[Luffy]

The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco - 2/5

It is wishful thinking on my part that my review would capture, firstly, and then later, the mood of my bewilderment and disappointment respectively. The Name Of The Rose is an ode to ignorance. As the saying goes, never attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. This medieval tale doesn't feel like a contemporary book, which is the aim of most historical fictions.

For much of the beginning, politics and theology dominate the proceedings. As this story is a mystery at its heart, its disheartening to report that the best deducting by our heroic detective is carried out right when he and his Watson of a chronicler are setting foot in the abbey. This place is where multiple murders are committed. I zeroed in on the most likely culpable person. I thought, wrongly, that the book would contain red herrings. If the latter were there, they never left the abbey's kitchen. Twists, as we understand them in modern vernacular, are sharply lacking here. There is no evidence of brilliance from our detective duo. Indeed, the bumbling clumsiness, physical even, serves the plot to achieve an actual and symbolic destruction of a repository that has served God and no one else.

The point of this book is left open to interpretation. I like to consider the setting of the time and lieu crucial to the underpinnings of what's a simple story at its heart. The key symbol here is the library. It's ironic that the older it gets, the more the rare, handwritten and hand drawn books appreciate in value. At the same time, the content of those books would decrease in accuracy. Relentlessly so. Seen from our eyes, the cherished knowledge of the Dark Ages is nothing but ravings and gibberish. There is also no pity for the girl that Adso sleeps with. Both he and us will never know her name, only her fate. She will be burned at the stake. I know the title of the book doesn't refer to the peasant girl as the Rose. But in that book, she is the only one who comes closest to clearing the meaning of the title.