Review of 'Foucault's Pendulum'

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

A group of editors cynically start the publication of some mystic and occult books by their “vanity press” clients which, by chance, leads them to a strange tale told to them by a colonel. This tale leads them to developing a story that describes how an incredible secret will be revealed after several hundreds of years. The story touches on most of the historical cults and major religions including (in great detail) the story of the “Knights Templar” and of the Masons. The story is filled with excessive detail showing the no doubt exhaustive knowledge of the author but leads to quite a difficult read though this is broken up by the occasional passage of dialogue containing quite intelligent and readable wit. I found this book quite hard to read but the story is quite good though I find the overwelming detail quite distracting and difficult.

Rating: “Not great, but not the worse”

Genre: General Fiction