swingbeat 27/26: The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco

I watched The Name of the Rose few years ago, which was a book by this author. I picked this one up because I wanted to dig into his works, having heard so much about him. This book was translated from Italian.

This book definitely is not light reading. Imagine Neil Gaiman, chock full of literary and mythical allusions, in a novel. Some of the deeper chapters are impossible to get through if you're not in the right state of mind. But once you do, the writing, imagery, and wit are beautiful.

This book was written in the third person based on fictional notes by Roberto della Griva. This is an interesting style since it allows the (presumably 20th century) narrator to add asides and opinions on implausibilities of Roberto's story.

Roberto is a castaway who ended up survivng... By bumping into a deserted ship near the antipodal longitude (i.e. 180th meridian). This book is about his story, past histories, thoughts, philosophies, and rambling in his mind. The name of the book comes from a nearby island which exists just beyond the antipodal longitude, so it always exists one day before where Roberto was stranded. Interesting premise, and Eco uses the free time that Roberto has to talk about many subjects and stories in a Gaimanesque way (or rather, I should say Gaiman does it in an Ecoesque way).

He intersperses the main story with chapters based on Roberto's thoughts, e.g. various monologues of love, planets, and philosophy; they reflect what an 17th century man might think of those topics, given limited knowledge of the sciences compared to today. For example, Roberto postulates on the existence of infinite worlds and alien life based on observing deeply the fractal nature of a piece of coral, and letting his thoughts run freely. Whether his syllogisms are correct or not does not matter, it definitely is interesting reading if you can keep up.

In addition the author also writes a novel within the novel (as a castaway Roberto has much time) and the narrator surmises why Roberto thinks of certain plot lines based on his life and experiences.

All in all, this was a big book, but worth reading. Some parts might be hard to get through. The translation is written in a rich vernacular; there are quite a few words I had to look up :).

Recommended.