Baudolino
Umberto Eco, 2000
544 pages
Read in 2008
Check the synopsis and details on amazon.com
🔽 Summary and quick note 🔽
✔ In 1204, Baudolino, a mster of lies, saves a historian, and he begins to tell him his adventures
✔ The protagonist might be fictional but almost everything and everyone is historical figures and events
✔ To what extend it is fiction, or legends, truth or lies? Makes you giggle at the unexpected plot
★★★★★ In Byzantine, Baudolino rescues a historian, Niketas. Baudolino tells a story of his life, claiming that it's full of lies, but Niketas couldn't resist. To what extent it is s fiction by Eco and from where Baudolino's lies kick in? Unexpected story throughout, and unexpectedly funny.
🔽 Book review 🔽
It's a fun read, it really is.
It's Umberto Eco, in Medieval Europe, with historical and legendary figures, and our protagonist Baudolino is a master of languages and lies - it cannot go wrong and it doesn't.
In 1204 in Constantinople, Baudolino rescues a historian Niketas, and Baudolino starts to tell him about his life, claiming himself that he is a liar.
But his life story (or the story he says was his life story) is so fascinating that Niketas couldn't resist.
According to Baudolino, he was born in the swamp in the northern Italy, where he met Frederick Barbarossa and got adopted by him and Baudolino went on to study in Paris.
Not only that, because he was an excellent and charming liar, he controlled Barbarossa's politics and eventually went out to look for a legendary figure called Prester John to the East.
Eco's story is full of fantasy, of elegance, yet it's logical.
Because of that it is a bit confusing to understand what is going on at the start, it sounds logical, yet it's not facts, as Baudolino repeats it himself, he's so good at lying.
Barbarossa, Niketas and Baudolino's friends are all historical figures, and the background to Baudolino's adventure is all historical events, yet Baudolino and his actions are fiction.
He meets all sorts of people and creatures, and he shows off his wits and his technique in arguments that he learned in Paris, and his arguments are interesting and fun.
Eco is from a misty town in northern Italy called Alessandria, and it's well known because he often refers to Alessandria in his various books.
And, I lived in Piedmont for 2 years so I'm not unfamiliar with it, so that's additional fun bits for me.
Of course this book is a fiction, but it's difficult to draw a line between the world Eco created, the lies Baudolino is telling, and legends that have existed for centuries, and actual history.
The story is fun and interesting, but what makes the book more intriguing is to guess how far we could trust the protagonist.
Until the last line of the book everything is unexpected, so that in the end it of it it makes you smile.
🔽 Related pages 🔽
🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽
●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
Baudolino
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