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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
This is a marvellous book, a labyrinthine and only-moderately falsified history of European anti-semitism, conspiracies and forgeries. Surprisingly amusing in parts, as our joyless narrator obliviously presents opportunities for us to judge and mock his more lighthearted weird behaviour. Personally I loved it, it was an engaging read that managed to smuggle a fair amount of real history into my memory.
However, the narrator is very much a piece of shit from Page 1. He's a racist, a misogynist, he's cruel and vindictive and repressed and full of hatred. The book takes as given that its readers bear modern sensibility and can judge him for what he is, but the narration never really backs the readers up emotionally, only factually. And if you don't want to spend a couple of hundred pages reading violent anti-semitic tirades, I can hardly blame you.
However, the narrator is very much a piece of shit from Page 1. He's a racist, a misogynist, he's cruel and vindictive and repressed and full of hatred. The book takes as given that its readers bear modern sensibility and can judge him for what he is, but the narration never really backs the readers up emotionally, only factually. And if you don't want to spend a couple of hundred pages reading violent anti-semitic tirades, I can hardly blame you.
Ahora entiendo la polémica tras su publicación.
I was very disappointed with this one! I love Umberto Eco but this didn't catch my attention the way NotR and Baudolino did. I thought the social commentary was a little heavy handed and the characters weren't my favorite. However, the premise and the plot were interesting enough to finish.
Perfect history book and a description of conspiracy theorists.
Farcical.
I kept reading in the hope it would get better. It didn't.
I kept reading in the hope it would get better. It didn't.
This is not going to be the book that makes me a fan of Eco.
http://recenseernogeenkeer.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/the-prague-cemetery/
http://recenseernogeenkeer.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/the-prague-cemetery/
A clever thriller disguised to promote the religious concept of Death of the Author.
I really like Eco and went into this prepared to like it but ... I could barely finish it. The first 100 pages were just setting up one character and how awful it was. After 20 I think I got the point...
It did get better, but I just never think I recovered from that initial dislike of the opening. I understand we're not supposed to like him, but there was so much there it spilled into me not just disliking the character, but disliking the story itself.
The final note at the end, for anyone without the historical context of the story, may be interesting to read first (it's not really spoiler-laden).