The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

As with most Umberto Eco books, the concept is fabulous but the writing is horrible.

I read, struggled to read, half of The Mysterious Flame, then stopped. It's a frustratingly boring book by a nostalgic, older bibliophile about, surprise!, a nostalgic, older bibliophile. The story starts shortly after the protagonist suffers a sudden onset of amnesia. To reconstruct his life, he spends several days in an attic reliving his childhood through books and music.

The plot has potential, but the writing is so contrived and the story moves so slowly that it comes out feeling like the book is just an excuse for Eco to both rehash his past and show off his erudition by quoting the most cheesy passages from a zillion obscure books, then tying the passages into magical and mysterious flames of memory.

If you like Marcel Proust and his journeys down the never ending miles of memory lane, you might like this book. If you're a hyper-nostalgic, older bibliophile, you'll probably love this book. If you're anyone else, skip it.