This is what happens when an exceptionally clever person applies said cleverness to crafting a good story.
The basic rundown: three academics at a publishing firm, stuck reading endless Dan Brownesque conspiracy theories about the Knights Templar, entertain themselves by creating The Plan: a way to link practically every ancient historical order, religious text, ancient secret and pseudoscience into a single cohesive story. What starts as a game costs them their minds, their health, and - when actual secret societies get wind of it - a great deal more.
But before these connections can be made, and before it can all go thrillingly pear-shaped, we need context. Hundreds of pages of context.
This is not an easy book, and even throwing difficulty aside, it's simply not for everyone. Umberto Eco is not afraid to show off his (frankly intimidating) wealth of knowledge, even if it means halting the story's momentum for a meandering history lesson and adding drastically to the page count. Some portions are gripping; others were bewildering, esoteric, alienating, and had my eyes still glazing over, much to my shame, on the fourth re-reading. It's well within your rights to find this excessively intellectual tone a deal-breaker.
With this out of the way: Eco's mastery of language is an absolute joy to read. And amazingly, it does pay off. Every seemingly tangential lecture adds that little bit of extra weight to the insane and gutting payoff.
The true heart of the story, though, lies with the supporting character of Jacopo Belbo. As the narrator sifts through his friend's "mechanical brain", the computer he left behind, we find journal fragments, word games and frustrated attempts at fiction. Piece by piece, we get an intimate look at a man's entire life: his loveable quirks, the neuroses that crippled him, and the actual triumphs he never gave credit. Only in the final pages does the true message of his story - and the book as a whole - become clear.
This was well worth the effort. Mr. Eco, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
