I want to get something out the way early on with this one. "Foucault's Pendulum" was published in 1988, twenty five years ahead of Dan Brown's ridiculously popular mystery thriller "The Da Vinci Code" so that when I say "this novel is about conspiracy theories involving the Templars, the Illuminati, the Rosicrucians and the Holy Grail" your first thought isn't "didn't somebody already do that?" That isn't all though. Not only did Umberto Eco write a vastly superior novel a quarter of a century ahead of Brown but it's a spoof, a cleverly constructed jab at the world's century-spanning obsession with conspiracies involved the Knights Templar.
You've probably already twigged that Dan Brown isn't my favourite author. I'm not going to go into that though because a) it's boring because everything that can be said about it has already been said and b) I'd like to think nobody cares anymore. It does, however, have relevance to this review because I have to admit a lot of my enjoyment of the novel was due to the way it mercilessly skewers the credulous nature of people who want to believe these stories and as somebody who was sick of hearing about how "it really could be like that" at the time I really found myself wishing I'd read this eight or nine years earlier.
The novel follows the story of three editors in a cynical "vanity publishing" house getting involved in creating their own conspiracy theory as a way of mocking the lunatics and obsessives they have to work with. Things don't end up quite so simple though (as you'd expect) and Eco leads us on an incredibly detailed and beautifully penned examination of the seductive power of conspiracy theories.
Detailed is a key word here. It probably would have been easy for Eco to gloss over the more complicated bits of history in a rush to make his point but his obvious passion for the subject leaves him unwilling to do so. A large amount of novel's 640 pages is given over to detailed historical descriptions, as well as drawing in science and occultism. This is both a strength and a weakness. In one sense it is refreshing to see an author who is so confidant in the interesting nature of his subject matter really let his passion shine through. He also avoids the trap of leaving too little room left over to explore his characters but it can be a turn off for those who find history a dry subject. There are a lot of names and concepts woven throughout the narrative with an assumption that you will be familiar with them and sometimes that is not the case, leaving the reader confused.
The novel's biggest strength though is the quality of the prose. A vast vocabulary (even more impressive when you consider this is a translation) wielded by an expert to create moments of distilled character insight is always a joy to read and Eco manages to pack in plenty. The character of Belbo in particular is sublime, eliciting sympathy and frustration in equal measure as he struggles to come to terms with their theory and what it might potentially mean to him personally.
Overall this is an impressive piece of fiction by a man who clearly understands what it means to write great prose but it does assume a rather hefty amount of knowledge from its readers and can, (rather appropriately) at times, become too bogged down in its own obsessions. Give it a try if you fancy a challenge but have wikipedia on stand-by just in case.
Rating: 8/10
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