Exceptionally Good, 22 Jul 2008
I loved this novel, which complements and enhances the film. One of my all-time-favourites.

One of the finest crime novels I've ever read , 20 Jun 2008
This book is amazing. It's a very readable, very graphic, hugely entertaining look at criminal life. The writing is very intelligent and Puzo's eye for detail gives it an extra dimension that raises it far above what might be expected. This is a very seriously good read.

Quite easily the best book I have ever read!, 31 May 2008
I have just finished reading this book, and as I have stated in the title, it is to my opinion the best book ever written. I am also a huge fan of the films but this book well and truly trounces them hands down. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you will be gripped the second you start reading the first page.

Mario Puzo has done a phenomenal job by creating these mafiosa characters with extra layers and dimensions which makes them all the more fearsome. He has openly shown that these gangsters are much more than tommy gun wielding maniacs, but that they are also warm hearted men who will protect their families at any cost. He does all of this while not glorifying any of their actions, just staing them in vivid detail for the reader to make their own mind up about the character.

The media shows these men in real life to be emotionless and ruthless who lack intelligence and use brute force all the time to get what they want. However, Mario Puzo shows that this is not true and shows the character's practical side that they use in everyday life to survive. He shows that these "Dons" are men who chose to live outside of normal society and not be forced to do things by the politicians who "pull the strings".

Mario Puzo creates an absolutely breathtaking image of 1940's New York, and I am not justtalking about the landscape, but also the political and social climate of the times. His two main characters, Vito "The Godfather" Corleone and his son Michael, are shown to be two great men in their own right. Vito as an enormously intelligent man who is a great friend to most and a ruthless and fearsome enemy to some. Michael on the other hand is a cold and almost merciless character who radiates power. These two characters make this book what it is, a true classic.

I would recommend this book to all becuase trust me you will not regret ever picking up this book, it is a true masterpiece.

Outstanding, 29 May 2008
I bought this on a whim when I saw it on sale. I figured that as I liked the film so much it would be worth a go. It had me absolutely gripped from the first page. I guess it helps when you can picture the cast members from the film in your head as you read, but even without that, this is awesome.
Brilliantly written, not a word was wasted. If only gangster novels were still this good.

excellent, 25 Feb 2008
Having seen the film many times I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Not only is it a great read on the subject of the 'mafia', the power and corruption associated with it, but it also must go down as one of the classic novels.

Writer Primo Levi (1919-1987), an Italian Jew, did not come to the wide attention of the English-reading audience until the last years of his life. A survivor of the Holocaust and imprisonment in Auschwitz, Levi is considered to be one of the century's most compelling voices, and The Periodic Table is his most famous book. Taking the knowledge he gained from his training as a chemist, Levi uses the elements as metaphors to create a cycle of linked, somewhat autobiographical tales, including stories of the Piedmontese Jewish community he came from, and of his response to the Holocaust.

Exceptionally Good, 22 Jul 2008
I loved this novel, which complements and enhances the film. One of my all-time-favourites.

One of the finest crime novels I've ever read , 20 Jun 2008
This book is amazing. It's a very readable, very graphic, hugely entertaining look at criminal life. The writing is very intelligent and Puzo's eye for detail gives it an extra dimension that raises it far above what might be expected. This is a very seriously good read.

Quite easily the best book I have ever read!, 31 May 2008
I have just finished reading this book, and as I have stated in the title, it is to my opinion the best book ever written. I am also a huge fan of the films but this book well and truly trounces them hands down. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you will be gripped the second you start reading the first page.

Mario Puzo has done a phenomenal job by creating these mafiosa characters with extra layers and dimensions which makes them all the more fearsome. He has openly shown that these gangsters are much more than tommy gun wielding maniacs, but that they are also warm hearted men who will protect their families at any cost. He does all of this while not glorifying any of their actions, just staing them in vivid detail for the reader to make their own mind up about the character.

The media shows these men in real life to be emotionless and ruthless who lack intelligence and use brute force all the time to get what they want. However, Mario Puzo shows that this is not true and shows the character's practical side that they use in everyday life to survive. He shows that these "Dons" are men who chose to live outside of normal society and not be forced to do things by the politicians who "pull the strings".

Mario Puzo creates an absolutely breathtaking image of 1940's New York, and I am not justtalking about the landscape, but also the political and social climate of the times. His two main characters, Vito "The Godfather" Corleone and his son Michael, are shown to be two great men in their own right. Vito as an enormously intelligent man who is a great friend to most and a ruthless and fearsome enemy to some. Michael on the other hand is a cold and almost merciless character who radiates power. These two characters make this book what it is, a true classic.

I would recommend this book to all becuase trust me you will not regret ever picking up this book, it is a true masterpiece.

Outstanding, 29 May 2008
I bought this on a whim when I saw it on sale. I figured that as I liked the film so much it would be worth a go. It had me absolutely gripped from the first page. I guess it helps when you can picture the cast members from the film in your head as you read, but even without that, this is awesome.
Brilliantly written, not a word was wasted. If only gangster novels were still this good.

excellent, 25 Feb 2008
Having seen the film many times I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Not only is it a great read on the subject of the 'mafia', the power and corruption associated with it, but it also must go down as one of the classic novels.

Carphone Warehouse Book Club's favorite read in 2007, 31 Jul 2008
The unusual form of the book, each chapter relating to an element of the periodic table (not every element is included), to tell the tale of a chemist's life is highly effective. The content reinforces the form and the form the content to give a really high quality novel.

This was our group's favorite book by a modest lead over Lolita and The Master and Margarita. It is beautiful and moving and much more enjoyable than his good but harrowing Auschwitz tales.

Please do not be put off by the slow start - Argon is a very thin, rare gas and this chapter is one of the least engaging perhaps for that reason. Iron was most people's favorite element.

Autobiographical Stories, Beautifully Translated, 21 Jun 2008
I want to defend this book from a couple of unfair reviews. Not that the great Primo Levi should need me, but The Periodic Table is one of the books I have most enjoyed reading in the past couple of years and so I don't want people to get the wrong impression of what it is.

For most of his working life, Levi was a professional chemist who also wrote on the side. Almost every chapter is a story from his remarkable life (two chapters are fiction). Each chapter has a chemical element for its title and that element appears somehow in the story, either literally or metaphorically. In the first chapter Primo Levi tells something of the history of his family: Jews in southern France, Venice and lastly in the city of Turin, where Levi grew up (except during the war he lived in the same apartment for his whole life). The first chapter is slightly harder going than the rest of the book (it has interesting information about some Hebrew names and how they were twisted via French into the local Piedmontese dialect), and I think that's where some readers got stuck -- too bad, because once you get further it's a nice balance to the rest. Then there are stories about his interest in chemistry as a child, mixing things up and causing explosions, his university education, how Fascism started to become a factor in his life as a young man, and then the story of how as a captured anti-fascist fighter he, amazingly, got himself sent to Auschwitz as a Jew in order to avoid being shot by the Fascists as a 'traitor'. There is one Auschwitz chapter; then stories of Levi's return after the war to Turin, where he became the head of the chemistry department at a paint factory. He became an expert in the chemistry of varnishes, though the book doesn't mention it. Chemistry is not the most obvious raw material for a writer of Levi's calibre, that is what makes the book unique. He lays out how it crisscrossed the path of his life from the nineteen-thirties through to the eighties. Some of the incidents are exotic or dangerous, others are prosaic, but Levi's extraordinary power of observation, his eye for a curious detail, runs all the way through. You have to concentrate to make the most of this book, but it is worth the effort. And, by the end, you have learnt a little chemistry too.

Really, I cannot recommend The Periodic Table highly enough to do it justice. Raymond Rosenthal's translation is beautifully done; the English doesn't disturb the original. Translated Italian can easily become very turgid, but Rosenthal has avoided that. There is an introduction by Philip Roth in which he tells of meeting Primo Levi in the 1980s. I love this book. And for the price, what a deal.

A difficult book- review by 'Keyne Readers', 17 Jun 2008
This turned out not to be a good choice for us. Many of the group did not manage to read much of the book. There were a variety of individual reasons, but perhaps the book is simply difficult to engage with, and uncomfortable when you do. A number of people started it but turned to lighter books for bedtime and holiday reading (which is when most of us do our reading for this group, so heavyweight reading does not go down well). Chapter 1 in particular was not popular. People struggled with it. Someone remarked that there were just too many characters. One member had a copy of the book on her shelves for 20 years and had never got round to reading it. She got bogged down in the first chapter, but persisted and found the book got better as she read alter chapters. Some people liked the fact that they could dip into chapters that were of different styles and different lengths.

One of the group remembered that she had once worked on a course that used something of his called `The Mark of a Chemist', about learning to be a professional chemist. We discussed whether reading The Periodic Table would enthuse anyone to become a chemist. Some of us (non-chemists) felt that we got a sense of his excitement and passion for his work, and thre were places where we laughed at his mis-haps. Our professional chemistry academic loved it, but someone else who had studied chemistry with other sciences felt that she couldn't relate it to the chemistry she knew. For some it reminded them of why they gave up the subject. Although the book is a biography of a `jobbing' chemist, and authoritative about chemistry, many of the group preferred the parts about people. However, we also noted that Levi is the central character through out, other characters tend to be significant only with respect to their relationship to Levi, not as characters in their own right.

Some members had an edition with an introductory chapter which discussed Levi's suicide. We were all shocked that he died in this way and we were aware of it as we read the book. Maybe knowing this was why some of us felt that the book was full of sense of foreboding. It is as much a retrospective story about the experience of Jewishness in the 20th century, as of being a chemist.


wrong book, 22 Dec 2007
This book with the title "The Periodic Table", "The best science book ever written" (comment by the London's Royal Institute) is completely misleading. If you are in search of a book explaining the periodic table, then this is NOT the one to buy. I couldn't care less about Primo Levi or the Jewish community in Piedmont. I'm returning this book! It's like buying a book called "The Christmas Cake, the ultimate cookery book" and ending up reading a story about sunny Africa. It goes into Room 101!

Recommended for academic fairies., 26 Oct 2007
The first few paragraphs seemed to cover a phenomenal sense of history, humanity and with beautiful prose, but the "Essential penguin" edition is printed with characters the size of one lead atom (or possibly 9pt type) and is subsequently unreadable.

Exceptionally Good, 22 Jul 2008
I loved this novel, which complements and enhances the film. One of my all-time-favourites.

One of the finest crime novels I've ever read , 20 Jun 2008
This book is amazing. It's a very readable, very graphic, hugely entertaining look at criminal life. The writing is very intelligent and Puzo's eye for detail gives it an extra dimension that raises it far above what might be expected. This is a very seriously good read.

Quite easily the best book I have ever read!, 31 May 2008
I have just finished reading this book, and as I have stated in the title, it is to my opinion the best book ever written. I am also a huge fan of the films but this book well and truly trounces them hands down. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you will be gripped the second you start reading the first page.

Mario Puzo has done a phenomenal job by creating these mafiosa characters with extra layers and dimensions which makes them all the more fearsome. He has openly shown that these gangsters are much more than tommy gun wielding maniacs, but that they are also warm hearted men who will protect their families at any cost. He does all of this while not glorifying any of their actions, just staing them in vivid detail for the reader to make their own mind up about the character.

The media shows these men in real life to be emotionless and ruthless who lack intelligence and use brute force all the time to get what they want. However, Mario Puzo shows that this is not true and shows the character's practical side that they use in everyday life to survive. He shows that these "Dons" are men who chose to live outside of normal society and not be forced to do things by the politicians who "pull the strings".

Mario Puzo creates an absolutely breathtaking image of 1940's New York, and I am not justtalking about the landscape, but also the political and social climate of the times. His two main characters, Vito "The Godfather" Corleone and his son Michael, are shown to be two great men in their own right. Vito as an enormously intelligent man who is a great friend to most and a ruthless and fearsome enemy to some. Michael on the other hand is a cold and almost merciless character who radiates power. These two characters make this book what it is, a true classic.

I would recommend this book to all becuase trust me you will not regret ever picking up this book, it is a true masterpiece.

Outstanding, 29 May 2008
I bought this on a whim when I saw it on sale. I figured that as I liked the film so much it would be worth a go. It had me absolutely gripped from the first page. I guess it helps when you can picture the cast members from the film in your head as you read, but even without that, this is awesome.
Brilliantly written, not a word was wasted. If only gangster novels were still this good.

excellent, 25 Feb 2008
Having seen the film many times I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Not only is it a great read on the subject of the 'mafia', the power and corruption associated with it, but it also must go down as one of the classic novels.

Carphone Warehouse Book Club's favorite read in 2007, 31 Jul 2008
The unusual form of the book, each chapter relating to an element of the periodic table (not every element is included), to tell the tale of a chemist's life is highly effective. The content reinforces the form and the form the content to give a really high quality novel.

This was our group's favorite book by a modest lead over Lolita and The Master and Margarita. It is beautiful and moving and much more enjoyable than his good but harrowing Auschwitz tales.

Please do not be put off by the slow start - Argon is a very thin, rare gas and this chapter is one of the least engaging perhaps for that reason. Iron was most people's favorite element.

Autobiographical Stories, Beautifully Translated, 21 Jun 2008
I want to defend this book from a couple of unfair reviews. Not that the great Primo Levi should need me, but The Periodic Table is one of the books I have most enjoyed reading in the past couple of years and so I don't want people to get the wrong impression of what it is.

For most of his working life, Levi was a professional chemist who also wrote on the side. Almost every chapter is a story from his remarkable life (two chapters are fiction). Each chapter has a chemical element for its title and that element appears somehow in the story, either literally or metaphorically. In the first chapter Primo Levi tells something of the history of his family: Jews in southern France, Venice and lastly in the city of Turin, where Levi grew up (except during the war he lived in the same apartment for his whole life). The first chapter is slightly harder going than the rest of the book (it has interesting information about some Hebrew names and how they were twisted via French into the local Piedmontese dialect), and I think that's where some readers got stuck -- too bad, because once you get further it's a nice balance to the rest. Then there are stories about his interest in chemistry as a child, mixing things up and causing explosions, his university education, how Fascism started to become a factor in his life as a young man, and then the story of how as a captured anti-fascist fighter he, amazingly, got himself sent to Auschwitz as a Jew in order to avoid being shot by the Fascists as a 'traitor'. There is one Auschwitz chapter; then stories of Levi's return after the war to Turin, where he became the head of the chemistry department at a paint factory. He became an expert in the chemistry of varnishes, though the book doesn't mention it. Chemistry is not the most obvious raw material for a writer of Levi's calibre, that is what makes the book unique. He lays out how it crisscrossed the path of his life from the nineteen-thirties through to the eighties. Some of the incidents are exotic or dangerous, others are prosaic, but Levi's extraordinary power of observation, his eye for a curious detail, runs all the way through. You have to concentrate to make the most of this book, but it is worth the effort. And, by the end, you have learnt a little chemistry too.

Really, I cannot recommend The Periodic Table highly enough to do it justice. Raymond Rosenthal's translation is beautifully done; the English doesn't disturb the original. Translated Italian can easily become very turgid, but Rosenthal has avoided that. There is an introduction by Philip Roth in which he tells of meeting Primo Levi in the 1980s. I love this book. And for the price, what a deal.

A difficult book- review by 'Keyne Readers', 17 Jun 2008
This turned out not to be a good choice for us. Many of the group did not manage to read much of the book. There were a variety of individual reasons, but perhaps the book is simply difficult to engage with, and uncomfortable when you do. A number of people started it but turned to lighter books for bedtime and holiday reading (which is when most of us do our reading for this group, so heavyweight reading does not go down well). Chapter 1 in particular was not popular. People struggled with it. Someone remarked that there were just too many characters. One member had a copy of the book on her shelves for 20 years and had never got round to reading it. She got bogged down in the first chapter, but persisted and found the book got better as she read alter chapters. Some people liked the fact that they could dip into chapters that were of different styles and different lengths.

One of the group remembered that she had once worked on a course that used something of his called `The Mark of a Chemist', about learning to be a professional chemist. We discussed whether reading The Periodic Table would enthuse anyone to become a chemist. Some of us (non-chemists) felt that we got a sense of his excitement and passion for his work, and thre were places where we laughed at his mis-haps. Our professional chemistry academic loved it, but someone else who had studied chemistry with other sciences felt that she couldn't relate it to the chemistry she knew. For some it reminded them of why they gave up the subject. Although the book is a biography of a `jobbing' chemist, and authoritative about chemistry, many of the group preferred the parts about people. However, we also noted that Levi is the central character through out, other characters tend to be significant only with respect to their relationship to Levi, not as characters in their own right.

Some members had an edition with an introductory chapter which discussed Levi's suicide. We were all shocked that he died in this way and we were aware of it as we read the book. Maybe knowing this was why some of us felt that the book was full of sense of foreboding. It is as much a retrospective story about the experience of Jewishness in the 20th century, as of being a chemist.


wrong book, 22 Dec 2007
This book with the title "The Periodic Table", "The best science book ever written" (comment by the London's Royal Institute) is completely misleading. If you are in search of a book explaining the periodic table, then this is NOT the one to buy. I couldn't care less about Primo Levi or the Jewish community in Piedmont. I'm returning this book! It's like buying a book called "The Christmas Cake, the ultimate cookery book" and ending up reading a story about sunny Africa. It goes into Room 101!

Recommended for academic fairies., 26 Oct 2007
The first few paragraphs seemed to cover a phenomenal sense of history, humanity and with beautiful prose, but the "Essential penguin" edition is printed with characters the size of one lead atom (or possibly 9pt type) and is subsequently unreadable.





The Reader - The Detective, 06 Apr 2008
In the Name of the Rose, is in many ways a frustrating book to read, because the reader required as much perseverance as the monk-turned-detective protagonist, William. It is a very top heavy book, complete with Latin phraseology, which in spite of Umberto Eco's obvious gift for narrative, is testing to navigate; many will begin and not finish. However, if you are a curious sort, and love to unravel a good mystery, you will no doubt continue - seven deaths is no mean body count for a secluded monastery - and finally reap the rewards of crossing the halfway point. The unravelling of the plot is brilliant - it questions stereotypes, tests faith, interrogates purity and most of all entertains. The labyrinth at the centre of the monastery is in many ways a metaphor for how the plot unfolds, with one final room that one finds oneself outside, but cannot enter.

For the lazy readers, a tip; each chapter has a summary of its contents and so you can actually decide to skip some chapters if you want to get to the meat. In all honesty some chapters just serve to illustrate the intelligence of William of Baskerville or to discuss other works (underlining Eco's post-modernist outlook), so you can do that without missing much. This is exactly what I did my first time, but I enjoyed the end so much that I went back to do the hard work.

I recommend this book if you want an enjoyable but challenging literary read; if you want untaxing entertainment, forget it - or maybe watch the film.

Thwarted, 25 Jan 2008
Having heard so many people rave about this book, I had high hopes and desperately wanted to like it. I have now attempted to read it twice, and each time it has thwarted me. While the actual plot is interesting, it is buried under so much rambling that you lost the interest (and the will) to continue. I personally won't be recommending it to anyone else.

A very good historical whodunnit, 29 Oct 2007
Having read this first and then afterwards most of Eco's other books too, "The Name of the Rose" still remains my favourite. There's a very good balance here between the pure historical whodunnit and the knowledge & learning conveyed in the book (and necessary to understand the whodunnit, while to my mind in the later books the 'learning' is much too predominant).

The atmosphere of a medieval abbey is very well done and, as it is secluded from the outside world, an abbey where a killer's on the loose is the perfect site to build up the tension. Add to that plenty of colourful characters and, in the right measure, a wealth of information on religious strife in the Middle Ages and what you get is a top-notch historical thriller!

A 20th century classic, 23 Aug 2007
The first time I tried to read this book as a 19 year old student desperately trying to impress my peers I abandoned it after less than a hundred pages as I found just too hard going. Several years later and at the insistence of several friends I tried again, this time determined to see it through to the end. It was, and remains, a revelation.

First of all, dispel any thoughts of the rather tame and dreary film that cam out in the 80s as it just did not do justice to this remarkable novel. Yes, it is frighteningly dark and sinister but there's a real warmth and kindly wisdom about Willaim of Baskerville and an endearing naivety from his young charge, Adso, to help the reader through the very grimmest of the plot developments.

While the setting provides a suitably unsettling backdrop to the grisly goings on, the heart of this book is in it's characters from the pious abbott, the disturbing Salvatore, the sinister Jorge and the downright terrifying Bernardo Gui of the dreaded Inquisition, all of whom are fleshed out with their own stories. Adso asks he questions the reader wants answered in a Dr Watson type way, while sleuthy William of Baskerville ( a none too subtle tip of the deerstalker hat to Arthur Conan Doyle by the author) provides the answers... and answers them with riddles.

The Name Of The Rose sheds a glimemr of light on a disturbing period of European history when plague and famine were a constant concern and religious fanatacism was the real power governing people's lives. While set several centuries ago, the theme of dogmatic zealots throwing their weight around to the peril of ordinary people is all too familiar in today's troubled times and modern day parallels are, sadly, all too easy to draw. That said, Umberto Eco does not launch an unbridled attack upon religion as he is very sympathetic to the genuine faith of many of the characters. Instead he targets those with blind faith who do not question themselves and use "the will of God" to subjugate and punish others, whether it is the men of the Inquisition or the heretical Cathars. That's not say it's a book about religion as that would miss out the murder mystery element, the sex, the architecture, the red herrings, etc.

Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose is a magnificent book of masterly storytelling and enlightening prose. Yes, it's hard work to get into, but then many great books are and the rewards are worth the effort so don't be put off. Ideal reading material for dark winter nights.

Read this, and don't bother with the film., 19 Jun 2007
Films often fail to capture the essence of the books they are based on. Case in point, here. Admittedly verbose in places, with passages in Latin etc, this book is still a marvel. You just have to exercise your judgement: skip the bits you find boring and wonder at the rest.

The Name of the Rose is a fascinating look at a forgotten world - a turn of the (first) millennium Benedictine monastery. This book is part historical novel, part forensic whodunit, part apocalyptic prophecy, with an insight into the conflicts rocking the then Christian church - between Holy Roman Emperor and Pope, Franciscans and Dominicans, heretics and scheming clerics, librarians and infidel philosophers, destitute villagers and powerful church figures. This book reeks the rich tapestry of all that life.

If you've read any of the other reviews, you'll probably know the background. Brother William of Baskerville is a former Inquisitor, entrusted with a secret mission on behalf of the Emperor. He's also an amateur detective of prodigious skill (something that is brilliantly revealed when he arrives at the Monastery and meets the abbey's cellarer). With his pupil Adso (the book's narrator) in tow, Br William has been dispatched to prepare for a meeting between representatives of the Franciscan order and the Pope, at a Benedictine Monastery in Northern Italy - with the Benedictines acting as hosts. Only they've had a bit of bother with one of the younger monks, and the abbot wondered if Br William could take a quick look ...

And the ending. Truly apocalyptic.

Exceptionally Good, 22 Jul 2008
I loved this novel, which complements and enhances the film. One of my all-time-favourites.

One of the finest crime novels I've ever read , 20 Jun 2008
This book is amazing. It's a very readable, very graphic, hugely entertaining look at criminal life. The writing is very intelligent and Puzo's eye for detail gives it an extra dimension that raises it far above what might be expected. This is a very seriously good read.

Quite easily the best book I have ever read!, 31 May 2008
I have just finished reading this book, and as I have stated in the title, it is to my opinion the best book ever written. I am also a huge fan of the films but this book well and truly trounces them hands down. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you will be gripped the second you start reading the first page.

Mario Puzo has done a phenomenal job by creating these mafiosa characters with extra layers and dimensions which makes them all the more fearsome. He has openly shown that these gangsters are much more than tommy gun wielding maniacs, but that they are also warm hearted men who will protect their families at any cost. He does all of this while not glorifying any of their actions, just staing them in vivid detail for the reader to make their own mind up about the character.

The media shows these men in real life to be emotionless and ruthless who lack intelligence and use brute force all the time to get what they want. However, Mario Puzo shows that this is not true and shows the character's practical side that they use in everyday life to survive. He shows that these "Dons" are men who chose to live outside of normal society and not be forced to do things by the politicians who "pull the strings".

Mario Puzo creates an absolutely breathtaking image of 1940's New York, and I am not justtalking about the landscape, but also the political and social climate of the times. His two main characters, Vito "The Godfather" Corleone and his son Michael, are shown to be two great men in their own right. Vito as an enormously intelligent man who is a great friend to most and a ruthless and fearsome enemy to some. Michael on the other hand is a cold and almost merciless character who radiates power. These two characters make this book what it is, a true classic.

I would recommend this book to all becuase trust me you will not regret ever picking up this book, it is a true masterpiece.

Outstanding, 29 May 2008
I bought this on a whim when I saw it on sale. I figured that as I liked the film so much it would be worth a go. It had me absolutely gripped from the first page. I guess it helps when you can picture the cast members from the film in your head as you read, but even without that, this is awesome.
Brilliantly written, not a word was wasted. If only gangster novels were still this good.

excellent, 25 Feb 2008
Having seen the film many times I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Not only is it a great read on the subject of the 'mafia', the power and corruption associated with it, but it also must go down as one of the classic novels.

Carphone Warehouse Book Club's favorite read in 2007, 31 Jul 2008
The unusual form of the book, each chapter relating to an element of the periodic table (not every element is included), to tell the tale of a chemist's life is highly effective. The content reinforces the form and the form the content to give a really high quality novel.

This was our group's favorite book by a modest lead over Lolita and The Master and Margarita. It is beautiful and moving and much more enjoyable than his good but harrowing Auschwitz tales.

Please do not be put off by the slow start - Argon is a very thin, rare gas and this chapter is one of the least engaging perhaps for that reason. Iron was most people's favorite element.

Autobiographical Stories, Beautifully Translated, 21 Jun 2008
I want to defend this book from a couple of unfair reviews. Not that the great Primo Levi should need me, but The Periodic Table is one of the books I have most enjoyed reading in the past couple of years and so I don't want people to get the wrong impression of what it is.

For most of his working life, Levi was a professional chemist who also wrote on the side. Almost every chapter is a story from his remarkable life (two chapters are fiction). Each chapter has a chemical element for its title and that element appears somehow in the story, either literally or metaphorically. In the first chapter Primo Levi tells something of the history of his family: Jews in southern France, Venice and lastly in the city of Turin, where Levi grew up (except during the war he lived in the same apartment for his whole life). The first chapter is slightly harder going than the rest of the book (it has interesting information about some Hebrew names and how they were twisted via French into the local Piedmontese dialect), and I think that's where some readers got stuck -- too bad, because once you get further it's a nice balance to the rest. Then there are stories about his interest in chemistry as a child, mixing things up and causing explosions, his university education, how Fascism started to become a factor in his life as a young man, and then the story of how as a captured anti-fascist fighter he, amazingly, got himself sent to Auschwitz as a Jew in order to avoid being shot by the Fascists as a 'traitor'. There is one Auschwitz chapter; then stories of Levi's return after the war to Turin, where he became the head of the chemistry department at a paint factory. He became an expert in the chemistry of varnishes, though the book doesn't mention it. Chemistry is not the most obvious raw material for a writer of Levi's calibre, that is what makes the book unique. He lays out how it crisscrossed the path of his life from the nineteen-thirties through to the eighties. Some of the incidents are exotic or dangerous, others are prosaic, but Levi's extraordinary power of observation, his eye for a curious detail, runs all the way through. You have to concentrate to make the most of this book, but it is worth the effort. And, by the end, you have learnt a little chemistry too.

Really, I cannot recommend The Periodic Table highly enough to do it justice. Raymond Rosenthal's translation is beautifully done; the English doesn't disturb the original. Translated Italian can easily become very turgid, but Rosenthal has avoided that. There is an introduction by Philip Roth in which he tells of meeting Primo Levi in the 1980s. I love this book. And for the price, what a deal.

A difficult book- review by 'Keyne Readers', 17 Jun 2008
This turned out not to be a good choice for us. Many of the group did not manage to read much of the book. There were a variety of individual reasons, but perhaps the book is simply difficult to engage with, and uncomfortable when you do. A number of people started it but turned to lighter books for bedtime and holiday reading (which is when most of us do our reading for this group, so heavyweight reading does not go down well). Chapter 1 in particular was not popular. People struggled with it. Someone remarked that there were just too many characters. One member had a copy of the book on her shelves for 20 years and had never got round to reading it. She got bogged down in the first chapter, but persisted and found the book got better as she read alter chapters. Some people liked the fact that they could dip into chapters that were of different styles and different lengths.

One of the group remembered that she had once worked on a course that used something of his called `The Mark of a Chemist', about learning to be a professional chemist. We discussed whether reading The Periodic Table would enthuse anyone to become a chemist. Some of us (non-chemists) felt that we got a sense of his excitement and passion for his work, and thre were places where we laughed at his mis-haps. Our professional chemistry academic loved it, but someone else who had studied chemistry with other sciences felt that she couldn't relate it to the chemistry she knew. For some it reminded them of why they gave up the subject. Although the book is a biography of a `jobbing' chemist, and authoritative about chemistry, many of the group preferred the parts about people. However, we also noted that Levi is the central character through out, other characters tend to be significant only with respect to their relationship to Levi, not as characters in their own right.

Some members had an edition with an introductory chapter which discussed Levi's suicide. We were all shocked that he died in this way and we were aware of it as we read the book. Maybe knowing this was why some of us felt that the book was full of sense of foreboding. It is as much a retrospective story about the experience of Jewishness in the 20th century, as of being a chemist.


wrong book, 22 Dec 2007
This book with the title "The Periodic Table", "The best science book ever written" (comment by the London's Royal Institute) is completely misleading. If you are in search of a book explaining the periodic table, then this is NOT the one to buy. I couldn't care less about Primo Levi or the Jewish community in Piedmont. I'm returning this book! It's like buying a book called "The Christmas Cake, the ultimate cookery book" and ending up reading a story about sunny Africa. It goes into Room 101!

Recommended for academic fairies., 26 Oct 2007
The first few paragraphs seemed to cover a phenomenal sense of history, humanity and with beautiful prose, but the "Essential penguin" edition is printed with characters the size of one lead atom (or possibly 9pt type) and is subsequently unreadable.





The Reader - The Detective, 06 Apr 2008
In the Name of the Rose, is in many ways a frustrating book to read, because the reader required as much perseverance as the monk-turned-detective protagonist, William. It is a very top heavy book, complete with Latin phraseology, which in spite of Umberto Eco's obvious gift for narrative, is testing to navigate; many will begin and not finish. However, if you are a curious sort, and love to unravel a good mystery, you will no doubt continue - seven deaths is no mean body count for a secluded monastery - and finally reap the rewards of crossing the halfway point. The unravelling of the plot is brilliant - it questions stereotypes, tests faith, interrogates purity and most of all entertains. The labyrinth at the centre of the monastery is in many ways a metaphor for how the plot unfolds, with one final room that one finds oneself outside, but cannot enter.

For the lazy readers, a tip; each chapter has a summary of its contents and so you can actually decide to skip some chapters if you want to get to the meat. In all honesty some chapters just serve to illustrate the intelligence of William of Baskerville or to discuss other works (underlining Eco's post-modernist outlook), so you can do that without missing much. This is exactly what I did my first time, but I enjoyed the end so much that I went back to do the hard work.

I recommend this book if you want an enjoyable but challenging literary read; if you want untaxing entertainment, forget it - or maybe watch the film.

Thwarted, 25 Jan 2008
Having heard so many people rave about this book, I had high hopes and desperately wanted to like it. I have now attempted to read it twice, and each time it has thwarted me. While the actual plot is interesting, it is buried under so much rambling that you lost the interest (and the will) to continue. I personally won't be recommending it to anyone else.

A very good historical whodunnit, 29 Oct 2007
Having read this first and then afterwards most of Eco's other books too, "The Name of the Rose" still remains my favourite. There's a very good balance here between the pure historical whodunnit and the knowledge & learning conveyed in the book (and necessary to understand the whodunnit, while to my mind in the later books the 'learning' is much too predominant).

The atmosphere of a medieval abbey is very well done and, as it is secluded from the outside world, an abbey where a killer's on the loose is the perfect site to build up the tension. Add to that plenty of colourful characters and, in the right measure, a wealth of information on religious strife in the Middle Ages and what you get is a top-notch historical thriller!

A 20th century classic, 23 Aug 2007
The first time I tried to read this book as a 19 year old student desperately trying to impress my peers I abandoned it after less than a hundred pages as I found just too hard going. Several years later and at the insistence of several friends I tried again, this time determined to see it through to the end. It was, and remains, a revelation.

First of all, dispel any thoughts of the rather tame and dreary film that cam out in the 80s as it just did not do justice to this remarkable novel. Yes, it is frighteningly dark and sinister but there's a real warmth and kindly wisdom about Willaim of Baskerville and an endearing naivety from his young charge, Adso, to help the reader through the very grimmest of the plot developments.

While the setting provides a suitably unsettling backdrop to the grisly goings on, the heart of this book is in it's characters from the pious abbott, the disturbing Salvatore, the sinister Jorge and the downright terrifying Bernardo Gui of the dreaded Inquisition, all of whom are fleshed out with their own stories. Adso asks he questions the reader wants answered in a Dr Watson type way, while sleuthy William of Baskerville ( a none too subtle tip of the deerstalker hat to Arthur Conan Doyle by the author) provides the answers... and answers them with riddles.

The Name Of The Rose sheds a glimemr of light on a disturbing period of European history when plague and famine were a constant concern and religious fanatacism was the real power governing people's lives. While set several centuries ago, the theme of dogmatic zealots throwing their weight around to the peril of ordinary people is all too familiar in today's troubled times and modern day parallels are, sadly, all too easy to draw. That said, Umberto Eco does not launch an unbridled attack upon religion as he is very sympathetic to the genuine faith of many of the characters. Instead he targets those with blind faith who do not question themselves and use "the will of God" to subjugate and punish others, whether it is the men of the Inquisition or the heretical Cathars. That's not say it's a book about religion as that would miss out the murder mystery element, the sex, the architecture, the red herrings, etc.

Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose is a magnificent book of masterly storytelling and enlightening prose. Yes, it's hard work to get into, but then many great books are and the rewards are worth the effort so don't be put off. Ideal reading material for dark winter nights.

Read this, and don't bother with the film., 19 Jun 2007
Films often fail to capture the essence of the books they are based on. Case in point, here. Admittedly verbose in places, with passages in Latin etc, this book is still a marvel. You just have to exercise your judgement: skip the bits you find boring and wonder at the rest.

The Name of the Rose is a fascinating look at a forgotten world - a turn of the (first) millennium Benedictine monastery. This book is part historical novel, part forensic whodunit, part apocalyptic prophecy, with an insight into the conflicts rocking the then Christian church - between Holy Roman Emperor and Pope, Franciscans and Dominicans, heretics and scheming clerics, librarians and infidel philosophers, destitute villagers and powerful church figures. This book reeks the rich tapestry of all that life.

If you've read any of the other reviews, you'll probably know the background. Brother William of Baskerville is a former Inquisitor, entrusted with a secret mission on behalf of the Emperor. He's also an amateur detective of prodigious skill (something that is brilliantly revealed when he arrives at the Monastery and meets the abbey's cellarer). With his pupil Adso (the book's narrator) in tow, Br William has been dispatched to prepare for a meeting between representatives of the Franciscan order and the Pope, at a Benedictine Monastery in Northern Italy - with the Benedictines acting as hosts. Only they've had a bit of bother with one of the younger monks, and the abbot wondered if Br William could take a quick look ...

And the ending. Truly apocalyptic.


Thrilling, 07 Jul 2008
I began this book on a wet Sunday morning lying on the sofa and instantly became hooked...at the time of reading it, I wished I could have read faster as i was so desperate to know 'who dunnit'. I really enjoyed the book and am definately considering buying more in the series.

OK , 20 Jun 2008
I thought I'd give this a try as it sounded quite different from the kind of book I would normally read and other reviews made it sound (to me) rather intriguing. The book is quite slow to get going and at the start particularly there are some over-long sentences: at the end of page 5 there is one of over 100 words and the following sentence is 61 words long.

I was beginning to regret having bothered with this book when things started to improve. Quite quickly the sentences become shorter and the fact that they have been translated (from Italian) becomes far less obvious and less distracting. As the book becomes more readable the story picks up pace as well.

I found it a little taxing getting to grips with various police, military and civil roles referred to in the book and occasionally confused the similar-ish Italian names. The character of Inspector Montalbano is very likeable and I thought a little alternative. He brought to mind the American TV detective Columbo.

This book gives a flavour of Sicily but I found the plot predictable with no real surprises. Overall I did enjoy it and will read the next in the series as it seems to promise better.

Well worth a read, 27 May 2008
The book exudes a dusty world-weariness. Grime, the lewd and the coarse mix with food, wine, sea and sun. Camilleri is a gruff, offbeat guide through this world, with a big heart. One minute he talks of prostitution, the next, of fine art; one minute he is as coarse as a footballer, the next, as angelic as Gabriel himself. The writing is minimalist, with descriptions and character portreyal kept to absolute bare essentials. The main character, Inspector Montelbano, does come through quite strongly though. But there is an adictive quality to the book, the plot and the quirkiness of the writing keep one hooked. So Camilleri's cool, almost uninvolved way with his writing should perhaps instead be seen a lightness of touch concealing a powerful literary technique. In a samilar manner, we are led to feel that the plot will untie easily and simply, until it veers off into unexpected areas. Certainly one could never hope for a more honest portreyal of everyday life, and it is the all-too familiar ordinariness of the people that both provoke the odd chuckle and also somewhat smudge the rose-tinted spectacles with which, I'm sure, lots of us view such exotic parts of the world.

Poor, 24 Jan 2008
I must be reading a different book to the other reviews, I have read. Contrary to the Observer review, I thought the translation poor, the grammar diabolical - I think I went through 2 pages without encountering a full stop or any other grammatical mark that may allow one to pause for breath. This was an experiment for me, I was looking forward to a little light reading. I was bored after the first 2 pages but determined to suffer through to the end. I am sorry I wasted my coffers and certainly won't be reading any more of the series.

A revelation, 26 Oct 2007
This is the first book I read in the series about Montalbano, and I have since gone on to read as many more as I can find. He's a breath of fresh air. His Sicilian attitudes and his obssession with his stomach make a wonderful foil to the gritty and often violent crimes that he is forced to deal with. Despite their modern settings and the corruption and politics that Camilleri uses in his work there is something wonderfully old fashioned about both Montalbano and his detecting techniques which make him a real character worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with greats like Morse and Rebus.

Exceptionally Good, 22 Jul 2008
I loved this novel, which complements and enhances the film. One of my all-time-favourites.

One of the finest crime novels I've ever read , 20 Jun 2008
This book is amazing. It's a very readable, very graphic, hugely entertaining look at criminal life. The writing is very intelligent and Puzo's eye for detail gives it an extra dimension that raises it far above what might be expected. This is a very seriously good read.

Quite easily the best book I have ever read!, 31 May 2008
I have just finished reading this book, and as I have stated in the title, it is to my opinion the best book ever written. I am also a huge fan of the films but this book well and truly trounces them hands down. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you will be gripped the second you start reading the first page.

Mario Puzo has done a phenomenal job by creating these mafiosa characters with extra layers and dimensions which makes them all the more fearsome. He has openly shown that these gangsters are much more than tommy gun wielding maniacs, but that they are also warm hearted men who will protect their families at any cost. He does all of this while not glorifying any of their actions, just staing them in vivid detail for the reader to make their own mind up about the character.

The media shows these men in real life to be emotionless and ruthless who lack intelligence and use brute force all the time to get what they want. However, Mario Puzo shows that this is not true and shows the character's practical side that they use in everyday life to survive. He shows that these "Dons" are men who chose to live outside of normal society and not be forced to do things by the politicians who "pull the strings".

Mario Puzo creates an absolutely breathtaking image of 1940's New York, and I am not justtalking about the landscape, but also the political and social climate of the times. His two main characters, Vito "The Godfather" Corleone and his son Michael, are shown to be two great men in their own right. Vito as an enormously intelligent man who is a great friend to most and a ruthless and fearsome enemy to some. Michael on the other hand is a cold and almost merciless character who radiates power. These two characters make this book what it is, a true classic.

I would recommend this book to all becuase trust me you will not regret ever picking up this book, it is a true masterpiece.

Outstanding, 29 May 2008
I bought this on a whim when I saw it on sale. I figured that as I liked the film so much it would be worth a go. It had me absolutely gripped from the first page. I guess it helps when you can picture the cast members from the film in your head as you read, but even without that, this is awesome.
Brilliantly written, not a word was wasted. If only gangster novels were still this good.

excellent, 25 Feb 2008
Having seen the film many times I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Not only is it a great read on the subject of the 'mafia', the power and corruption associated with it, but it also must go down as one of the classic novels.

Carphone Warehouse Book Club's favorite read in 2007, 31 Jul 2008
The unusual form of the book, each chapter relating to an element of the periodic table (not every element is included), to tell the tale of a chemist's life is highly effective. The content reinforces the form and the form the content to give a really high quality novel.

This was our group's favorite book by a modest lead over Lolita and The Master and Margarita. It is beautiful and moving and much more enjoyable than his good but harrowing Auschwitz tales.

Please do not be put off by the slow start - Argon is a very thin, rare gas and this chapter is one of the least engaging perhaps for that reason. Iron was most people's favorite element.

Autobiographical Stories, Beautifully Translated, 21 Jun 2008
I want to defend this book from a couple of unfair reviews. Not that the great Primo Levi should need me, but The Periodic Table is one of the books I have most enjoyed reading in the past couple of years and so I don't want people to get the wrong impression of what it is.

For most of his working life, Levi was a professional chemist who also wrote on the side. Almost every chapter is a story from his remarkable life (two chapters are fiction). Each chapter has a chemical element for its title and that element appears somehow in the story, either literally or metaphorically. In the first chapter Primo Levi tells something of the history of his family: Jews in southern France, Venice and lastly in the city of Turin, where Levi grew up (except during the war he lived in the same apartment for his whole life). The first chapter is slightly harder going than the rest of the book (it has interesting information about some Hebrew names and how they were twisted via French into the local Piedmontese dialect), and I think that's where some readers got stuck -- too bad, because once you get further it's a nice balance to the rest. Then there are stories about his interest in chemistry as a child, mixing things up and causing explosions, his university education, how Fascism started to become a factor in his life as a young man, and then the story of how as a captured anti-fascist fighter he, amazingly, got himself sent to Auschwitz as a Jew in order to avoid being shot by the Fascists as a 'traitor'. There is one Auschwitz chapter; then stories of Levi's return after the war to Turin, where he became the head of the chemistry department at a paint factory. He became an expert in the chemistry of varnishes, though the book doesn't mention it. Chemistry is not the most obvious raw material for a writer of Levi's calibre, that is what makes the book unique. He lays out how it crisscrossed the path of his life from the nineteen-thirties through to the eighties. Some of the incidents are exotic or dangerous, others are prosaic, but Levi's extraordinary power of observation, his eye for a curious detail, runs all the way through. You have to concentrate to make the most of this book, but it is worth the effort. And, by the end, you have learnt a little chemistry too.

Really, I cannot recommend The Periodic Table highly enough to do it justice. Raymond Rosenthal's translation is beautifully done; the English doesn't disturb the original. Translated Italian can easily become very turgid, but Rosenthal has avoided that. There is an introduction by Philip Roth in which he tells of meeting Primo Levi in the 1980s. I love this book. And for the price, what a deal.

A difficult book- review by 'Keyne Readers', 17 Jun 2008
This turned out not to be a good choice for us. Many of the group did not manage to read much of the book. There were a variety of individual reasons, but perhaps the book is simply difficult to engage with, and uncomfortable when you do. A number of people started it but turned to lighter books for bedtime and holiday reading (which is when most of us do our reading for this group, so heavyweight reading does not go down well). Chapter 1 in particular was not popular. People struggled with it. Someone remarked that there were just too many characters. One member had a copy of the book on her shelves for 20 years and had never got round to reading it. She got bogged down in the first chapter, but persisted and found the book got better as she read alter chapters. Some people liked the fact that they could dip into chapters that were of different styles and different lengths.

One of the group remembered that she had once worked on a course that used something of his called `The Mark of a Chemist', about learning to be a professional chemist. We discussed whether reading The Periodic Table would enthuse anyone to become a chemist. Some of us (non-chemists) felt that we got a sense of his excitement and passion for his work, and thre were places where we laughed at his mis-haps. Our professional chemistry academic loved it, but someone else who had studied chemistry with other sciences felt that she couldn't relate it to the chemistry she knew. For some it reminded them of why they gave up the subject. Although the book is a biography of a `jobbing' chemist, and authoritative about chemistry, many of the group preferred the parts about people. However, we also noted that Levi is the central character through out, other characters tend to be significant only with respect to their relationship to Levi, not as characters in their own right.

Some members had an edition with an introductory chapter which discussed Levi's suicide. We were all shocked that he died in this way and we were aware of it as we read the book. Maybe knowing this was why some of us felt that the book was full of sense of foreboding. It is as much a retrospective story about the experience of Jewishness in the 20th century, as of being a chemist.


wrong book, 22 Dec 2007
This book with the title "The Periodic Table", "The best science book ever written" (comment by the London's Royal Institute) is completely misleading. If you are in search of a book explaining the periodic table, then this is NOT the one to buy. I couldn't care less about Primo Levi or the Jewish community in Piedmont. I'm returning this book! It's like buying a book called "The Christmas Cake, the ultimate cookery book" and ending up reading a story about sunny Africa. It goes into Room 101!

Recommended for academic fairies., 26 Oct 2007
The first few paragraphs seemed to cover a phenomenal sense of history, humanity and with beautiful prose, but the "Essential penguin" edition is printed with characters the size of one lead atom (or possibly 9pt type) and is subsequently unreadable.





The Reader - The Detective, 06 Apr 2008
In the Name of the Rose, is in many ways a frustrating book to read, because the reader required as much perseverance as the monk-turned-detective protagonist, William. It is a very top heavy book, complete with Latin phraseology, which in spite of Umberto Eco's obvious gift for narrative, is testing to navigate; many will begin and not finish. However, if you are a curious sort, and love to unravel a good mystery, you will no doubt continue - seven deaths is no mean body count for a secluded monastery - and finally reap the rewards of crossing the halfway point. The unravelling of the plot is brilliant - it questions stereotypes, tests faith, interrogates purity and most of all entertains. The labyrinth at the centre of the monastery is in many ways a metaphor for how the plot unfolds, with one final room that one finds oneself outside, but cannot enter.

For the lazy readers, a tip; each chapter has a summary of its contents and so you can actually decide to skip some chapters if you want to get to the meat. In all honesty some chapters just serve to illustrate the intelligence of William of Baskerville or to discuss other works (underlining Eco's post-modernist outlook), so you can do that without missing much. This is exactly what I did my first time, but I enjoyed the end so much that I went back to do the hard work.

I recommend this book if you want an enjoyable but challenging literary read; if you want untaxing entertainment, forget it - or maybe watch the film.

Thwarted, 25 Jan 2008
Having heard so many people rave about this book, I had high hopes and desperately wanted to like it. I have now attempted to read it twice, and each time it has thwarted me. While the actual plot is interesting, it is buried under so much rambling that you lost the interest (and the will) to continue. I personally won't be recommending it to anyone else.

A very good historical whodunnit, 29 Oct 2007
Having read this first and then afterwards most of Eco's other books too, "The Name of the Rose" still remains my favourite. There's a very good balance here between the pure historical whodunnit and the knowledge & learning conveyed in the book (and necessary to understand the whodunnit, while to my mind in the later books the 'learning' is much too predominant).

The atmosphere of a medieval abbey is very well done and, as it is secluded from the outside world, an abbey where a killer's on the loose is the perfect site to build up the tension. Add to that plenty of colourful characters and, in the right measure, a wealth of information on religious strife in the Middle Ages and what you get is a top-notch historical thriller!

A 20th century classic, 23 Aug 2007
The first time I tried to read this book as a 19 year old student desperately trying to impress my peers I abandoned it after less than a hundred pages as I found just too hard going. Several years later and at the insistence of several friends I tried again, this time determined to see it through to the end. It was, and remains, a revelation.

First of all, dispel any thoughts of the rather tame and dreary film that cam out in the 80s as it just did not do justice to this remarkable novel. Yes, it is frighteningly dark and sinister but there's a real warmth and kindly wisdom about Willaim of Baskerville and an endearing naivety from his young charge, Adso, to help the reader through the very grimmest of the plot developments.

While the setting provides a suitably unsettling backdrop to the grisly goings on, the heart of this book is in it's characters from the pious abbott, the disturbing Salvatore, the sinister Jorge and the downright terrifying Bernardo Gui of the dreaded Inquisition, all of whom are fleshed out with their own stories. Adso asks he questions the reader wants answered in a Dr Watson type way, while sleuthy William of Baskerville ( a none too subtle tip of the deerstalker hat to Arthur Conan Doyle by the author) provides the answers... and answers them with riddles.

The Name Of The Rose sheds a glimemr of light on a disturbing period of European history when plague and famine were a constant concern and religious fanatacism was the real power governing people's lives. While set several centuries ago, the theme of dogmatic zealots throwing their weight around to the peril of ordinary people is all too familiar in today's troubled times and modern day parallels are, sadly, all too easy to draw. That said, Umberto Eco does not launch an unbridled attack upon religion as he is very sympathetic to the genuine faith of many of the characters. Instead he targets those with blind faith who do not question themselves and use "the will of God" to subjugate and punish others, whether it is the men of the Inquisition or the heretical Cathars. That's not say it's a book about religion as that would miss out the murder mystery element, the sex, the architecture, the red herrings, etc.

Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose is a magnificent book of masterly storytelling and enlightening prose. Yes, it's hard work to get into, but then many great books are and the rewards are worth the effort so don't be put off. Ideal reading material for dark winter nights.

Read this, and don't bother with the film., 19 Jun 2007
Films often fail to capture the essence of the books they are based on. Case in point, here. Admittedly verbose in places, with passages in Latin etc, this book is still a marvel. You just have to exercise your judgement: skip the bits you find boring and wonder at the rest.

The Name of the Rose is a fascinating look at a forgotten world - a turn of the (first) millennium Benedictine monastery. This book is part historical novel, part forensic whodunit, part apocalyptic prophecy, with an insight into the conflicts rocking the then Christian church - between Holy Roman Emperor and Pope, Franciscans and Dominicans, heretics and scheming clerics, librarians and infidel philosophers, destitute villagers and powerful church figures. This book reeks the rich tapestry of all that life.

If you've read any of the other reviews, you'll probably know the background. Brother William of Baskerville is a former Inquisitor, entrusted with a secret mission on behalf of the Emperor. He's also an amateur detective of prodigious skill (something that is brilliantly revealed when he arrives at the Monastery and meets the abbey's cellarer). With his pupil Adso (the book's narrator) in tow, Br William has been dispatched to prepare for a meeting between representatives of the Franciscan order and the Pope, at a Benedictine Monastery in Northern Italy - with the Benedictines acting as hosts. Only they've had a bit of bother with one of the younger monks, and the abbot wondered if Br William could take a quick look ...

And the ending. Truly apocalyptic.


Thrilling, 07 Jul 2008
I began this book on a wet Sunday morning lying on the sofa and instantly became hooked...at the time of reading it, I wished I could have read faster as i was so desperate to know 'who dunnit'. I really enjoyed the book and am definately considering buying more in the series.

OK , 20 Jun 2008
I thought I'd give this a try as it sounded quite different from the kind of book I would normally read and other reviews made it sound (to me) rather intriguing. The book is quite slow to get going and at the start particularly there are some over-long sentences: at the end of page 5 there is one of over 100 words and the following sentence is 61 words long.

I was beginning to regret having bothered with this book when things started to improve. Quite quickly the sentences become shorter and the fact that they have been translated (from Italian) becomes far less obvious and less distracting. As the book becomes more readable the story picks up pace as well.

I found it a little taxing getting to grips with various police, military and civil roles referred to in the book and occasionally confused the similar-ish Italian names. The character of Inspector Montalbano is very likeable and I thought a little alternative. He brought to mind the American TV detective Columbo.

This book gives a flavour of Sicily but I found the plot predictable with no real surprises. Overall I did enjoy it and will read the next in the series as it seems to promise better.

Well worth a read, 27 May 2008
The book exudes a dusty world-weariness. Grime, the lewd and the coarse mix with food, wine, sea and sun. Camilleri is a gruff, offbeat guide through this world, with a big heart. One minute he talks of prostitution, the next, of fine art; one minute he is as coarse as a footballer, the next, as angelic as Gabriel himself. The writing is minimalist, with descriptions and character portreyal kept to absolute bare essentials. The main character, Inspector Montelbano, does come through quite strongly though. But there is an adictive quality to the book, the plot and the quirkiness of the writing keep one hooked. So Camilleri's cool, almost uninvolved way with his writing should perhaps instead be seen a lightness of touch concealing a powerful literary technique. In a samilar manner, we are led to feel that the plot will untie easily and simply, until it veers off into unexpected areas. Certainly one could never hope for a more honest portreyal of everyday life, and it is the all-too familiar ordinariness of the people that both provoke the odd chuckle and also somewhat smudge the rose-tinted spectacles with which, I'm sure, lots of us view such exotic parts of the world.

Poor, 24 Jan 2008
I must be reading a different book to the other reviews, I have read. Contrary to the Observer review, I thought the translation poor, the grammar diabolical - I think I went through 2 pages without encountering a full stop or any other grammatical mark that may allow one to pause for breath. This was an experiment for me, I was looking forward to a little light reading. I was bored after the first 2 pages but determined to suffer through to the end. I am sorry I wasted my coffers and certainly won't be reading any more of the series.

A revelation, 26 Oct 2007
This is the first book I read in the series about Montalbano, and I have since gone on to read as many more as I can find. He's a breath of fresh air. His Sicilian attitudes and his obssession with his stomach make a wonderful foil to the gritty and often violent crimes that he is forced to deal with. Despite their modern settings and the corruption and politics that Camilleri uses in his work there is something wonderfully old fashioned about both Montalbano and his detecting techniques which make him a real character worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with greats like Morse and Rebus.

Possibly the Best Montalbano I've Read So Far, 24 Apr 2008
Having said this is the best one I've read so far I know I've already said this about another one in the series. The cool thing is that I'm reading them totally out of order, so it's not as if the early works (of which this is one) are weaker than the later works. They are all great, and if you haven't yet read Montalbano you are in for a real treat, but there are some really outstanding moments in this one which for my money set it apart.

Montalbano is a wonderful detective, he's unswervingly uncorruptible in a world where corruption is rife. He is a Sicilian through and through. He is sensitive, loyal and a total swine to the women who love him. He is cultured and yet has the common touch. He is obsessed by his dinner and hates nothing more than when his obsession over solving crime takes precedence over his obsession with his stomach. He is delightful and the more you get to know him, the more you want to know him.

This book has many of the same characters from an earlier book, The Shape of Water, which it might be a good idea to read first. You won't not understand this book if you don't, but it will add depth if you do. Here the inspector gets mixed up with the Mafia, gun running and a fifty year old case regarding two star crossed lovers.

It's funny, it's pacy, it's well written and it's something fresh in the sometimes stale world of detective fiction that will give you a new zest for reading.

the best kind of detective story, 19 May 2007
This is one of the best of the excellent Salvo Montalbano series by Camilleri. As usual, at the outset there are odd goings on but not necessarily crimes - a characterful old man dies in a road accident (or it seems to be an accident), there is a bizarre theft from a supermarket (it does not make sense, and Montalbano is very quick to spot that) and the terrifying Tana the Greek confides in the Inspector. But it the remarkable discovery of the secret, blocked cave, the two dead, naked lovers (are they lovers?) and the terracota dog that really set things buzzing. Throw in a defrocked priest who drinks milk out of a baby's bottle, a charming old headmaster and his wife, a hospital bedside scene in which Montalbano is anxiously guarded by his three women, Livia, Anna and Ingrid, and the usual frustrations he faces in his dealings with bureaucrats and less capable officers. As usual, there is considerable atmosphere, frequent enjoyable excursions into the world of Sicilian cooking and, this time, an intriguing link between past and present, all of which combine to make this an excellent book of its kind and great fun to read.

Inspector Montalbano is growing into his role, 14 Sep 2006
One morning Inspector Montalbano gets a phone call from a criminal friend who tells him to meet "somebody". This somebody turns out to be the much wanted criminal Tano the Greek, who wants to turn himself in. He gets arrested but is murdered when transported from one prison to another. Just before he dies he tells Montalbano of a secret cave. After opening the cave where they find a considerable number of weapons, the inspector finds a second cave where he stumbles upon a gruesome, yet old scene. Together with a number of the elderly people in the village he is eventually capable of solving the crime, but at one point this nearly costs him his life.

This is the second Camilleri book that I read and I should say that Inspector Montalbano is growing in his role: he start to be an acquaintance with his good and bad habits. The Shape of Water was a low 4-stars, this one definitely is 5-stars. Reading this book is good way to spend a day off.

A Stunning Triumph!, 30 Jun 2004
The Terra-Cotta Dog is an extremely rewarding police procedural with deep cultural and historical roots that provide a delightful complexity for the reader. I would award this book six stars if I could.

If you have not yet read any of the Inspector Montalbano books, I suggest that you take the time to read The Shape of Water first. That book helps set up the context of the characters and makes The Terra-Cotta Dog far more interesting.

This book has Inspector Montalbano solving several mysteries before he is done. In a fascinating way, each mystery leads unexpectedly into the next one. And so on. It's like opening the Russian nesting dolls to find another treasure inside. I can rarely recall such fine plotting and seamless connections between disparate story elements in one police procedural.

As the book opens, Montalbano has been invited to meet secretly with a dangerous killer. Is it a trap? Why would the killer want to meet with a police inspector? The answer leads to a merry-go-round of public relations activities to cover up the real motive. Then, the charade collapses and Montalbano finds out about an unknown crime. More public relations follow . . . and from them Montalbano gets a clue to other hidden crimes. The rest of the novel reminded me of an archeologist's work in uncovering earlier civilizations that built on the same site.

The main contexts for these mysteries are the Sicilian Mafia, the Fascist era, the American invasion of Sicily during World War II, and the Christian and Moslem religions. How's that for an unusual combination?

Montalbano emerges as an even more interesting character in this book than in The Shape of Water, especially as his relationship with his girl friend Livia develops. As before, the food references are a delight and add a warm human touch to offset the evil that coils throughout the story.

As I finished the story, I was reminded how important it is to be dogged in chasing down details that don't seem to make sense. There's always an explanation for mysteries, but the explanation will never be revealed unless you follow the path to the answer wherever it takes you.

A Stunning Triumph!, 21 Jun 2004
The Terra-Cotta Dog is an extremely rewarding police procedural with deep cultural and historical roots that provide a delightful complexity for the reader. I would award this book six stars if I could.

If you have not yet read any of the Inspector Montalbano books, I suggest that you take the time to read The Shape of Water first. That book helps set up the context of the characters and makes The Terra-Cotta Dog far more interesting.

This book has Inspector Montalbano solving several mysteries before he is done. In a fascinating way, each mystery leads unexpectedly into the next one. And so on. It's like opening the Russian nesting dolls to find another treasure inside. I can rarely recall such fine plotting and seamless connections between disparate story elements in one police procedural.

As the book opens, Montalbano has been invited to meet secretly with a dangerous killer. Is it a trap? Why would the killer want to meet with a police inspector? The answer leads to a merry-go-round of public relations activities to cover up the real motive. Then, the charade collapses and Montalbano finds out about an unknown crime. More public relations follow . . . and from them Montalbano gets a clue to other hidden crimes. The rest of the novel reminded me of an archeologist's work in uncovering earlier civilizations that built on the same site.

The main contexts for these mysteries are the Sicilian Mafia, the Fascist era, the American invasion of Sicily during World War II, and the Christian and Moslem religions. How's that for an unusual combination?

Montalbano emerges as an even more interesting character in this book than in The Shape of Water, especially as his relationship with his girl friend Livia develops. As before, the food references are a delight and add a warm human touch to offset the evil that coils throughout the story.

As I finished the story, I was reminded how important it is to be dogged in chasing down details that don't seem to make sense. There's always an explanation for mysteries, but the explanation will never be revealed unless you follow the path to the answer wherever it takes you.

The Birth of Venus is all the more fascinating a historical novel for the author's inability to make up her mind what it is about. Is it a novel about the limited choices available to a woman with talent in Renaissance Florence--marriage or the convent? Or is it a novel about the choices you make to survive in a totalitarian society? As Savonarola takes Florence closer and closer to being an ascetic theocracy, Alessandra, her gay brother and his lover whom she has married for mutual protection find themselves in more and more peril. It could also be a detective story--Allesandra is in love with a painter whose religious mania and fascination with the body makes him a plausible suspect for a series of killings and dismemberments. Some historical novels wear their research too heavily--Dunant's is light, fluent and pacy, but her fascination with the possibilities revealed by research leaves her failing to make choices.

The Birth of Venus is a highly intelligent novel kept from incoherence mostly by the intensely imagined Alessandra, through whose eyes we see the tragic end of a key moment in human culture and whose lively sensibility constantly sparks ideas about art and her time. --Roz Kaveney

Exceptionally Good, 22 Jul 2008
I loved this novel, which complements and enhances the film. One of my all-time-favourites.

One of the finest crime novels I've ever read , 20 Jun 2008
This book is amazing. It's a very readable, very graphic, hugely entertaining look at criminal life. The writing is very intelligent and Puzo's eye for detail gives it an extra dimension that raises it far above what might be expected. This is a very seriously good read.

Quite easily the best book I have ever read!, 31 May 2008
I have just finished reading this book, and as I have stated in the title, it is to my opinion the best book ever written. I am also a huge fan of the films but this book well and truly trounces them hands down. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you will be gripped the second you start reading the first page.

Mario Puzo has done a phenomenal job by creating these mafiosa characters with extra layers and dimensions which makes them all the more fearsome. He has openly shown that these gangsters are much more than tommy gun wielding maniacs, but that they are also warm hearted men who will protect their families at any cost. He does all of this while not glorifying any of their actions, just staing them in vivid detail for the reader to make their own mind up about the character.

The media shows these men in real life to be emotionless and ruthless who lack intelligence and use brute force all the time to get what they want. However, Mario Puzo shows that this is not true and shows the character's practical side that they use in everyday life to survive. He shows that these "Dons" are men who chose to live outside of normal society and not be forced to do things by the politicians who "pull the strings".

Mario Puzo creates an absolutely breathtaking image of 1940's New York, and I am not justtalking about the landscape, but also the political and social climate of the times. His two main characters, Vito "The Godfather" Corleone and his son Michael, are shown to be two great men in their own right. Vito as an enormously intelligent man who is a great friend to most and a ruthless and fearsome enemy to some. Michael on the other hand is a cold and almost merciless character who radiates power. These two characters make this book what it is, a true classic.

I would recommend this book to all becuase trust me you will not regret ever picking up this book, it is a true masterpiece.

Outstanding, 29 May 2008
I bought this on a whim when I saw it on sale. I figured that as I liked the film so much it would be worth a go. It had me absolutely gripped from the first page. I guess it helps when you can picture the cast members from the film in your head as you read, but even without that, this is awesome.
Brilliantly written, not a word was wasted. If only gangster novels were still this good.

excellent, 25 Feb 2008
Having seen the film many times I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Not only is it a great read on the subject of the 'mafia', the power and corruption associated with it, but it also must go down as one of the classic novels.

Carphone Warehouse Book Club's favorite read in 2007, 31 Jul 2008
The unusual form of the book, each chapter relating to an element of the periodic table (not every element is included), to tell the tale of a chemist's life is highly effective. The content reinforces the form and the form the content to give a really high quality novel.

This was our group's favorite book by a modest lead over Lolita and The Master and Margarita. It is beautiful and moving and much more enjoyable than his good but harrowing Auschwitz tales.

Please do not be put off by the slow start - Argon is a very thin, rare gas and this chapter is one of the least engaging perhaps for that reason. Iron was most people's favorite element.

Autobiographical Stories, Beautifully Translated, 21 Jun 2008
I want to defend this book from a couple of unfair reviews. Not that the great Primo Levi should need me, but The Periodic Table is one of the books I have most enjoyed reading in the past couple of years and so I don't want people to get the wrong impression of what it is.

For most of his working life, Levi was a professional chemist who also wrote on the side. Almost every chapter is a story from his remarkable life (two chapters are fiction). Each chapter has a chemical element for its title and that element appears somehow in the story, either literally or metaphorically. In the first chapter Primo Levi tells something of the history of his family: Jews in southern France, Venice and lastly in the city of Turin, where Levi grew up (except during the war he lived in the same apartment for his whole life). The first chapter is slightly harder going than the rest of the book (it has interesting information about some Hebrew names and how they were twisted via French into the local Piedmontese dialect), and I think that's where some readers got stuck -- too bad, because once you get further it's a nice balance to the rest. Then there are stories about his interest in chemistry as a child, mixing things up and causing explosions, his university education, how Fascism started to become a factor in his life as a young man, and then the story of how as a captured anti-fascist fighter he, amazingly, got himself sent to Auschwitz as a Jew in order to avoid being shot by the Fascists as a 'traitor'. There is one Auschwitz chapter; then stories of Levi's return after the war to Turin, where he became the head of the chemistry department at a paint factory. He became an expert in the chemistry of varnishes, though the book doesn't mention it. Chemistry is not the most obvious raw material for a writer of Levi's calibre, that is what makes the book unique. He lays out how it crisscrossed the path of his life from the nineteen-thirties through to the eighties. Some of the incidents are exotic or dangerous, others are prosaic, but Levi's extraordinary power of observation, his eye for a curious detail, runs all the way through. You have to concentrate to make the most of this book, but it is worth the effort. And, by the end, you have learnt a little chemistry too.

Really, I cannot recommend The Periodic Table highly enough to do it justice. Raymond Rosenthal's translation is beautifully done; the English doesn't disturb the original. Translated Italian can easily become very turgid, but Rosenthal has avoided that. There is an introduction by Philip Roth in which he tells of meeting Primo Levi in the 1980s. I love this book. And for the price, what a deal.

A difficult book- review by 'Keyne Readers', 17 Jun 2008
This turned out not to be a good choice for us. Many of the group did not manage to read much of the book. There were a variety of individual reasons, but perhaps the book is simply difficult to engage with, and uncomfortable when you do. A number of people started it but turned to lighter books for bedtime and holiday reading (which is when most of us do our reading for this group, so heavyweight reading does not go down well). Chapter 1 in particular was not popular. People struggled with it. Someone remarked that there were just too many characters. One member had a copy of the book on her shelves for 20 years and had never got round to reading it. She got bogged down in the first chapter, but persisted and found the book got better as she read alter chapters. Some people liked the fact that they could dip into chapters that were of different styles and different lengths.

One of the group remembered that she had once worked on a course that used something of his called `The Mark of a Chemist', about learning to be a professional chemist. We discussed whether reading The Periodic Table would enthuse anyone to become a chemist. Some of us (non-chemists) felt that we got a sense of his excitement and passion for his work, and thre were places where we laughed at his mis-haps. Our professional chemistry academic loved it, but someone else who had studied chemistry with other sciences felt that she couldn't relate it to the chemistry she knew. For some it reminded them of why they gave up the subject. Although the book is a biography of a `jobbing' chemist, and authoritative about chemistry, many of the group preferred the parts about people. However, we also noted that Levi is the central character through out, other characters tend to be significant only with respect to their relationship to Levi, not as characters in their own right.

Some members had an edition with an introductory chapter which discussed Levi's suicide. We were all shocked that he died in this way and we were aware of it as we read the book. Maybe knowing this was why some of us felt that the book was full of sense of foreboding. It is as much a retrospective story about the experience of Jewishness in the 20th century, as of being a chemist.


wrong book, 22 Dec 2007
This book with the title "The Periodic Table", "The best science book ever written" (comment by the London's Royal Institute) is completely misleading. If you are in search of a book explaining the periodic table, then this is NOT the one to buy. I couldn't care less about Primo Levi or the Jewish community in Piedmont. I'm returning this book! It's like buying a book called "The Christmas Cake, the ultimate cookery book" and ending up reading a story about sunny Africa. It goes into Room 101!

Recommended for academic fairies., 26 Oct 2007
The first few paragraphs seemed to cover a phenomenal sense of history, humanity and with beautiful prose, but the "Essential penguin" edition is printed with characters the size of one lead atom (or possibly 9pt type) and is subsequently unreadable.





The Reader - The Detective, 06 Apr 2008
In the Name of the Rose, is in many ways a frustrating book to read, because the reader required as much perseverance as the monk-turned-detective protagonist, William. It is a very top heavy book, complete with Latin phraseology, which in spite of Umberto Eco's obvious gift for narrative, is testing to navigate; many will begin and not finish. However, if you are a curious sort, and love to unravel a good mystery, you will no doubt continue - seven deaths is no mean body count for a secluded monastery - and finally reap the rewards of crossing the halfway point. The unravelling of the plot is brilliant - it questions stereotypes, tests faith, interrogates purity and most of all entertains. The labyrinth at the centre of the monastery is in many ways a metaphor for how the plot unfolds, with one final room that one finds oneself outside, but cannot enter.

For the lazy readers, a tip; each chapter has a summary of its contents and so you can actually decide to skip some chapters if you want to get to the meat. In all honesty some chapters just serve to illustrate the intelligence of William of Baskerville or to discuss other works (underlining Eco's post-modernist outlook), so you can do that without missing much. This is exactly what I did my first time, but I enjoyed the end so much that I went back to do the hard work.

I recommend this book if you want an enjoyable but challenging literary read; if you want untaxing entertainment, forget it - or maybe watch the film.

Thwarted, 25 Jan 2008
Having heard so many people rave about this book, I had high hopes and desperately wanted to like it. I have now attempted to read it twice, and each time it has thwarted me. While the actual plot is interesting, it is buried under so much rambling that you lost the interest (and the will) to continue. I personally won't be recommending it to anyone else.

A very good historical whodunnit, 29 Oct 2007
Having read this first and then afterwards most of Eco's other books too, "The Name of the Rose" still remains my favourite. There's a very good balance here between the pure historical whodunnit and the knowledge & learning conveyed in the book (and necessary to understand the whodunnit, while to my mind in the later books the 'learning' is much too predominant).

The atmosphere of a medieval abbey is very well done and, as it is secluded from the outside world, an abbey where a killer's on the loose is the perfect site to build up the tension. Add to that plenty of colourful characters and, in the right measure, a wealth of information on religious strife in the Middle Ages and what you get is a top-notch historical thriller!

A 20th century classic, 23 Aug 2007
The first time I tried to read this book as a 19 year old student desperately trying to impress my peers I abandoned it after less than a hundred pages as I found just too hard going. Several years later and at the insistence of several friends I tried again, this time determined to see it through to the end. It was, and remains, a revelation.

First of all, dispel any thoughts of the rather tame and dreary film that cam out in the 80s as it just did not do justice to this remarkable novel. Yes, it is frighteningly dark and sinister but there's a real warmth and kindly wisdom about Willaim of Baskerville and an endearing naivety from his young charge, Adso, to help the reader through the very grimmest of the plot developments.

While the setting provides a suitably unsettling backdrop to the grisly goings on, the heart of this book is in it's characters from the pious abbott, the disturbing Salvatore, the sinister Jorge and the downright terrifying Bernardo Gui of the dreaded Inquisition, all of whom are fleshed out with their own stories. Adso asks he questions the reader wants answered in a Dr Watson type way, while sleuthy William of Baskerville ( a none too subtle tip of the deerstalker hat to Arthur Conan Doyle by the author) provides the answers... and answers them with riddles.

The Name Of The Rose sheds a glimemr of light on a disturbing period of European history when plague and famine were a constant concern and religious fanatacism was the real power governing people's lives. While set several centuries ago, the theme of dogmatic zealots throwing their weight around to the peril of ordinary people is all too familiar in today's troubled times and modern day parallels are, sadly, all too easy to draw. That said, Umberto Eco does not launch an unbridled attack upon religion as he is very sympathetic to the genuine faith of many of the characters. Instead he targets those with blind faith who do not question themselves and use "the will of God" to subjugate and punish others, whether it is the men of the Inquisition or the heretical Cathars. That's not say it's a book about religion as that would miss out the murder mystery element, the sex, the architecture, the red herrings, etc.

Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose is a magnificent book of masterly storytelling and enlightening prose. Yes, it's hard work to get into, but then many great books are and the rewards are worth the effort so don't be put off. Ideal reading material for dark winter nights.

Read this, and don't bother with the film., 19 Jun 2007
Films often fail to capture the essence of the books they are based on. Case in point, here. Admittedly verbose in places, with passages in Latin etc, this book is still a marvel. You just have to exercise your judgement: skip the bits you find boring and wonder at the rest.

The Name of the Rose is a fascinating look at a forgotten world - a turn of the (first) millennium Benedictine monastery. This book is part historical novel, part forensic whodunit, part apocalyptic prophecy, with an insight into the conflicts rocking the then Christian church - between Holy Roman Emperor and Pope, Franciscans and Dominicans, heretics and scheming clerics, librarians and infidel philosophers, destitute villagers and powerful church figures. This book reeks the rich tapestry of all that life.

If you've read any of the other reviews, you'll probably know the background. Brother William of Baskerville is a former Inquisitor, entrusted with a secret mission on behalf of the Emperor. He's also an amateur detective of prodigious skill (something t