Baudolino – Umberto Eco

What happens

Baudolino is an itinerant liar with leonine hair, a love of storytelling, a wry sense of humour and a big heart. The story is supposedly narrated by him. It is framed as a conversation between Baudolino and Niketas, which takes place amid the sack of Constantinople in the 13h century.

Baudolino describes his life, from his beginnings as an Italian peasant to his journey to the mythical kingdom of Prester John. Along the way he takes in war between the medieval Italian city-states, adoption by the Emperor Frederick 1, becomes the real author

of the correspondence between Abelard and Heloise, meets blemmys, skiapods and unicorns, and falls in love with a Gnostic nympth. The novel is a funny, absorbing and erudite rampage through medieval history, literature, mythology and theology, as told by a narrator whose word is all the more believable for being known to be unreliable.

What I liked

The erudition, vivid imagination and steady progression from apparent historical fiction into hallucinatory fable. The closer Baudolino gets to the kingdom of Prester John, the stranger the landscape becomes, and the closer we feel to the medieval imagination.

What I didn’t like

My grasp of medieval history isn’t really strong enough to pick up all the references. That’s more of a criticism of me, though.

Why you might read this on the train

It’s not as gripping as The Name Of The Rose, which balanced flawlessly between whodunnit and Eco’s more abstruse theoretical interests. But it’s bursting with life, and well worth it for the Rabelaisian vigour of Eco’s imagination, and humour of his games with text and intertext. Don’t bother with it if you’re hung over, though, as it’s not a fast-paced read and you’ll probably get bored.

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Posted: February 21st, 2010 | Author: bookworm | Filed under: Litfic | 1 Comment »