The Name of The Rose by Umberto Ecco

 The Name of The Rose by Umberto Ecco


A crime story, within a monastery, with plenty of other thrills, insight into history, humor and much more

 

Umberto Ecco is one of the favorites in the Nobel Prize competition.

In fact, I was reading the other day that this year the jury has made yet another mistake by picking a rather obscure French writer, instead of deciding in favor of Umberto Ecco, Philip Roth and a few other famous names.

About twenty five years ago, I loved The Name of the Rose.

The book was precious, under a regime where good works were scarce and generally banned.

References to religion, food, dictatorship…almost anything annoyed the nomenclature and hints in a book got it banned.

The Name of the Rose is a very complex and solid novel.

It has the crime stories and the suspense of a Dan Brown mega hit.

Here I am teasing and guessing.

That guy sells tens of millions of copies, from what I gather- based on incredible stories: they have found the Holy Grail; the pope is the forgotten son of Hitler- I am just making it up- obviously.

But beside the stupid fantasy, there is no depth, nor substance in Dan Brown, even if, who knows- maybe he will win the Nobel next year.

Ecco has erudition, and the search for the criminals is mixed with a tasteful blend of humor, interesting aspects of history.

There are even some aspects of “did you know that”.

I am referring to the eye glasses.

The dealings behind closed doors of the hierarchs of the church are revealed and in the story there are some of the big names of the time involved.

We wait at the edge of the seat to find out

-          Who dunnit

And William is both cunning and wise. He can solve mysteries, but he also cracks a few jokes, not only well read, but also a man of the world is at the center of this engrossing tale.

There is even a side plot, where the apprentice falls in love.

He is not the only one actually.

Some monks are tempted, and by their own kind.

Which at that time was outrageous, in fact even today in the view of most (?) religions – sex between people of the same gender constitutes a sin. Not in my eyes, but then I am not even religious, and still try to find out the Absolute Truth and the Supreme Being. Nirvana perhaps.

The books and the library are the key of the plot and I will say no more, even if the chances that someone will go through this, before deciding whether to read The Name of The Rose are one in a one hundred million, or possibly more.

The weird thing though is that in a recent encounter with this excellent work, I did not enjoy it.

Part of the reason is that I knew what is going on and missed the thrill of seeing who killed them. But it was an adaptation for the National Radio, in which Beligan is in the lead role.

He is involved in a shameful controversy- at the age of 95, he has decided to endorse a no-good, lying and incompetent politician who wants to and has the biggest chance of becoming the next president. Stupid and harmful.

But aside from this horrible fact, I never liked the actor, who is acclaimed, but I kept wondering why. His voice is no good and his acting is third grade when you compare him with George Constantin, for instance…

Comentarii

Trimiteți un comentariu

Postări populare de pe acest blog

Epistolary edited by Gabriel Liiceanu http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/50-minutes-with-plesu-and-liiceanu-10.html - 10 out of 10

  Epistolary edited by Gabriel Liiceanu http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/11/50-minutes-with-plesu-and-liiceanu-10.html 10 out of 10     This wonderful book contains letters exchanged between the brightest minds we have in this realm – there is the exception of Eugen Simion, the late president of the Academy here, a rather horrid attack on luminaries that were so much wiser than this fellow, who came to lead a forum that should be only for the crème de la crème, yet, his presence at the top in fact reveals the ‘values’ that have reached what should be the chamber of the nec plus ultra – and as such, much of what is being debated is quite inaccessible   Ergo, the spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer, and maybe the way out of accusations of spam – one of the notes I have posted on Goodreads, Cleo From 5 to 7 http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/cleo-from-5-to-7-aka-cleo-de-5-7-by.html has been deleted, because it was considered spam, while the one who is the #...
Citiți mai multe

The Killer by Luc Jacamon 10 out of 10

  The Killer by Luc Jacamon 10 out of 10     Reading about killers, or watching the stupendous The Killer, with fabulous Michael Fassbinder in the leading role may seem like the wrong idea, in a world that has some nasty wars taking place in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, and the danger is that they might be expanding, as it is, Iran is attacking the USA, through its proxies Hezbollah, Houthis in Yemen (they have launched missiles) and militias in Iraq and Syria   It all depends on how good the author is, what the adaptation looks like, cast, director, you could have a magnum opus that is a crime story, such as Crime and Punishment http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/crime-and-punishment-by-fyodor.html by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - an algorithm has recently looked at various relevant compilations and established the 50 Greatest Novels and the story of Raskolnikov is on it, together with other astounding works, Marcel Proust is at number one The Killer starts...
Citiți mai multe

The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett – included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List http://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html - 7 out of 10

  The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett – included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List http://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html 7 out of 10     The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom was first published in 1753, which might mean that it is not for the tastes of readers from our times, not even middle aged ones, like yours truly (who is actually sixty in a couple of months, but like to adopt the ‘the sixties are the new forties’ slogan) who has abandoned this   Hence, the spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer to avoid being (again) censored for spam – though I did not get the inclusion in that category, a reading of the definition could help, but this being my note, until it is obliterated by the Goodreads staff, and then it will still be available at the new blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/ I say that spam is used for the unrequested messages we receive, meant to make us buy things ...
Citiți mai multe