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3.01 AVERAGE
3.01 AVERAGE
A fun, thought provoking, and occasionally tedious romp through Italian WWII conspiracy theories which touches on the very idea of truth in journalism.
funny
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Hard to connect to. The two major ideas feel like they should work together, but they never manage to properly blend. It's half about shady media practices and half about a conspiracy involving the faked death of Mussolini, but neither half feels fully shaped. Leaving on a star for some clever lines and neat ideas in the first half.
This book felt unfinished, but the part here was interesting. Lots of long monologues that might have made more sense if I knew Italy better. I loved the single woman who was delightfully in her own world as the joie de vivre foil.
Umberto Eco cada vez mais fácil de ler... Será de ele estar a ficar mais velho? Ou sou eu que como também estou mais velha desde O Nome da Rosa que o percebo melhor?
Seja como for é um autor do qual gosto muito!
Bom livro sobre os meandros do jornalismo, recomendo!
Seja como for é um autor do qual gosto muito!
Bom livro sobre os meandros do jornalismo, recomendo!
Fake news and an elaborate conspiracy theory. A different sort of work for Eco: short, somewhat satirical and (probably intentionally) self-parodying. Numero Zero seemed like a condensed, more comic version of Foucault's Pendulum. I wasn't able to follow the conspiracy theory very far, but that's okay. It's not as if any of that stuff is real. (looks around furtively)
Tot driekwart van het boek was het best vermakelijk, daarna werd het een beetje te veel van het goede met complottheorieën, name dropping en aanslagen.
What is real and what is not? How do those around us make our lives real... or not? This is an entertaining book and makes one think of the above questions. It can be hard to track all of the historical names. I am not sure how much of the history is true, although my brief knowledge of the capture and death of Mussolini seems to agree with the account in the book. Yet, that seems to be unimportant. What is true is simply a matter of a culture's collective memory. This book will get you thinking.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is an interesting novel in a number of ways. It's a scathing indictment of the media - mainly the print media here, but I have a feeling Eco was extending it to all mediums - both in terms of the main cover up in the narrative and the grungy and misleading articles the magazine discuss publishing.
However, as a novel, it's very anticlimactic. This is not pleasure reading in the normal sense of the term - the size of the book may be small (my hardcover copy amounted to a little under 200 pages) but the content is dense and can sometimes feel like a slog.
But, if anything, it's interesting because of Eco's great ear for literary dialogue.
However, as a novel, it's very anticlimactic. This is not pleasure reading in the normal sense of the term - the size of the book may be small (my hardcover copy amounted to a little under 200 pages) but the content is dense and can sometimes feel like a slog.
But, if anything, it's interesting because of Eco's great ear for literary dialogue.