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The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana: An Illustrated Novel

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The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana: An Illustrated Novel (Hardcover)

by Umberto Eco (Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.; Illustrated edition (May 5 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0151011400
ISBN-13: 978-0151011407
Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 16 x 4.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 772 g

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #122,543 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#78 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Italian

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

When aging Italian book-dealer Yambo, hero of this engaging if somewhat bloodless novel of ideas, regains consciousness after a mysterious coma, he suffers a peculiar form of amnesia. His "public" memory of languages, everyday routines, history and literature remains intact, but his autobiographical memory of personal experiences—of his family, lovers, childhood, even his name—is gone. He can spout literary and cultural allusions on any topic, citing everything from Moby-Dick to Star Trek, but complains, "I don't have feelings, I only have memorable sayings." To recover his past, he repairs to his boyhood home to peruse a cache of memorabilia amassed in his youth during Mussolini's reign and WWII, consisting of comic books, schoolbooks, Fascist propaganda, popular music, romantic novels and his own poetry about an unattainable high school beauty. The setup allows semiotician and novelist Eco (The Name of the Rose, etc.) to indulge his passion for pulp materials by reproducing such objects as movie posters, song lyrics and a graphic novella rendering the Book of Revelation as a Flash Gordon melodrama, with intriguing asides on cognitive psychology and philosophy of mind thrown in. The result has a somewhat academic feel, but it's an absorbing exploration of how that most fundamental master-narrative, our memory, is pieced together from a bricolage of pop culture. Illus. Author tour. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile

Giambattista "Yambo" Bodoni awakens in a hospital with no personal memories. The sixtyish Milanese rare book dealer can recite every book passage or line of poetry he's ever read, but he cannot recognize his wife, his daughters, or even his own name. AUDIOFILE Golden Voice George Guidall puts an exotic edge in his voice as he narrates the story of Yambo's search through his grandfather's attic for the memories of his childhood, war, and early love. Missing from the audio are the 200 or so illustrations--photographs, comic strips, magazine covers, and advertisements--that Yambo uses to restore his memories. Guidall's melodic, well-paced reading and Eco's magical writing guide the listener so well that the illustrations are hardly missed. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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5.0 out of 5 stars An Accessible Eco as Graphic Novelist, Jul 15 2006

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana: An Illustrated Novel (Paperback)

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is a side of Umberto Eco that you haven't seen before . . . and I think you will like it . . . especially if you found the references in The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum to be a little too much for you.

The book's premise is much like that of The Arabian Nights, an excuse to introduce an interesting story teller who unravels a fascinating tale that could go on endlessly. In this case, the device is a stroke which causes Yambo to lose his memory of most everything (including his name) except what he has read. Recuperating from his stroke, Yambo receives hints from his wife and best friend about what he's like . . . and discovers that he has a weakness for the ladies. What does that mean about his relationship with his beautiful, young assistant?

Soon frustrated by his memoryless life in Milan, Yambo goes back to his childhood home to see if anything there resurrects any memories. He discovers a house and attic full of the past through which he relives the history of Italians his age. Later, a second stroke restores his memory, and he relives his life as it happened . . . with a little fantasy attached.

It's a witty commentary on the vacuity of the "official" record of our times to see how little of Yambo's life the effects of his life captured.

For those who aren't Italian, the book offers deep and thoughtful look at what it meant to live in Italy under the Fascists. At times, it seemed like the musical comedy version of Gunter Grass's books about Nazi Germany.

The book dazzles most, however, with its many full color illustrations from books, magazines, posters and other cultural icons. These images make the mental pictures conjured up by Eco's words stronger and more lasting. Be sure to check out the section on sources of citations and references that begin on 451. These details will add to your enjoyment of the illustrations.

As I read the book, I wished that I knew a few more languages (especially German and Italian), but most of the references were either easy to appreciate or covered in context by another reference that I understood. Naturally, some Ph.D. student will write a dissertation that firmly fixes all of the references, but that will be too stuffy to read for this breezy, charming effort.

What is life? What is memory? What is reality? These fundamental questions are all beautifully addressed in both sublime (images of perfect love) and the mundane (relieving oneself among the vineyard rows.

It's great fun, and I highly recommend this book to you. It's the high brow's perfect beach read!

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5.0 out of 5 stars spell-binder, Jan 27 2007

By	Shemogue (New Brunswick) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

There isn't much I can add that the previous reviewer hasn't already - and very eloquently -- written about this unusual book.

As a life-long reader & amasser of books, I knew by the time I reached page 30, I was hooked. The narrator, having lost his memory, returns home from hospital and is led by his wife to a long room crammed with books whose titles he recognizes & begins to examine:

"I have so many books. Sorry, we do."
"Five thousand here. And there's always some imbecile who comes over and says, my how many books you have, have you read them all?"
"And what do I say?"
"Usually you say: Not me, why else would I be keeping them here...As for the five thousand I've already read, I gave them away to prisons and hospitals. And the imbecile reels."

At last, thanks to Mr Eco, I have a snappy reply for the next person who says to me, what a lot of books you have, have you read them all...

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