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Inventing The Enemy: Essays (2011)

by Umberto Eco(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0547640978 (ISBN13: 9780547640976)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: As the title says, 'essays' - totally unrelated to one another. Some essays are good (like the title essay, which the author admits the publisher choose on purpose as the book title). Some essays, not so good. Most are speeches translated out of the original Italian. The reader doesn't know the purpose of the speech until the end / endnotes. It would have helped some if this information was give as a forward to each essay rather than an endnote. The context of the topic would have given more significance to the direction of the philosophical rambling.
review 2: I was tempted to go with just one star but then realized it reflected badly on Mr. Eco, for no fault of his. The error here is clearly on the part of the compiler of this book of essays. The problem is n... moreot so much that the topics have no relevance to one another; its that they have no relevance.. period. For anyone with no understanding of Italian literature, this book is all Greek and Latin. I feel Mr. Eco would have made a lot of sense while speaking/writing this stuff in his native Italian. The translation, sadly, doesn't do him justice. Also, did I misunderstand or was there a heavy dose of anti-Semitism in one of the essays? less

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