For the last couple of weeks I’ve been struggling reading The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco.  Today I finally finished it.

I always eagerly anticipate a new book Umberto Eco , having first discovered him in 1999 when I was living in the US and my sister was living in Germany when as a house-warming present she sent me my first ever Amazon parcel – The Name of the Rose. I was astonished to receive a parcel containing a gift wrapped book from the other side of the world, astonishment which now seems very quaint. I absolutely loved the book inside and I’d highly recommend reading it. It was an unputdownable tale of murder in the Middle Ages with characters and settings that leapt off the page.

Since then I’ve really enjoyed reading both Foucault’s Pendulum and Baudolino, the former a tale of conspiracy, which I enjoyed following despite its complexity, and the latter set amidst medieval legends at the time of the crusades.

So, I was looking forward to starting The Prague Cemetery and it was most unexpected when I found it hard going and was unable to get into it. About 40% of the way through (the kindle app gives you such accuracy but I still prefer having a good look at the spine of an actual book to see how far through I am) I did something I never usually do and went to look at some reviews. Disturbingly many said how readable it was. So, I guess I missed something. I’m not sure whether it’s because I read it in short bursts on trains and that it requires more focused concentration. Or that with a particularly busy period at work and a heavy cold my mind wasn’t sufficiently focused to follow it.

The premise of the book is very clever – a set of nineteenth century conspiracies against the Jewish people that actually all lead back to one man. But I found it really heavy going and felt like I was reading disjointed chapters that lacked an overall narrative, or anything to pull me into what is the kind of story of plotting and intrigue that I usually love. Only when I got right to the end and found an explanatory table (designed for readers ‘not so quick on the uptake’) did it all make sense to me. And I was put well and truly in my place.

I would highly recommend The Name of the Rose, but I can’t honestly say I have enjoyed reading The Prague Cemetery.