Precious Memories: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

TITLE: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

AUTHOR: Umberto Eco

REVIEWED BY: Cleggy

BRIEF SUMMARY: Italian rare book dealer Yambo has suffered a heart attack that sent him into a coma. Upon awakening, he finds that while he can remember everything he ever read in books, his personal memories are gone. He can remember whole libraries of famous quotes and facts about Napoleon and Julius Caesar, but he cannot recognize his wife and daughters.

Slowly, he reaches a point where he is convinced that the answer to his problem lies at his family home in Solara. Thus begins his journey -- and ours -- as he rediscovers himself, his past, and quite possibly the face of his first true love.

Filled with historical references, illustrations, and too many literary references to name, this is classic Eco.

WHY I PICKED IT UP: It was Umberto Eco, and I loved The Name of the Rose. The blurb on the back and the copious illustrations pulled me in.

WHY I FINISHED IT: The writing. This is why I love Eco. He's too clever by half sometimes, but he is always entertaining.

WHO I'D GIVE IT TO: See "Additional Notes/Warnings."

ADDITIONAL NOTES/WARNINGS: I have to be honest: I have a love/hate relationship with this book.

I loved, loved, loved this book the first time I read it. Until the end. At that point, I put the book aside, bitterly stating that I had wasted a month of my life on it and I would never read it again. I put it on the shelf, planning to donate it to the library where I work.

But slowly, my mind brought me back to the book. There are wonderful passages, beautifully rendered episodes when Yambo recovers a bit of his past. Memories of growing up under Mussolini's dictatorship. Childhood games and memories of his grandfather. The character of Amalia, his "nanny" since childhood who won't give up taking care of him, even as he's pushing sixty. I wanted to read those again.

And as I read it again, I discovered hidden subtexts -- clues earlier in the novel that I had missed that not only foreshadowed the ending I hated, but actually made it make sense. The more I read the book, the better I understand what Eco was trying to do. And I see that he not only succeeded, he made it the only possibly ending that the book could have had.

Because of the depth of this book, I would only recommend it to people that already like Eco (or possibly someone else like Carlos Ruiz Zafon or Arturo Perez-Reverte). Someone who doesn't mind a second reading to get the whole story. Someone with time on their hands and a fascination with 20th century Italian history and culture.

As for content warnings, there is some language and some quite gruesome depictions of war.