803. Foucault's Pendulum

Foucault's Pendulum
Umberto Eco
1988
Around 625 pages

I guess this is known as the thinking man's The Da Vinci Code, as people love to tear Dan Brown down for the sin of achieving mainstream popularity. I'm not saying that all of his works are masterpieces, but Brown is much more fun than Eco. 

Foucault's Pendulum is divided into ten segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. Three Milanese editors cook up "the Plan," a hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with other occult groups from ancient to modern times. This produces a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled — a point located in Paris, France, at Foucault’s Pendulum. Some believe that the title refers to Michel Foucault, because of Eco's friendship with the French philosopher, but the author "specifically rejects any intentional reference to Michel Foucault"—this is regarded as one of his subtle literary jokes. What a crack up. 

Once again, there is an interesting narrative that is buried in Eco's exhaustive prose and historical allusions. Disliking Eco is considered the ultimate intellectual failure, but I'm not sure writing an enjoyable novel is high on his priority list. Instead, he wants to create some scholastic tome that terrifies his audience into submission. 

If you have the patience, there is some juicy occult intrigues in there, but for me the overall reading experience wasn't worth it.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

When asked if he had read The Da Vinci Code, he said, "I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it. My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel Foucault's Pendulum, which is about people who start believing in occult stuff."

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