To sum up
this unique book in one short sentence is nearly impossible; but if I must, I
would say that this book is about everything and nothing. Confused? So will you
be, if I have interested you, by this review, to read it. By everything, I
meant that this book covers wide and various (read: complex) topics around 14th
century. I'm not actually familiar with this era, and must grope throughout the
book to try to understand the historical background. Italy during the Middle
Age seemed to be full of power struggle between the state and the Church;
disputes between various orders inside Catholic Church; heresy, mystics, and
thirst of theological study.
Our protagonists are William of Baskerville—a Franciscan friar and an
inquisitor, and Adso of Melk—a Benedictine novice who helps William as his
secretary. They came as guests at a Benedictine monastery, where, in a week, a
theological disputation between the Pope and Friars Minor who was suspected of
heresy, was going to be held. Unfortunately, a monk has been mysteriously found
dead, and the abbot asked William's help to investigate the case, which seemed
to be related to the monastery's library—a magnificent one with ancient
manuscripts, with a labyrinth inside, but was full of dark mysteries. Within
the seven days of unfolding the mystery, five more monks were dead—murdered—and
many layers, signs, and paths began unfolding but leading, apparently, to nowhere.
With it, the book also speaks about many heavy topics which seemed unrelated,
confusing, and finally ended nowhere. This was what I meant earlier by
'everything but nothing'.
The magnificent (probably the biggest in the whole country) monastery owns a
large collection of manuscripts from scientists and theologians from around the
world (let alone important relics and valuable treasures hidden inside their
vault). It should have been the centre of the civilization; but it mysteriously
guarded from anyone, restricted, even from the monks, by some complicated
designs and a dangerous labyrinth. They were scholar-monks, but forbidden to
access of certain books. **spoiler alert** - In the end, it was burned down by
the villain—library and the whole monastery; nothing survived. Everything, then
nothing. **spoiler ends**
In this book, too, there were debates around poverty in the Catholic Church—whether
or not Jesus disciples and monks were allowed to have personal possessions,
etc. (without final conclusion and not related to the murder). They were also
debating whether or not monks were allowed to laugh or joke. The later finally
led to Aristotle's missing second book: Poetics,
which spoke about tragedies and comedies. This book seemed to be the main cause
of the murders; however, just as William and Adso seemed to have solved the
mystery and found the murderer, we found out that the suspect did not do the
murders, and some of the cases were not really murders. Again, everything, but
means nothing.
In short, this book contains some chaotic ideas—some are true but the rest are
false, and Eco let us readers to have our own opinion and perspective, and
finally make our own conclusion. I am personally interested in two aspects.
First, that knowledge should be opened to the world. Instead of banning (dangerous)
books, the authority (country, school, parents, etc.) should have given us
freedom to read, but with proper education. That way we are trained to sort the
good from the bad from our readings. Second, the correlation of the heresy
issue with the cause of the murders. Both are so relevant to the modern
terrorism which is mostly rooted from religious people. Piety and heresy are
divided only by a very thin line; sometimes a pious man and a murderer both
love God, but the one humbly seeks and follows God's will, while the other only
focus on his own will (arrogantly thinks it correspond with God’s). After
finishing this book, I remembered Pontius Pilate's 'what is truth’? This book
answered it beautifully; that love needs humility in order to be true,
without that, it can lead to evil, destruction, and death.
Final verdict: 4 to 5
