It has been quite a few years since I last read an Umberto Eco book. His books tend to be long and require a lot of background knowledge to keep up with. Luckily, he's written a novella that, while it delves into Italian history quite deeply, has at its heart a story with universal qualities.
Colonna is a writer who has never quite made it. However, he has now been offered the chance to ghostwrite a book about the founding of an ideal newspaper, one which will be written only as proof of concept for the rich, politically-connected man who is interested in it. What follows is a discussion on media and conspiracy theories that delves deeply into the death (or purported death) of Benito Mussolini.
While I admittedly know nothing about Mussolini and the Italian Fascists, the underlying story of conspiracy and media control of the narratives of all news stories is just as applicable in the modern day United States or Britain or anywhere else. There is quite a bit of history given in the story but, since it's the supporting evidence of the story and not the plot itself, the reader doesn't need to fully absorb the convoluted details. I enjoyed reading this story and hope to pick up another of his books off my TBR shelf soon.
Exercising the grey cells,
K
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