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jhcopp 's review for:
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
Primarily a mystery novel with other trappings (done well enough that I won't call them gimmicks), chiefly books/their power and theology/politics, all done pretty nicely and entertainingly. The atmosphere is created effectively, and not quite over-the-top, but still felt as a bit of an intrusion (which might just be that the setting is so long ago, and might be because so much conscious effort is put into making it seem so). Lots of good fun with dramatic moments, absurd hypotheses, life imitating art in-story, etc. Some parts dragged a bit for me, as there are a lot of extended portions of descriptive language not super integrated into the story, and fairly lengthy conversations/debates based on a very archaic notions, but overall it was well-paced and engaging. To me, not particularly remarkable beyond being a solid detective story with an unusual premise that added some nice features, but I enjoyed it.