Okay, so Umberto Eco is approximately one billion times smarter than you or I. I know this because he’s a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna (go ahead and click on the link: I wasn’t 100% sure what it was either, and I’m happy to wait until you return), and you don’t get that job unless you’re at least moderately a genius. He’s also written some brilliant and highly erudite novels such as “The Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum” where he demonstrates just how learned and clever he is. If you accept the fact that Eco knows a hell of a lot more about just about everything than you do, and you’re not going to catch most of what he throws at you, you can really enjoy his writing.
Baudolino follows its eponymous late 11th century character through his childhood as a poor peasant with a gift for languages to his becoming the adopted son of emperor Frederick Barbarossa (a character who figures prominently in Crowley’s “Little, Big”). Along with his gift for languages Baudolino is also skilled at telling fabulous and convincing lies, and the story is told as his life’s tale recounted to another as the sack of Constantinople rages about them. We follow Baudolino across Italy and Europe, and eventually to a mythical kingdom in the East in search of the famous (and imaginary) priest-king Prester John. Along the way we are treated with a wonderful glimpse of the Middle Ages, and an adventure tale told with a great deal of humour.
A central theme that gets explored here is “What is truth?”. Baudolino weaves his fantastic tales in the service of a greater good, “spinning” and manipulating events around him in order to help those whom he loves. For his pains he is called the “Father of Lies” by his interlocutor, and in the process Eco demands of us the same questions: what is historical truth, and what ends does truth serve.
This is an enjoyable feast!