman Emperor. Baudolino's tale explores that medieval loyalty as a theme in the same exaggerated way that Voltarie used Candide to explore optimism.

While spending time with Niketas Choniates, a high court official in Constantinople, as they flee together from the knights of the Fourth Crusade, Baudolino recounts the Candide-like story of his life from the time he met Frederick.

In the process, the favorite themes of the Middle Ages are all considered including chivalry, romantic love, lust, marriage, the crusades, the relationship between church and state, the rise of the city, clerical practices, religious beliefs, religious relics, traitorous behavior, fascination with heretical beliefs, imaginary animals, magic, alchemy and the Crusades. Each subject is done in a satirical way that reveals a cynical view of how people could (and probably did) turn each matter to practical personal benefit.

Not satisfied with that lampooning accomplishment, Mr. Eco also draws on the styles of Dante, Cervantes, and Swift while making indirect references to their work. For example, you will be amused as Baudolino falls hopelessly in love with the unattainable Beatrice, who in this case is the emperor's wife. In a humorous reference to Candide, Baudolino steals a kiss . . . and has to remove himself from her presence after that.

Within the context of the story, the main historical events are real. Baudolino, like the egotist in us all, builds his tale so that he is the key actor in every event. As they say, success has a thousand fathers while failure has none. The satires on human venality and foibles are unrelenting and almost cynical. I think some would be offended by the fun poked at their own religions here. . . until they realize that Baudolino takes on almost all religions of the time in one place or another in the book.

One of Baudolino's key approaches to solving problems is to manufacture false manuscripts, relics and other evidence that suit his purposes. Despite this, it is a testament to his commitment to Frederick that he takes himself to pursue the mythical Prester John to deliver a false relic that Baudolino helped produce.

For those who are fans of The Name of the Rose, Mr. Eco even includes a locked room mystery that will keep you guessing until the last pages of the book.

I was bowled away by the imagination and ingenuity of the story and the many satirical directions it takes. I would be very surprised if I read a better satire in the next ten years.

After you finish this book, I suggest that you think about where you have put loyalty above the truth. How would someone else see your actions? Would you redo those actions now, if you could?

Rating:
Summary: Punch Drunk Reader
Review: I finally staggered to the end of this one after about 200 rounds spread out over four months. I couldn't take more pronlonged sparring. Eco has developed the old "rope a dope" technique into too fine a science. He just stands there in the corner, letting you wail away on him until you've utterly exhausted yourself. By the time the bout was finally over, I realized that all my efforts had been in vain. He was still standing and I was defeated, having expended all that energy for nothing.

There was a time when I came away from an engagement with Eco feeling refreshed and fortified, grateful for the time I had invested in reading works such as NAME OF THE ROSE and FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM. Then came the journey down the literary vortex of torpor, THE ISLAND OF THE DAY BEFORE and now BAUDOLINO, and all I can say is "Oh how the mighty have fallen!"

I guess, in all fairness, Eco just raised his personal bar a bit too high with FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM. It is that rare commodity in literature, a hybrid combining pace and great story with enough philosophical digression thrown in to lend it heft.

The problem with Eco's last two books can be traced to one serious defect. The narrators in both books are tiresome; but particularly Baudolino, a pompous, unfunny, self-centered bore. I'm sure that as Eco was modelling him, he had in mind some clever, roguish, humorous figure who just happened to be present at some of the more important historical events in late Byzantine history. The problem is, no literary creation this self-inflated can come across as anything other than someone one would prefer not to be around. He's a lousy reconteur. The stories he tells are generally of the shaggy dog variety. The characters he introduces are uninterseting. His little attempts at moralizing are tedious.

At least you readers who decide to buy this book are luckier than I in one respect. You have the opportunity to buy the paperback version, whereas I shelled out the hardcover bucks, as I was so excited by the notion that this was going to be a return to form for former champion Eco. Unfortunately, it's about like watching Tyson fight these days. He "used to be" a contenda. 3 stars only because reading thrird rate Eco is still better than reading first rate John Grisham.

BEK

Rating:
Summary: Unsympathetic Main Character Undercuts Solid Book
Review: I was a little apprehensive to begin Baudolino after having endured the disaster that is The Island of the Day Before, because I feared that Eco had decided to take his writing down a self indulgent road. Fortunately, Baudolino is better than its predecessor. Yet, while there is much to admire, its power as a story is undercut by some of the same flaws that crippled Eco's previous book.

One of the key strengths of Baudolino is the tremendous amount of historical detail which Eco has placed within its pages. He is one of the very few authors who can portray an encyclopedic knowledge of medieval practices, politics, and people in an entertaining manner. Yet, Eco shows that he is not just an author who needs a historical basis to build a story. His efforts into fantasy, as depicted during the title character's quest for Prester John, are as imaginative as those created by any other fantasy writer. As a result of these efforts, the reader can easily imagine themselves in the world which Eco has created for this story.

Ironically, the book's primary weakness is inextricably tied to its strength. Just like The Island of the Day Before, this weakness lies with an inadequate main character. Unlike that earlier work's bland main character, Baudolino's title character is very well defined. Unfortunately, that definition includes the denouement at the book's beginning that he is a self professed liar. As a result of this confession, I kept wondering if what I was reading was a lie or the truth. The confusion I felt was not appeased by the book's other characters. Where the title character was sharply described, the supporting characters displayed very little personality. The lack of insight provided by these other characters only served to feed the confusion that I was feeling about the story. In the end, I grew tired trying to resolve the uncertainty I had about the veracity of Baudolino's tale. Only when the book abandoned all pretense of being historical and delved strictly into fantasy did I find it to be enjoyable. However, that point didn't occur until almost two-thirds of the way into the book.

There is much to recommend in Baudolino. An intelligent story, witty dialogue, and a well-defined main character are strong points to the work. But, by prominently displaying the main character's flaw, Eco undermined the power of his story. Because of this action, many will find Baudolino to be an exercise in tedium instead of a soaring triumph of imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Ohhh, Umberto, what have you done?
Review: There's probably a point to this whole sprawling mess of a book, but for the life of me I didn't get it. After such undisputed masterpieces of 'The Name Of The Rose' (one of my top ten favourite books of all time) and that other one about the pendulum and the templars and stuff, you know, the one with Foucault in it, this is a bigger letdown than something that really lets you down a whole lot. I thought 'Island Of The Day Before' was just Eco's experimental diversion into forgetting how to write a decent book, but he appears to have adopted boring as a philosophy for his life, and it shows here, between the covers of this book. Nothing even *happened*. I got to the end and my girlfriend was all "Well, what happened?" and all I could do was sit there, not speaking to her, being very very quiet.

Rating:
Summary: Of the Holy Grail, Prester John, Unicorns, and More ...
Review: This is one of the great shaggy dog stories of all time. But, as the author is Umberto Eco, it means that a whole lot of other things are going on as well. Baudolino is a barely literate Northern Italian peasant who somehow a close friend of Frederick I Barbarossa, the 12th Century Holy Roman Emperor. He feels grateful to his emperor, and strives to take his leadership to the next level, by an embassy to the lost Christian realm of Prester John. As a suitable gift to the mythical ruler, Baudolino takes an old drinking cup of his father's and calls it the Holy Grail.

Frederick goes along with the whole scheme -- anything to escape those endless wars with the petty Northern Italian states -- and sets out to the East. History states that Frederick drowned while crossing a river enroute to the Third Crusade. Eco invents a classical locked-room mystery to account for the emperor's death, and late in the book provides a neat answer that also satisfies the historians.

The whole story is told to a Byzantine official whom Baudolino saves. While they escape the ravages of the Fourth Crusade with its sacking of Constantinople, Baudolino spins an incredible tale encompassing much of the medieval bestiary and then some. On one hand, he is the most incredible liar who never lived: His kingdom of Prester John is located in one of those eternally disgruntled Muslim states of Central Asia in which, if there were ever any unicorns, they were long served as shish-kebabs.

There is a story about Freud and a mythical patient who spins out a long story for the great psychologist. "That's very interesting," said Freud. When the patient admits that the whole story was bogus, the response was, "That's even more interesting!"

Baudolino IS the Middle Ages personified, except for the minor detail that he is not much of a believer in this age of faith. Where the old maps say, "there be dragons here," Baudolino shows you the dragons. Perhaps, a more true statement is that Baudolino is the Medieval Imagination personified. Bogus or not, he created worlds within worlds that are endlessly enthralling. Be prepared for a wild ride in what must be one of the best books written in the last ten years.

Rating:
Summary: Eco's Best
Review: Of the three novels of his that I've read, Eco does his best work in Baudolino. While building on the themes common in both The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, the peculiar mix of mythology, history, and imagination in Baudolino is quite original. And quite unlike The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, perhaps because of the length of time we follow our hero, we feel a closer connection to the protagonist, even though he is a rather Machiavellian schemer.

Rating:
Summary: Indictment of the Bible?
Review: I dare say most of the erudite reviews posted thus far miss the mark concerning the actual impetus of Baudolino.

A spoiler perhaps, the book concludes, "You surely don't believe you're the only writer of stories in this world. Sooner or later, someone - a greater liar than Baudolino - will tell it." Concerning history in general when fact and fiction are confused, "Would you like to put into the head of your future reader the notion that the [Grail] exists... Who knows how many lunatics would start wandering endlessly, for centuries and centuries?"

Eco correctly posits and proves that history is a combination of fact and fiction. Baudolino, like all storytellers, confused objective fact with personal experience.

I sensed that Eco was taking aim at the Bible itself and the writings of the Apostles.