While an occasional song, name or photo stir up a minor flame of vague recollection, what we and Yambo discover is that he is not recapturing his memories. Rather, he is reliving the experiences of an entire generation. And that is perhaps the biggest problem with the book. Originally published in Italy last year, we revisit the experiences of Eco and his contemporaries as they grew up in Italy following the rise of fascism and through World War II. While perhaps appealing to those with an interest in that aspect of Italian history and culture, a significant portion of the references and allusions are obscure to an American reader. (In fact, an English language web site has been set up simply to annotate them all.)
Overall, Eco is a fine enough writer that he keeps the reader interested enough to stay with the book to see what Yambo may resurrect. However, he overplays fog as a theme for Yambo's memory problems and having Yambo search through a cob-webbed attic also seems a trite vehicle for a hunt for lost memories. Ultimately, we discover the core search is for Yambo's first love, a search that comprises the final part of the book and whose culmination is told largely in illustrated novel form.
Some may find Queen Loana's combination of a search for identity with a popular culture review of mid-20th century Italian history. To me, the thought-provoking exploration of the former was overwhelmed by Eco's tour of his youth.
Article comments
1 - Mark
Yes, how dare an Italian author write about Italy! All books published in America should be America-centric! We are such a great nation that we don;t need to know anything about anywhere else. Hoo-Hah!
If the "critic" disliked Baudolino so much he could not even be bothered to FINISH IT, why bother trying yet another book he may be inclined to dislike? LOANA's back cover copy makes it clear that it is not at all like ROSE or PENDULUM: arguably, it suggests more similarities with BAUDOLINO (faulty memories being great liars).
All told, this review is empty and swell-headed. LOANA, on the other hand, may delight fans of nonspoonfed novels (as well as Eco fans).
2 - Erik
I'm still reading Loana, but it is a worthwhile point that Eco's latest novel is stubbornly Italian, despite his worldwide fame. Loana is a unique beast, because it is entirely grounded in the pop culture of Eco's youth, but there are countless references to contemporary or recent Italian figures and events that few readers outside of Italy will pick up on.
That said, I've created an online set of annotations to the novel, the Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana Annotation Project. It's a wiki that anyone can contribute notes to:
http://queenloana.wikispaces.org/
3 - erik
I'm still reading Loana, but it is a worthwhile point that Eco's latest novel is stubbornly Italian, despite his worldwide fame. Loana is a unique beast, because it is entirely grounded in the pop culture of Eco's youth, but there are countless references to contemporary or recent Italian figures and events that few readers outside of Italy will pick up on.
That said, I've created an online set of annotations to the novel, the Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana Annotation Project. It's a wiki that anyone can contribute notes to:
http://queenloana.wikispaces.org/
4 - erik
whoops- the computer was stalling- please delete these multiple comments!