Book # 98 The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

When I was about 11, I remember that my mom had a copy of The Name of the Rose. The cover fascinated me for some unknown reason and I wanted to read it but my mom told me something along the lines of “that book isn’t for children”. Of course that just made me want to read it even more but since I was only 11 I quickly forgot all about it… until about two years ago where I found an old copy at the Culver City Library book sale for fifty cents. I kept putting off reading it though because it looked pretty thick and had really tiny print. So now that I’ve read it I can see why it isn’t for children… not because of anything scandalous (well… some monks do have inappropriate relationships with each other) but because it is full of long theological debates, histories of various monk orders and discussions about 14^th century libraries. If these things interest you, then this book is for you!

The main story is about a super smart monk that visits a monastery in order to solve a murder. However he quickly realizes that the monks are hiding stuff from him and dead bodies keep appearing. Along the way he has long theological discussions with almost everyone he meets and talks about the differences between different orders of monks (Benedictine, Franciscan, etc), and hears about how everyone back then accused each other of heresy and burned those found guilty. Plus half of the scenes are set in the monks’ library. Either that sounds really interesting to you or it doesn’t. I found it pretty interesting though I found it a bit difficult to remember all of the details on the different types of monks and what the political allegiances of various Popes and kings were. Plus the characters just love to quote things in Latin. I'm a library nerd, so I found all of the discussions about medieval libraries super fascinating. I'd guess most people would be bored by that though.

The main murder mystery is compelling… especially because every time you think you know who did it that person ends up dead in the next chapter. From just reading the book, I’d guess that the movie with Sean Connery should be pretty good. I’ll have to rent it to find out, but I read online that the movie has an additional scene  which changes the outcome of a minor character. If that scene had been in the book it would have diminished the ending quite a bit for me. I found the resolution to the mystery and the fate of all of the characters very satisfying and justified all of the theological debates throughout. It isn’t the happiest of endings (which I like) but it feels like the natural perfect conclusion. I can just imagine some studio executive demanding a happier ending to the movie and having that extra scene added (**spoiler** in the book an innocent character is last seen being taken away to be executed with no hope of rescue, however the movie has a scene in which she escapes).

The book easily gets an A. It is a bit borderline for my own top 50, I’ll include it for now, but it could be pushed out by future books.

-Daniel