matt's review
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
by Umberto Eco, Geoffrey Brock, trans.
The reviewer lady on the main page of this book got it pretty well.
I love the idea of the book and much of its execution.
The only problem is it doesn't read quite as well as it should. I am not sure what I want from it, but it seems almost brittle in its language and story flow. Thin.
Eco does a fine job of excavating his narrator's personal history through his odd remnants of songs, comic books, and quiet memories, that's for sure. You really get a sense of what it's like to be put face to face with your life's assorted imagery.
The infulence of the culture around you is- almost- overwhelming.
I am not sure exactly why this falters for me. I think it might have something to do with the almost stilted way Eco tells the story. The shifts in scene don't work enough for this to be as good a rendition of the rememberance of things past as it needs to be to be a really successful novel.
It is definitely a pleasure to read, on the hole, however. And the illust...more
matt's review
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco, Geoffrey Brock, trans.
matt's review
rating:
bookshelves:
fictions-of-the-big-it,
worldly-lit
The reviewer lady on the main page of this book got it pretty well.
I love the idea of the book and much of its execution.
The only problem is it doesn't read quite as well as it should. I am not sure what I want from it, but it seems almost brittle in its language and story flow. Thin.
Eco does a fine job of excavating his narrator's personal history through his odd remnants of songs, comic books, and quiet memories, that's for sure. You really get a sense of what it's like to be put face to face with your life's assorted imagery.
The infulence of the culture around you is- almost- overwhelming.
I am not sure exactly why this falters for me. I think it might have something to do with the almost stilted way Eco tells the story. The shifts in scene don't work enough for this to be as good a rendition of the rememberance of things past as it needs to be to be a really successful novel.
It is definitely a pleasure to read, on the hole, however. And the illust...more
