Book Review - The Name of the Rose

I finished Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose a couple of weeks ago. I've been meaning to review it, so here we go.

First off, I absolutely loved this book. LOVED it. Set in an Italian monastery in the 14th century, the main plot of the book revolves around a series of murders. The visiting William of Baskerville - an English Franciscan - is the story's Sherlock Holmes figure, armed with empiricism and the philosophies of Roger Bacon and Aristotle. The novel is narrated by William's scribe, Adso of Melk. The story goes beyond the simple mystery, however, and largely discusses the politics of the Roman Catholic Church, medieval heresy, the nature of truth and the danger of knowledge. This heavy discourse, coupled with the suspense of the mystery, make the book absolutely fascinating. Of course, the Medieval period fascinates me, so of course I'm going to enjoy this book.

The only complaint I have is that the subplot with Adso and the young village woman (she has no name in the book) seemed really forced to me. The writing of that section was gorgeous - the prose of Adso's narration was mixed with quotes from the Song of Soloman and other texts - but I really cannot understand the girl's attraction to Adso or why she got involved with him at all. This was not a hugely significant subplot though (unlike in the movie) so I didn't mind it too much.

The prose is a little dense, but totally rewarding to get through.