"The Prague Cemetery" by Umberto Eco

If I was a young, impressionable reader, I would probably proclaim Umberto Eco a genius and his work a masterpiece - he certainly writes very well, is very erudite and sophisticated, definitely  a class above most of the popular writers. Dan Brown in comparison, is just a little schoolboy standing next to man of intellectual power like Eco. This also means that Eco writes his books very sporadically, as he is a well known university lecturer and often busy with other projects. His most famous work, a medieval crime story "The Name of the Rose" perhaps unfairly made him into something of medieval Arthur Conan Doyle, which is wrong since Umberto Eco wrote this only once and moved on since - I had not read anything from him for a very long time and was intrigued with both the title and cover of his latest novel, which turned out into curious experience.

It is very hard to enjoy a novel where the main protagonist is so immensely negative.
"Negative" is an understatement here - Eco did everything to make his main character one of the worst people anybody has ever encountered in a literature. His Simonini hates the whole world, is disgusted of women, bursts with prejudices of all sorts and loves himself only. The sheer venom, malice and hatred this man has in his veins initially put me off reading - I had to set a book aside for a good month, before I could continue and than suddenly I got caught up in a story and in fact finished it with a greatest interest. Which still doesn't mean it was enjoyable, pleasurable experience because once I had finished the last page, I felt simultaneous overload of historical informations AND a disgust about what I have just read. There is not a single person, country or government that Simonini does not hiss at, out of some long-standing imaginative phobia or prejudice. If Umberto Eco wanted to explain how 19th century public opinions could have been swayed and various secret plots made trough manipulation of public and media, he had definitely succeeded - the novel is loaded with historical facts and real-life people, author's knowledge of history is almost intimidating, but at the heart of the story there is slow-brewing, dangerous hatred that was strong, powerful force back than and today. I sighed out with relief once I finished the last page.