I read this at Burning Man. Weirdness to the max!

[gridlore]

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What a magnificently weird book.

Told almost entirely in extended flashbacks, the plot, although I hesitate to call it that, involves three men who work for a small Milanese publishing house specializing in obscure, conspiracy-themed books. As the book progresses, mostly in long expository speeches on various conspiracies involving the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and eventually the Jesuits, the three main characters start using an early IBM PC (the setting for the start of the story is around 1980) to create random conspiracy theories by feeding it random bits of data.

This leads to them formulating The Plan, an attempt at reconciling all the contradictory claims and histories into a sinister, coherent whole. What starts as a fun mental exercise becomes something more, as it becomes apparent that their musings have attracted attention of the most deadly sort.

Dear Halford, I love this book. I haven't read it in decades, and it was like meeting an old friend. Eco's use of language and imagery is both richly detailed and carefully written. In an early scene, we enter an apartment, and in a few short sentences, we experience it with all our senses/ Brilliant writing. The conclusion is appropriately confusing and unresolved, which is the only way you could end this book.

Was any of it real? Was The Plan a flight of fancy or did these three men accidentally reveal an ancient secret? We don't know, and we don't care, because the book is just that good.



View all my reviews

Comments

[freyjaw]

It sounds fascinating!

[gridlore]

It really is, but be prepared for a deep dive into utter weirdness.