Baudolino

[martryn]

Baudolino, by Umberto Eco

The story is a retelling of one man's life, Baudolino, to Niketas Choniates, the famous historian. Baudolino saves Niketas's life in the year 1204 during the fall of Constantinople due to the 4th crusade. As a favor to Baudolino, Niketas allows Baudolino to retell the events of his life to him so as to be recorded. And Baudolino has had somewhat of an unusual life.

Baudolino is just a poor peasant with two talents, he can learn any language he hears in a matter of hours and he is a very, very good liar. And because Baudolino himself is telling the story, its obvious he lies about a lot of his life. Because of his talents, Baudolino is adopted by emperor Frederick I, and sent to Paris to study. There he meets some friends (whom are historical figures, no less) and they learn about a kingdom of Christians in the land of the Orient. All the friends are fascinated by this idea and vow to travel there and meet the Priest-King, Prestor John. This journey takes 25 years of Baudolino's life.

The story is highly intellectual and is not for the casual reader looking for mindless entertainment. There is one chapter that is wholly devoted to the telling of the Gnostic version of creation, and there is another that seems to be entirely for the description of a palace that doesn't even exist. But the story is an adventure. Baudolino finds himself in some pretty heated situations, including several major battles of his time. He falls in love three times, befriends creatures that don't actually exist (there is a race of men with no heads and giant penises where their belly button should be), convinces people that he has the Holy Grasal, and manages to travel to India and beyond.

I highly recommend this book for those who loved any of Eco's other books (Name of the Rose, Island of the Day Before, Foucault's Pendulum) and for those who love European history (especially Italy and Greece). Mixed in with the philisophical debates are many great chapters with action and lots and lots of comedy. You have to be pretty open-minded though, and very smart, as there is also about ten pages in a pseudo-Latin/Italian language that doesn't exist (Baudolino sorta made it up).

[jkingler]

I've been meaning to pick up some Eco recently. I will probably save this book until after I finish his other, better known works, like Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose.

How does this book stack up next to those I just mentioned?

[martryn]

Foucault's Pendulum is definately my favorite as its set in modern times and is more nitty gritty than the other works. Name of the Rose is my least favorite, which is funny because most people prefer it. They're all good reads, but I would recommend Baudolino for last in the Eco reading as he makes passing reference (in story) to things he talked about in prior books, such as the nature of Christ and the concept of reality (as in what is real, and do we construct our own realities).

Read Name of the Rose first, but don't be discouraged if you can't get through it. I didn't my first time. You can get bogged down too easily in the philosophical nature of his books and if you try to learn the history as he tells it you'll be overwhelmed, so you just have to sludge through it and hope that you'll remember something when you're done. Most of his "backstory" dialogue of the history of places and people aren't important to the main story of his novels, so as long as you get a gist of what he is telling you about past events you'll be fine.