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abs5405 's review for:
Postscript to the Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
The mystery and puzzles that drive the main plot of this book are wonderfully engaging and exciting. I mean, who doesn’t love a secret chamber hiding dangerous, murder-motivating secrets! But that book is intertwined with what seems to be an entirely separate one about early church and state political groups, and the various motivations at play for supporting or condemning heretical offshoots. The two stories have little to do with one another in the end, and I am not sorry that I actually skipped over many (many) pages to get back to the murder/library mystery.
Judging by the author’s afterword, he intentionally (and against the advice of friends and early readers) chose to leave in the book dense descriptions of early church and state politics. If he had heeded their advice, the book would be a good 200 pages shorter and all the better for it. Instead, the author felt leaving all of this in was a good “initiation” of sorts, as if we were all novice monks who had to demonstrate true to devotion in order to read the real mystery and narrative of the book. I find that terribly arrogant and annoying.
If you read it like I did, skipping bits and reading online summaries as necessary, you will probably enjoy it.
Judging by the author’s afterword, he intentionally (and against the advice of friends and early readers) chose to leave in the book dense descriptions of early church and state politics. If he had heeded their advice, the book would be a good 200 pages shorter and all the better for it. Instead, the author felt leaving all of this in was a good “initiation” of sorts, as if we were all novice monks who had to demonstrate true to devotion in order to read the real mystery and narrative of the book. I find that terribly arrogant and annoying.
If you read it like I did, skipping bits and reading online summaries as necessary, you will probably enjoy it.