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Gumbywan

Randolph "Dilda" Carter

A rant about books, horror, and the weird.  I sometimes take on my love/hate relationship with goodreads and Amazon.

Currently reading

Perchance to Dream: Selected Stories
Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, William Shatner
Progress: 140/336 pages
Pavane
Keith Roberts

The Prague Cemetery

The Prague Cemetery - Okay, Okay, everyone already knows this book is historical fiction about the genesis of the fraudulent antisemitic The Protocols of the Elders of Zion used for sundry nefarious purposes since its creation in the 19th century. Its also a commentary on conspiracy theories. Its also a commentary on what Hannah Arendt called the "banality of evil." Its about the Big Lie. Its a pretty good romp through 19th century European politics. Eco also claims its mostly true, which makes it very creepy. Its also, and this is what I don't see in most reviews, very, very funny. I don't know how most people miss this. Maybe its the horrid nature of the subject that makes it so hard to laugh at it, but Captain Simone Simonini - adventurer, master forger, secret agent, cleric, anarchist, whatever the situation calls for, is a hilarious character. And this is a funny book. Its funny like Hogan's Heroes is funny. Simonini is interested in only three things: saving his own skin, saving 300,000 francs for retirement, and a good meal. He is a master of understatement and reading through his and his alter ego/twin's diaries, as stitched together by "The Narrator," would be like a 19th century Keystone Cop comedy only with the consequences so much more dire. As the body count in Simonini's cellar rises, he is forced to create ever more diabolical and outlandish lies to keep everything from falling apart. Eco is such a master at characterization that even as we hate the viciously antisemitic Simonini we can't help but pull for him as he squeezes out of one complication just to fall into another, all while telling us what was on the menu. Once on the slippery slope of his forgeries his lies have to become bigger and bigger to cover what has been done before. He has to masquerade as the people he kills. In the end he even becomes an unwitting character in his own forgery.I would put this in the middle of Eco's fiction canon, I think Name of the Rose and the magnificent Foucault's Pendulum were better, but even middlin' Eco is far better than the average.