Foucault's Pendulum

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Some day, I might go back and try FP again, but it disappointed me despite a
few nice passages.  The discourse on love that is a part of the book was, I
thought, the best thing about it.  The rest struck me as an academic's novel--
something that I didn't really feel about THE NAME OF THE ROSE, despite the
equal level of erudition that underlay it.  But I think Eco is at his best
when taken straight, as in the pop cult crit pieces that he's done for 
newspapers and other venues.  His observations on CASABLANCA, the cultural
context of color, and the religious differences between Mac and IBM users
are priceless.

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)