Numero Zero by Humberto Eco: A review

Numero ZeroNumero Zero by Umberto Eco
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Humberto Eco's latest is more novella than novel at only 208 pages. I read it in translation, of course, and found it to be a quick and easy read, quite a change from some of the other Eco books I've read, such as The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Prague Cemetery. Even though it is slimmer and perhaps more accessible than those other books, Numero Zero is full of Eco's trademark love of conspiracies and of afflicting the powerful. It is a satire on the politics of modern Italy and it seems to me that the author is having great fun in its telling. I sort of imagine him chuckling away to himself as he sits at his word processor, getting it all on the record and tweaking the language to make it just a bit more acerbic.

The time is 1992. It's the Berlusconi era in Italy. A recent scandal revealed a labyrinthine system of kickbacks and payoffs that went straight to the center of power in the Italian government and religious bureaucracy. Powerful political parties were brought low. The government collapsed and out of all that chaos Silvio Berlusconi emerged.

Berlusconi was a Milanese entrepreneur with ambitions to create his own empire. A couple of years later he would be elected prime minister and would be a presence in Italian politics for years to come. But in 1992, he was still building his empire.

Eco's book never mentions Berlusconi, but the eminence grise, the hidden power in his tale is an ambitious businessman known as "Il Commendatore." Berlusconi was known by the honorific "Il Cavaliere." Coincidence? Nothing is coincidental in an Eco work!

Il Commendatore is starting up a newspaper, staffed by mostly hack journalists, who are busily preparing dummy issues. In fact, the main purpose of this newspaper will be to supply stories with which to blackmail the powerful.

Eco has great fun with the sorry state of modern journalism, both print and television, as well as the state of politics in Italy. In his world of conspiracies within conspiracies, it's actually all a part of the same picture.

I do enjoy Eco's writing, even if I'm not always smart enough or well-informed enough to figure out exactly who or what he is skewering. I love the marvelous word play and the combustible mixture of political corruption, love, conspiracy theories, the Mafia, and, yes, even murder. 

 In this book, he gives us a conspiracy that reaches all the way back to World War II and Mussolini. It is strictly a minor work by a master but it is certainly worth the couple of hours it takes to read for those of us who are Eco fans.

View all my reviews

Comments

  1. CarmenJanuary 8, 2016 at 10:12 PM

    How interesting. I have never read anything by him, though I have The Name of the Rose and Prague Cemetery on my TBR. I saw the movie adaptation of The Name of the Rose and didn't like it; I found the plot implausible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersJanuary 8, 2016 at 10:19 PM

      He's a very playful writer and it's not always easy to tell when he's putting us on. All of his books, beginning with The Name of the Rose feature conspiracies of one kind or another. Conspiracies that are more or less plausible, I guess, depending upon one's state of mind when one reads the book. I saw the movie, too, and loved it. That might have had something to do with Sean Connery being in it.

      Delete
  2. Judy KruegerJanuary 9, 2016 at 11:29 AM

    I have not read Eco either but I think I would like him. Lately it seems I am drawn to books that read like solving a puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersJanuary 9, 2016 at 12:14 PM

      His books are definitely intellectual puzzles to be solved. This one, as I've indicated, is not his best, but it is short - much, much shorter than any of his others, so that's a plus.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...
Read more

The Investigator by John Sandford: A review

Image
  I have read a few of John Sandford's books in the Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport. This book is a literal offspring of that series. It's the first in a series featuring Davenport's adopted daughter Letty Davenport. Letty is in her mid-20s and a graduate of Stanford. She works for a U.S. senator named Christopher Colles in a desk job but she's bored with her assignments. Then the senator offers her a chance to go into the field as a liaison between his office and the Department of Homeland Security.  In her first assignment in that position, she is sent to Texas along with DHS investigator John Kaiser to try to find out what is happening in regard to thefts of crude oil. The senator is not so concerned about the lost oil but wants to know where the money from its sale is going. Who is selling the oil and what they are doing with the profits? The suspicion is that a particularly nasty militia group led by a woman is involved. Letty and Kaiser head out to Texas, de...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...
Read more