Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 11/24/2010 + 774 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I really enjoyed reading this book - however, it's not really a novel, but an extended essay on how media interacts with personal identity.
There are three parts; the first sets up the scenario: a middle-aged antiquarian book dealer has a selective form of amnesia: he can remember everything he's studied or read, but all of his personal and emotional memories are gone. The second part has to do with his looking through the contents of an attic, reading books, listening to music and going through the detritus of his youth, trying to gain knowledge of who he is. In the third part, now in a coma, his life passes through his memory, and we see how the items described in the middle part related to his life.
This structure is merely a skeleton for Eco to hang all sorts of ideas on, as through the lens of the media (which, one suspects, are actually the books, music and etc which influenced Eco himself) he discusses politics, religion and love (and lots of other things).
I think I'm going to go on to read some of Eco's non-fiction essays soon...

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