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What Members Thought
"Only the librarian has received the secret...."
A tale of monk factions, mysterious murders in a monastery, and libraries. Kind of like a slow-moving Dan Brown novel. ;) ...more
A tale of monk factions, mysterious murders in a monastery, and libraries. Kind of like a slow-moving Dan Brown novel. ;) ...more
Man, Umberto Eco really, REALLY knows a lot about the middle ages. And what a charming, horrifying, messy age it was. This book feels almost pressurized by the amount of erudition in it. He loves weaving together all of these layers of puzzles, labyrinths, and religious hallucinations into the mix, which both reinforce and distract from the main murder-mystery set up in a thoroughly delightful way. Kind of like with Borges and Cervantes, books and bookishness seem more like the raw substance tha
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I saw the wonderful Sean Connery film version before I read the book and although I had a mental picture of each character stuck in my mind from the film I realised very quickly that the book is even better.
It's not the easiest book to read in many ways but it's really rewarding. In fact the ideas he discusses could not be more current - the slavish, blind devotion to unthinking and intolerant belief at the expense of humanity and the beauty of knowledge can be seen in many countries of the worl ...more
It's not the easiest book to read in many ways but it's really rewarding. In fact the ideas he discusses could not be more current - the slavish, blind devotion to unthinking and intolerant belief at the expense of humanity and the beauty of knowledge can be seen in many countries of the worl ...more
Umberto Eco wrote a very good compilation of historical fiction and a detective story. We watch the action by eyes of Adso, who is a helper of William of Baskerville. It's not only about the solving the case of murders of monks in monastery, but there is very visible discussion on Jesus being poor and an influnce of it on monks, nuns and church authorities in the background.
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"My favorite book!" When a friend tells me that, uh, like, well!! Gotta add it to the list AND search for it right away!!! Pal's comments included that this book did NOT include romance and was infinitely better than the movie (starring Sean Connery)....as a come back to my sharing a fellow writer's insistence that, "Every good book includes romance!?"
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Oooh, boy. This was a good story. It reminded me a little of the Pillars of the Earth, but that was mostly because of the time it took place and the setting. The novel is about a monk and his apprentice who are charged with investigating the murder of another monk at an abbey. Things unravel from there, and the detail in the storytelling is amazing. I listened to it on an audiobook and had trouble keeping all the Italian names straight at first, but gradually caught on.
I was in awe as to the architecture of the novel, of the harmonious intertwining of yarns and meanings underlying layers of comprehension, of the coups-de-thetre, twists of fate and unveilings of 'absences'.
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Dec 27, 2007
Doina
marked it as to-read
Aug 03, 2008
Anonymous
marked it as to-read
Aug 20, 2009
Vesra (When She Reads)
added it
Nov 07, 2011
Jessica
marked it as to-read
