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jazzy_daveUmberto Eco "The Island Of The Day Before" (Mariner Books)
I take pride withal in my humiliation, and as I am to this privilege condemned, almost I find joy in an abhorrent salvbation; I am, I believe, alone of all our race, the only man in human memory to have been shipwrecked and cast up upon a deserted ship. So begins Eco fanciful tale set in the 17th century Baroque era of an Italian nobleman, Roberto della Griva, marooned on a deserted ship in the Pacific Ocean. We learn how he came to the situation he finds himself in but more importantly, we witness Roberto's numerous ruminations on pretty much everything from religion, cosmology, metaphysics to science and technology of the Baroque period as well as his mental condition as a ship wreck survivor. The story is fascinating on a number of levels. I loved the examination of science and the race to discover the Punto Fijo or fixed point from which all other longitudes could be established. Roberto as a character and his mental state are also fascinating reading as is the multiple allusions to Alexandre Dumas' stories [The Three Muskeeters] and [The Man in the Iron Mask]. The sections at the start of the story with the siege of Casale had me hoping for a rollicking adventure read. Unfortunately, the story is really an adventure story of a completely different nature. Still good, but not as entertaining as I was looking forward to reading. The downside of this story for me was what I found to be an excessive waxing philosophical/metaphysical nature of the story. This is not a quick read by any means and the overloading of information went right over my head.
Now, I hope this review doesn't deter anyone from picking up and reading The Island of the Day Before for themselves. I am just not a big fan of the ship-wrecked man type of story that this one is and is something I need to be in the right frame of mind for. The metaphysical aspects of the story, while fascinating at first, became a bit of a laborious chore to get through and reached a level of eye rolling obscurity when Roberto examines whether or not a stone can feel or has any form of sentient thought. Even with these negatives, the story was not enough of a chore to deter me from wanting to retain my copy for a potential re-read at some point in the future. As you have probably guessed, this isn't exactly an easy book for me to write a review for. In fact i prefer Foucault's Pendulum by him to this book.
I take pride withal in my humiliation, and as I am to this privilege condemned, almost I find joy in an abhorrent salvbation; I am, I believe, alone of all our race, the only man in human memory to have been shipwrecked and cast up upon a deserted ship. So begins Eco fanciful tale set in the 17th century Baroque era of an Italian nobleman, Roberto della Griva, marooned on a deserted ship in the Pacific Ocean. We learn how he came to the situation he finds himself in but more importantly, we witness Roberto's numerous ruminations on pretty much everything from religion, cosmology, metaphysics to science and technology of the Baroque period as well as his mental condition as a ship wreck survivor. The story is fascinating on a number of levels. I loved the examination of science and the race to discover the Punto Fijo or fixed point from which all other longitudes could be established. Roberto as a character and his mental state are also fascinating reading as is the multiple allusions to Alexandre Dumas' stories [The Three Muskeeters] and [The Man in the Iron Mask]. The sections at the start of the story with the siege of Casale had me hoping for a rollicking adventure read. Unfortunately, the story is really an adventure story of a completely different nature. Still good, but not as entertaining as I was looking forward to reading. The downside of this story for me was what I found to be an excessive waxing philosophical/metaphysical nature of the story. This is not a quick read by any means and the overloading of information went right over my head.
Now, I hope this review doesn't deter anyone from picking up and reading The Island of the Day Before for themselves. I am just not a big fan of the ship-wrecked man type of story that this one is and is something I need to be in the right frame of mind for. The metaphysical aspects of the story, while fascinating at first, became a bit of a laborious chore to get through and reached a level of eye rolling obscurity when Roberto examines whether or not a stone can feel or has any form of sentient thought. Even with these negatives, the story was not enough of a chore to deter me from wanting to retain my copy for a potential re-read at some point in the future. As you have probably guessed, this isn't exactly an easy book for me to write a review for. In fact i prefer Foucault's Pendulum by him to this book.
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no subject
Date: 2016-08-01 01:51 am (UTC)Hugs, Jon
; )
Date: 2016-08-01 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-01 05:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-01 09:25 am (UTC)*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2016-08-01 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 06:48 am (UTC)it's got this gawdawful overload of some lost literary writer trying to paint a modern story over it, by researching the book in the liner notes while you read the gripping tale.
it fucking pisses me off, like when a band does a lousy cover of some song and completely slaughters it.
there should be rules against bad writing..
; P
just wanna say
Date: 2016-08-04 06:50 am (UTC)"the island of the day before"
and i like the writer's title - umberto eco is a cool handle