Umberto Eco: Name of the Rose

[jack]

I recently reread Name of the Rose again. It's a LOT easier to read when you already know the plot. Indeed, I've come to the conclusion that the basic story, while excellent, isn't THAT hard to read, rather a very large proportion of the difficulty comes specifically from the many points where the book drops into weird visions, or pan-european polyglot, or obscure sermons, or latin, for several pages. But the point is, while actually understanding those is important to understand the book, you will actually follow 95% of everything is you simply skim them, and say "obscure vision" rather than spending two pages being confused at the way the action slips from reality into surrealism, and then having it explained afterwards.