Baudolino

I read this on my way to London and my trip to London broke me, broke me in all the ways a man can be broken, yes, broken into a thousand little man-pieces that crunched underfoot when people walked on them, which people did even though they were me and I was saying this is me, please don't walk on m- crunch. So I really don't want to review it, even though I liked it a lot. It's one long shaggy dog story about the quest for the kingdom of Prester John and it's also about world-building and myth-making and story-telling and lies within lies within lies concealing each other and filling up the unknown spaces on the map and in the mind and in the past.

In Baudolino, Eco returns to the medieval world which he made his own in The Name of the Rose, but this time the novel is lighter, funnier and more accessible: an irreverent romp through the time of chivalry. It opens with the siege of Constantinople in 1204, where the imperial chancellor Niketas Choniates is rescued from a mugging by a knight - the eponymous Baudolino. While he keeps Niketas safe from the rampaging crusaders, Baudolino distracts him by telling the incredible story of his life - in which he joins the court of the Emperor Frederick II, establishes the cult of the Three Magi at Cologne, discovers the Holy Grail and seeks out the fabulous kingdom of Prester John. Baudolino is, and always has been, an incorrigible liar but show more he has a good heart, and much of the humour comes from his efforts to tell the stories that people want to hear - which often have entirely unforeseen and far-reaching results. The historical bildungsroman of the first half turns into a fantastical journey through the medieval imagination in the second half, as Baudolino and his companions travel east in search of Prester John, and find concrete proof that people do not believe in things because they exist - oh no: things exist because people believe in them. Faith, it transpires, really does make things true.

Being Eco, there are plentiful digressions into theology and philosophy and some of these can be a bit drawn-out, but the novel brims with enthusiasm and tongue-in-cheek humour. Ever the bibliophile, Eco focuses on the art of storytelling (or telling lies, for where's the difference, at the end of the day?!) and the power of ideas. Perhaps the second half does go on a bit too long, but overall I found this very enjoyable - it felt like the love-child of Jonathan Swift and a medieval chanson de geste.

For a longer review, and to see my thoughts on other books (mainly historical fiction), please visit my blog:
http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/baudolino-umberto-eco.html show less

Baudolino is an Italian peasant living in the 1200s who is both a gifted story teller and a compulsive liar. The book is told through Baudolino's retelling of the events of his life to a Byzantine court official who he saves during one of the Crusades. The trick to this book is figuring out what is true, what is false, and if it even matters. As a young man, Baudolino falls into favor with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa who sends him to Paris to study. Baudolino has a natural talent for learning languages. He meets several friends there and they become obsessed with the idea of the existence of Prester John, a mythical priest who supposedly rules in the East. Eventually, they contrive a way to go on a journey to find show more Prester John. They have many adventures along the way and this all becomes more and more fantastic.

This book is one of Eco's most readable novels because he manages to stay relatively on track with the plot instead of having multiple diversions in each chapter. There is still a lot of play with words and obscure historical references (many of which I'm sure I didn't get), but this book has a lot of life, humor, and a sense of fun.

My favorite line in this book is the last. Niketas, the byzantine official who listened to Baudolino's story with the intent of helping to write his biography, is talking to a wise man about how he can possibly write out Baudolino's story with any credibility. The wise man cautions him not to tell the story. When Niketas expresses his regret, the wise man says

You surely don't believe you're the only writer of stories in the world. Sooner or later, someone -- a greater liar than Baudolino -- will tell it. show less

Baudolino is in his sixties when he saves a minister of Constantinople during its sacking by the Fourth Crusade. This provides opportunity for him to recount his life story, one that begins as a historical fiction centered in the Holy Roman Emperor in the company of Barbarossa, but lends itself to fantasy once he engages upon a journey that leads him into an unlikely version of the middle east and India.

I liked The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, but this novel was easily the most fun to read. Loads of humour and pathos + brain candy = a rare find, but here it is. As with the author's other novels there is much playfulness incorporating European legends of the Middle Ages, here centered mostly upon the mythical realm of show more Prester John, and the Holy Grail.

The narrator is wonderfully unreliable by his own confession. He openly admits to viewing lying as bringing things into being, merely by bearing false witness to them. There's an interesting, sharply defined progression from the first half of the story when Baudolino could be given benefit of the doubt (as what he says fits well with historical fact), into the latter half where he is clearly making everything up. Ironically Niketas appears to find his tale more credible in this latter half, even as it becomes increasingly wondrous (a similar theme was apparent in Foucault's Pendulum).

Regardless of the facts or fiction contained in Baudolino's story, it always conveys a great deal of heart and he is eminently likeable as a character to the last. The author has taught us love for a liar, and respect for a liar's method of introducing wonder into the world, not unlike my appreciation for this talented author. show less

Aside from a few parts that I got a little bored with, this novel was, by and large, a tour de force of humorous historical storytelling proportions. I was delighted and totally amused by Baudolino, the inveterate trickster, storyteller, and liar.

Putting aside actual history for a moment and the MC's way of explaining that he is, as always, a liar, but he only lies for good, the novel grows epic from the first passages. We start with the fall of Constantinople, getting in tight with Barbarossa (the Holy Roman Emperor), and move into an amazing and amusing set of circumstances that include the founding of Alexandria, going on several quests for Prester John, meeting all manners of strange creatures and lands right out of the weirdest show more Medieval descriptions, and so much more.

This is Umberto Eco, after all. If we're not knee-or-thigh-deep in fascinating historical footnotes couched in an expansive idea-rich adventure, then we must have wandered into someone else's novel.

I laughed-out-loud many times. I especially loved the whole con game about selling relics. In this case, the seven severed heads of John the Baptist. :) The kinds of lies that Baudolino and his cohorts told were fantastic, rich, and while they didn't always pan out the way they hoped, the effects were gorgeous to behold.

Is this a farce? A satire? A wonderful sarcastic and worldly tribute to imagination and The Pilgrim's Progress? (And better, too?) Hell, you know this is crazy when you have our hero carry around the Holy Grail.

But what is real and what is pure fabrication? Possibly everything, but even Baudolino warns us that he tells us lies to get to the very truth of things. And that's the best part of the novel.

I got lost in the stories and didn't care a fig about anything but the telling.

My only complaint was with the whole sequence around Hypatia. I kinda didn't care for the philosophical ramblings so much. I just wanted him to move on with the rest of the adventure. But aside from this, I loved everything. :) show less

Is this a fantasy? It's hard to say with any certainty. Undoubtedly we see many fantastic and magical things as Baudolino recounts his journeys, but Baudolino's a liar.

We meet Baudolino in 1204, as Constantinople is being sacked and burned by the Fourth Crusade. He rescues a high-ranking court official and historian, Niketas Choniates--a real person who did survive the sack of the city and subsequently wrote a history of Byzantium including the story of the sack. He then asks Niketas to listen to his own story, so that he can work out the meaning of it--if any.

Calling this an unreliable narrative is a gross understatement. Baudolino himself says that he habitually confuses what he wants to see with what he does see, and has often told show more colorful tales rather than the boring truth. An additional layer of unreliability is added by the fact that he's telling this tale entirely from memory, the journal he had kept for years having been lost in the course of his journeys. So this is a tale told from unreliable memory, most of it years after the fact, of an habitual liar.

As a young boy in twelfth-century Italy, Baudolino sets out on the road to fortune and adventure by telling a passing foreign knight that St. Baudolino has appeared to him and told him that Frederick Barbarossa would conquer Terdona (with which he was then at war.) Since the passing knight is Frederick Barbarossa, this prediction naturally goes down very well. In short order, Baudolino has thoroughly charme d the emperor, and is adopted as his son. He is raised in Frederick's court, and eventually, having no taste for war, is sent to Paris to study and returns to be a ministerial of the imperial court. There are elements of secret history to the story, as Baudolino becomes responsible for the founding of the city of Alessandria and the canonization of Charlemagne, amongst other things. In alternating sections, we get the story of Baudolino's rescue of Niketas and his family and their escape from Constantinople, and Baudolino's lifetime of colorful adventures, including his lifelong fascination with the fabled kingdom of Prester John. After Frederick's death, this fascination leads to Baudolino and a group of good friends and more dubious allies setting out for the distant east, following one expedition member's memories of a map claiming to show the way. In the course of their journey, they meet most of the creatures out of the more fantastic mediaeval bestiaries, including unicorns, but also skiapods ponces, and blemmyae, and encounter other wonders.

One of those "other wonders" is a raging river of stone, cutting off the route to Prester John's kingdom. Baudolino's Jewish companion, Rabbi Solomon, had told them of this wonder and its features that make it an unc rossable obstacle: the river flows with a powerful current for six days, and stops completely on the Sabbath. Jews, of course, cannot cross it on the Sabbath. Gentiles could, but when the stones stop, an impassable barrier of flames springs up on both riverbanks. They reach river, look in vain for a way to cross it at or above its source, and eventually give up, travelling downriver again to wait for its Sabbath stoppage. When this happens on schedule, they wait for the flames--and nothing happens:

"So you see you mustn't always believe what they tell you," Baudolino concluded. "We live in a world where people invent the most incredible stories. Solomon, this is a tale you Jews put into circulation to prevent Christians from coming to these parts."

Well, Baudolino--and Eco--certainly ought to know, at least about people inventing incredible stories.

This is a beautifully written book, a delight to read, and there's no need to wonder, as with Isabel Allende's City of the Beasts, whether Eco was well served by his translator. show less

This is a work of historic fiction, or so I thought. The character Baudolino is the adopted son of Frederick Barbarossa. He recounts his life to Niketas Choniates. Baudolino is a work of fiction, but the world he lives in is real. The first half of the book reads just like I expected. The story follows Baudolino's life and for the most part seems like there is no purpose of this book except being a fake biography. There are some wars and some family matters, but no real purpose. Then the 2nd half of the book starts and it gets weird, in a good way. Once Baudolino starts his journey it becomes way more exciting and I had to keep reading and reading. It breaks away from historical fiction and starts leaning towards fantasy. But all the show more interactions and discussions Baudolino has seems like an analogies to religion and civilization. Umberto Eco imparts his philosophy in a tactful and creative way. This is an excellent book! show less