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Foucault's Pendulum

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This book has it all! Mystery, thriller, suspense, world history, masons, world conspiracy, voodoo, magic, computers trying to reproduce the true name of God, jewish mysticism , druids of the forests, underground tunels that connect strategic points of the planet, publishers and writers, knights of the temple, action all around the world through the past 2 milenia. YOU NAME IT. Centuries of conspiracy and battle for the domination of the world , unspeakable secrets passed upon generation to generation from a few chosen ones, build up until the last climactic pages of the book.

ADVICE:

The book is really worth for its money and it will keep you awake for a few days. You will refuse to close the book until you reach the end. In the beginning you will not understand a thing, what is going on, who are these people, what are they trying to do. Never mind, just carry on. Eco meant the book to be this way! Enjoy the book and if you dont understand some historical remarks never mind, just continue, dont stumble upon the little details and the dates, get the big picture. You will have plenty of time to think about it after you have finished but the main thing is to go entirely through the book and finish it. It will leave you with your mouth open. Dont let yourself think :I cant understand this, I am an idiot therefore I will not continue. No, just finish the book , at the end you will be rewarded as is the case with all of Ecos books. After all there is no such thing as "I dont understand the book", there is only "I didnt let myself free enough to understand it".

Eco writes his books this way, they are only meant for the strong of spirit, people with perseverance that are willing to strugle in order to reach the ultimate truth that only the very few have mastered. His novels are deliberately cryptic but only to the point that they discourage the faint of hurt. For the few strong men that are willing to engage into the battle, all the mysteries and the hypes reveil themselfs at the end,like the petals of a rose in the spring. This is the REWARD, something central on Eco's novels.

IN ORDER TO PROVE MY POINT ECO HIMSELF ADMITTED that he included the first hundred pages of pure history in the "Name of the Rose" just to discourage the readers that would not have the strenght to continue with the book. That was the PRICE! that the readers have to pay in order to reach the monastery up in the mountains that the story takes place. His editor suggested that he should completely remove this big part of the book but Eco denied!

Going back to the PENDULUM, You should never forget that this book is a really mystery book. Not only for the heros of the book but also for you , the reader. There were times that I felt that I was involved in this world conspiracy and I may be in danger like the hero of the book. That is the trully amazing element of Eco. It gets the reader involved. And at the end you will have a completely different point of view about the world.

Eco has said that the ultimate mystery book is the one that the READER is himself the killer!

I definetely recommend the book, it will not dissapoint you.

Whenever I've got nothing to read I always go to the amazon.com reviews page of my favorite books. Focault's Pendulum is my favorite book and by checking out the customers reviews I discovered some fantasic books that I may not have discovered otherwise. For instance: An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, Perfume by Patrick Suskind and Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller. Now it is my turn to return the favor: the book is called The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch and it is Fantastic. Equally fantastic is a book by a German writer called Helmut Krausser. The name of the book is Melodies and Helmut Krausser can only be described as the love child of Umberto Eco and Stanley Kubrick. Unfortunately, I don't think it has been translated into English yet! (I read it in German). Look out for it though! The Discovery of heaven has been translated and you can get it through amazon.com. I hope my contribution has been helpful to other Eco enthousiasts.

Just because a book is interlaced with a vast bank of intellectual data does NOT necessarily qualify it as a great read. To compare this book with Ulysses and War & Peace is a crime; those books were exceptionally well written. I personally believe that many readers praise this book simply to qualify themselves as 'advanced' intellectuals. Big deal! I have read the book and found it endowed with much knowledge but that did not make it a good read. Look at the other reviews and you'll find one reoccurring theme, "Patchy", "Choppy" etc..; I could not agree more. Let's face it people the Oxford English Dictionary is a complex, intellectually challenging publication, that does not mean I want to read it from cover to cover. If it's bragging rights you're looking for then read "Foucault's Pendulum." If its fine, eloquent writing you seek, save yourself the money!

Though any work of Eco's will be daunting to most, and downright heiroglyphic to many, those readers with patience, access to a gallows humor and a need to be challenged cannot afford to miss this treasure. Eco here considers the endless (and often mindless) paranoia afforded to those who seek a cabalistic explanation for that which is inexplicable, with a treatment that fits its denizens to a veritable 'T.' I was enthralled by Arturo Perez-Reverte's THE CLUB DUMAS, for similar reasons, but Eco's PENDULUM is an absolute benchmark--for fiction, any fiction, these lofty heights will rarely be reached again.

The book is filled with irrelevant information. If the author's objective was to prove that he is a top notch intellectual - he had succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. However, the entertainment this book is not!

For better or for worse, this book has changed my life. Not that I have become some paranoid conspiracy theorist, but I was inspired to discover the larger story hidden beneath our "known" history. Many of the reviewers comment on the difficulty of plodding through the density contained in this novel, going so far as to blame it on the writer's sanctimonious ego for its inclusion. I think these people are missing the boat, ignoring the fact that this density is what is require of the novel to make evident its meaning. I was fascinated and entranced by the extensive historical details, insofar as to say it was those aspects were what made this read so pleasurable. The message of the book, exemplified by Abulafia's skill at piecing together esoteric bits of information goes to show us how seemingly incoherent events of time shape our story of history. Eco shows us that the story can be changed, altered, and tailored; an alternate view of history revealed. Does this new history have any less validity than the accepted one? Eco makes the case that it doesn't, but also not to stress over it. This is the final revelation of the protagonist. Enjoy the density, enjoy the history. This is a fantastic opportunity to glimpse back in time.

Eco obviously did some research for this book. Unfortantely for the reader, he tried to cram it all into this long-winded boring mess without bothering to condense the information. Eco has no concept of how to write a good story. I do find it impressive that so many people could get through this awful pompous monstrosity.

This is a fine 100-page novel. Unfortunately, it's trapped within the pages of a 500-page tome.

I skimmed the rest of the reviews, and here's my summation: First, like many other great, challenging, sometimes inaccessible works of art, this one tends get polarized responses... you're gonna love it or hate it. And second, not everyone responds well to the particular brand of fantastic historical puzzle that Eco spins here. And let's face it: the plot, the characters, the historical references are DEEP. Navigating some of the "back story" jumps is definitely an effort, and I can see where some people's minds just won't engage with Eco's beautifully crafted, diabolically brainteasing yarn. This book is WORK.

With that said, I LOVED it. Yeah, it can be work to get through, but it's SO worth it. Eco is the ultimate pimp when it comes to building his sentences, and the beguiling gossamer with which he weaves his dark fantasy ultimately ropes you into his style and leaves you begging for more. Eco's style is almost as seductive as his substance: the synthesis of the secret societies, the Masons, Templars, Rosicrucians et al makes for a beautifully researched alternate reality which is so compelling that it'll have you turning your worldview upside down. If you buy in to Eco's universe the way I did, this will be one of the best, most maddening, most terrifying reads of your life.

One more earlier review comment worth repeating: If you have poor self-control, wait until you have a few days off to read this book. The last 100 pages took over my life... lucky it wasn't a school night.

This book is on my personal list of all-time favorites. I loved "Name of the Rose", but "Foucault's Pendulum" is by far the best of Eco's novels (I found his most recent novel, "Island of the Day Before" to be a bit of a disappointment by comparison). The breadth of history, geography, culture, and philosophical thought covered in "Foucault's Pendulum" is amazing. The exciting plot will keep you on the edge of your seat ... particularly, the last 100 pages. In addition to being a clever thinker, Eco has a wonderful sense of humor which is everpresent throughout the entire novel. Although it takes some intellectual commitment at times (particularly through the middle portion), it is well worth the extra time to read/re-read the more challenging portions (for me, these sparked my interest to make some forays in researching historical and cultural areas that were new to me ... which then furthered my appreciation of the novel). Overall, I agree with those who would classify this novel as a literary masterpiece...and I highly recommend it!