Entertaining and informative a great read ( )

Schwierig schön!: Roberto de la Grive, Abkömmling eines heruntergekommenen lombardischen Adelshauses, landet als einziger Überlebender eines Seeunglücks und Schiffbrüchiger auf einem verlassenen Schiff (!) vor einer unbewohnten Insel, von der ihn nicht nur die Datumsgrenze trennt, sondern auch die Tatsache, daß er nicht schwimmen kann.
Er war im Auftrag des französischen Hofes unterwegs, um diese Datumsgrenze ausfindig zu machen, Mitarbeiter eines weltumspannenden Konkurrenzprojektes, das der Bestimmung der Längengrade diente. Was so selbstverständlich erscheint, war bis ins 18. Jahrhundert hinein ein gravierendes Problem: Die Schiffe der Entdecker fuhren ins Blaue hinein über die Ozeane, sie wußten zwar, in welchen Breiten sie sich befanden, aber nicht wie schnell oder langsam sie auf ihren Reisen vorankamen!

Roberto ist ein sperriger Protagonist, ein Feigling und Dummkopf mit Neigung zu Paranoia und Wahnvorstellungen. Die Entdeckung, daß er auf diesem Schiff, auf dem sich ein Raum mit Vögeln und ein anderer voller Uhren befinden, nicht allein ist, versetzt ihn in Panik.
Der Leidensgenosse, Pater Caspar Wanderdrossel, ebenfalls ein Nichtschwimmer, klärt ihn über die Geschichte des Schiffes - Daphne - und seiner Mannschaft auf: Die Mannschaft habe nach ihrem Eintreffen mit allem wichtigen Werkzeug auf die Insel übergesetzt und sei dort von Wilden niedergemacht worden.
Roberto versucht, sich das Schwimmen beizubringen, aber es gelingt ihm nicht. Sodann entsinnt sich Wanderdrossel der Zeichnung einer Taucherglocke, die er irgendwann irgendwo in einem Buch gesehen haben will, und spekuliert darauf, daß er mittels diesem Instrument auf dem Meeresgrund zur Insel wandern könne, um das Werkzeug zurückzubringen; die beiden basteln sich diese Taucherglocke, Wanderdrossel steigt mit ihr ins Meer und verschwindet.
Alleingelassen verlegt sich Roberto darauf, einen Roman über sein Leben und das seiner verwegensten Wahnvorstellung, eines imaginierten "dunklen Zwillingsbruders" namens Ferrante, zu entwickeln, der seinem Schicksal einen Sinn geben soll; zugleich versucht er es nochmals mit dem Schwimmen.

Die Welt des Roberto de la Grive ist ein Kaleidoskop des 17./18. Jahrhunderts, Erinnerungen mischen sich mit Wunsch- und Wahnvorstellungen eines überreizten Gemüts. Dazwischen vermittelt Eco über einen Erzähler geschickt Wissen und Aberglauben dieser Zeit, macht vor keinem noch so absurden oder schrecklichen Detail Halt.
Der Stil ist geradezu pompös, angelehnt an die selbstverliebte Sprache dieser Zeit läßt er seinen Erzähler Robertos Leben anhand (fiktiver) Dokumente erzählen, über dieses Leben räsonnieren ebenso wie über die damalige Zeit. Realität und Fiktion verweben sich zu einem Gemisch aus historischer Realität, fiktiver Realität und fiktiver Fiktion - eine derart kunstvolles Rezept, deren Zusammensetzung und Verarbeitung bislang nur einem Umberto Eco zu Gebote steht. Der Roman ist gespickt mit Zeichen, Symbolen, Metaphern, Anspielungen, Verweisen etc., unkommentiert, parodiert, ironisiert, verfremdet etc., und das ohne daß es sich der Autor an irgendeiner Stelle dem Leser gegenüber raushängen ließe, um wie viel intelligenter, klüger, gebildeter er doch sei. Eco gönnt einem den Spaß des Wiedererkennens von Motiven, weckt den Wunsch danach, es nicht nur einmal zu lesen, sondern wieder in die Hand zu nehmen, auf die Suche zu gehen, die Spurensuche nach der Entwicklung unserer heutigen Weltanschauungen.
Die Sprache hat eine sonderbare Sogwirkung, sobald man beginnt, sich an ihrem Zeichenkodex entlangzuhangeln, was voraussetzt, daß man sich auf diese Art des Sprechens - denn er "erzählt" diese Geschichte im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes! - einläßt.

Selbstverständlich könnte man den Plot auf 50 Seiten oder gar weniger straffen. Selbstverständlich braucht es die geschwätzige, pompöse Sprache nicht, um eine Geschichte über die Bestimmung der Längengrade zu schreiben - das hat Dava Sobel mit "Längengrad" längst bewiesen. Aber Sobel liefert bei aller Gelehrtheit nur das "naturwissenschaftliche" Detail aus dem konfusen Konglomerat aus Wissenschaft und Weltanschauung einer Zeit, für die die Figur des Roberto de la Grive ein pefekter Repräsentant ist.

There is too much philosophizing and painstaking narration which can derail the interest, though I must say that the prose is often imaginative. There’s lots of awesome descriptions and amusing digressions (on astronomy, physics, Christianity). Eco’s agility as a storyteller is evident from his skillful juggling of too many scientific, historical, and philosophical ideas.

Eco luxuriates in lyrical language. His sentences are laden with details. The passages are also impressive, but the narrative somehow lacks a door latch that the reader can hold onto. I feel at first like a blind bat in need of the powers of echolocation. I also feel shipwrecked myself.

The book explores some of the foundations of scientific thought, and most of it is presented as a drivel by Father Caspar (in Master Yoda-speak), who doggedly adheres to the geocentric view that the Earth is the center of the universe. There are already indications of the nascent thinking of Copernicus, Einstein’s relativity postulates especially on the frame of reference, some hints of present-day debates on intelligent design and creationism.

The book in parts is, to mimic its double-edged mannerism, technically exasperating or exasperatingly technical. What is exasperating is that the science is too old-fashioned and too outdated. That, for me, is what is admirable with it. I liked the way Eco attempts to role-play arguments of mad philosophers and mad scientists (they seem to be interchangeable).

Eco seems to be documenting the naiveté in scientific thinking and approaches in 17th century, and it is religion that is often the culprit in contaminating the progress of astronomy and natural sciences. Indirectly, the absurdity of religion influences scientific methods and approaches. Religion kills the objectivity of science and yet it propels it to invention, experimentation, and discovery.

On the literary front, The Island has too many to offer. The playfulness of the free indirect style, the double (In some ways, the reader is The Other too), the (slightly) intrusive narrator who wrote this novel as an ‘interpretation’ of Roberto’s writings, the open-ended conclusion. It has something to say about time, the nature of time, direction of time, the arbitrariness of scientific theories, the subjectivity of science. For a book about “emblems and devices” it has masterfully crafted symbols, most notably the Orange Dove and the unattainable Island.

Overall the book is impressive not so much for the writing (which is often boring), but for the ambition (which is vaulting). It has moments and passages that come alive like jewels. It is, in some ways, a tropic novel of sunlight, not the dreary old-fashioned novel bathed in darkness, although it is old-fashioned, perennially old-fashioned. ( )

I have decided I really I do not get on with Eco (apart from Name of the Rose). As usual, beautifully written, but it just doesn't get anywhere. If I want historical, philosophical or scientific debate, I will generally read non-fiction for it. Given up c. p100, no rating.

Umberto Eco's The Island of the Day Before is a difficult book to review. Since finishing it last night I've been trying to figure out even what I would say, what words I would use to describe my reaction to it. It never grabbed me the way The Name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum did, but I didn't really dislike it (as I did Baudolino). Certain elements of the story were interesting (the search for accurate measurement of longitude at sea, the whole marooned on a boat within sight of land motif), and I really enjoyed the little old man who spoke in a variety of different languages at once. There are several very funny passages (I can't remember ever laughing out loud with Eco before).

On the other hand, I read through the entire book thinking that surely something would happen soon, that there was some missing element that would make itself known and make the book pop like some of Eco's others have for me. And that never happened.

Eco explores philosophical and historical issues in intriguing ways in all of his books, making all of them well worth the reading.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2009/... ( )

I found this a really tough read. Some parts were interesting, but overall, for me, it dragged.
I am so relieved that I made it through to the end - though it took me about 3 months to do so.
Maybe I'll try reading it again in the future with more success. Maybe it was just a really bad time for me. ( )

Probably my least favorite Eco novel. ( )

I discovered Eco's books when Dad picked up a copy of Foucault's Pendulum at a jumble sale because the cover looked interesting, and now I'm hooked. As always with his books (in my experience) it took a while to get into it - for some reason I always end up reading them incredibly slowly, although with Foucault's Pendulum that was at least partly because a large amount of it wasn't in English. But it was worth the effort.

The initial setup is that the protagonist, Roberto, is trapped on a wrecked ship a mile from an island surrounded by a coral reef inhabited by poisonous fish, and he can't swim, and the book is supposed to be a sort of biography (although with a lot of artistic licence), based on the letters he wrote to the woman he loved while trapped there.

I can't say I enjoyed it as much as Foucault's Pendulum, or The Name Of The Rose - it was a bit slower, since the setting didn't allow for much action, and it wasn't really to my taste. But there was a lot of... historical background, and things about the science of the age (17th century) which was interesting.

The ending seemed a bit strange, at first. But in retrospect, I think that any other ending would have been disappointing. ( )

to-read, Eco, fiction

I enjoyed reading this book, it wasn't as gripping as Foucault's Pendulum, so I read it a more relaxed pace, it'll definitely be a good one to languish along with if you're in that kind of mood. It has similar themes in that it deals with History and Philosophy, and involves traveling, but is perhaps a little less ambitious. I think he deals with the Philosophical themes well, though I can understand the criticism that they sometimes feel out of place, such as the multiple universe theory being dealt with in a 16th century setting, (edit, Coming back to that, they apparently did discuss it hen, the possibilty of other worlds is mentioned in Anatomy of Melancholy, which was written around the time this is set), though the rest of it seems more or less natural, especially some of the now out of date scientific theories and thoughts that were prevalent at the time being woven into the story. The characters seem plausible, and the world is described well, and you get a good well detailed picture of the story he is telling from the view of the protagonist. You can understand what he is feeling, why he makes the choices he does, and can imagine yourself in the plot. If you are after a good escapist book to sit around reading on a lazy afternoon, then this might be one to try. I am definitely becoming a fan of this author, and will seek out more of his books. This is different to Foucault's pendulum, and I can't decide if it is different in a bad way or a good way, perhaps it is just indifferently different. I know I enjoyed reading it, but I don't know really who I can specifically say that you will enjoy this to, aside from fans of historical adventures, and of course Eco fans. ( )

Disapointing from literary point of view, but interesting for the historical information. Higlights extremly well the spirit of the era, but the plot is composed out of several threads that are forced together in a manner that seems like a violation of the book.
Unfortunately there are a number of situations and characters that are completly not used in the plot and it makes you wander why they are there? ( )

A little slow for me.

Trippy joy.

Back to being too overwritten for me. I don't really remember this one too clearly, I do remember being underwhelmed. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2006/12... ( )

Not suspenseful like The Name of the Rose or rewardingly complex like Focault's Pendulum, this book never really hooked me. For one thing, the characters spend far too much time debating the relative positions and trajectories of the earth and the sun. At least Umberto Eco never writes the same book twice. ( )