by Umberto Eco
This is a mad romp through the second half of the nineteenth century with a narrator, one Simomini and possibly a priest called Dalla Piccola. All the other characters in the book are, we are told, real characters from history and certainly many of them are.
We learn very early on that Simonini is in some sort of trouble and, having at some point met with Freud and obtained some cocaine for him, he has locked himself away and is using some Freudian technique to find out what has happened to him.
This allows us to discover Simonini's life story. His only love is food-and maybe money and he seems to hate everybody-the Germans, the Italians, the French, women, Jews(although he has never met any), Freemasons and Jesuits all come in for torrents of abuse in this book.
The story takes us to Italy and the wars of Garibaldi, to France and Germany in a rapid race through various historical episodes. I particularly liked Simonini's involvement in the Dreyfus affair. The book is at once very amusing and slightly disturbing with a great finale. As with other Umberto Eco books he can get bogged down in detail at times but this bbok-which I listened to as an audiobook was very enjoyable. 8/10
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