Customer Reviews

How to Travel With a Salmon & Other Essays

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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In this collection of humourous essays, Umberto Eco exemplifies my most favourite literary character: the lovable curmudgeon. Only he happens to be a curmudgeon blessed with world class wit, an encyclopedic knowledge of history and art and literature, and the reputation as the world's leading expert on semiotics. I enjoy his writing best when he's not wielding all of those swords at once. During those pieces the humour gets tangled up in the academia, causing migraine headaches for his less nimble-minded audience (an example of this is the long piece 'Stars and Stripes', which in the interest of full disclosure I'll admit to not understanding).

The better pieces are quick, to the point, and almost existential. They are also very accessible. 'On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1' takes that wickedly mischievous proposition to its logical conclusion, and skewers the pomposity of academics who feel equipped to offer a truthful representation of the world. Eco himself knowingly gets caught in that crossfire, much to his own delight. My favourite piece is entitled 'How Not to Use the Cellular Phone'. In it, he rationally categorizes cell phone users (ranging from those so important they need to be on-call 24 hours a day, to those living lives so lame they must constantly be in contact with people who might be doing something interesting). Upon completion, I felt justified in my desire to never own one of those horrendous little gadgets.

Once again, a funny little book that makes you look at the world your living in just a bit differently. What more can you ask?

In this hysterical collection of essays, Umberto tackles everything from the Italian driver-licensing bureau to the cosmic army of the future--one that doesn't seem to be able to do anything really useful save dispatching astrograms to each other. Eco is delightful, mocking at times, right on point throughout. Whether you want to know the truth about talk-show hosts, how to deal with soccar fans, taxi-drivers and, well, salmon, how to buy useless gadgets, or simply want to hear the secret rules concerning library organization (no bathrooms), how to compile toilet-paper inventories, you'll love this book. The book is enjoyable throughout with its often bizarrely funny juxtapostition of the mundane and the learned.

In this collection of wonderfully sardonic essays Umberto Eco demonstrates the qualities that have made his a great novelist: attention to detail, to people, and his erudition. And to the delight of many-he displays yet another (perhaps unexpected) quality: a wicked yet welcoming wit.

For these essays about many different journeys are welcoming because they are so recognizable. There is the journey (without) a watch; the journey of a child eating ice cream; the (very literal) airplane journey with attendant gadget advertising; the journeys of modern communication via a fax machine-and many, many more.

These essays drew me into an incredible world, made me laugh and grimace at the same time. But above all, they forced me to recognize my world--and myself.

This is a good book to take with you on a journey-no matter where you are headed. I recommend it.

I am a huge fan of Umberto Eco, and his novels (Rose and Foucault's Pendulum) and I had high hopes for this collection of essays. Eco is very satirical in these essays, sometimes too much so; the satirical and exaggerating style that is combined with very unusual translation style (ancient words that do not reach the nice rhythm of Eco's otherwise great storytellin in his other works) just got me tired of reading this book. These stories just do not entertain me this time.

Here and there I was able to find a nice story but only few. Language just doesn't get to its pace, and I also have say that majority of the stories are dated for readers in 2006. Stories about telefaxes, etc. are not relevant anymore. But also the general problem of satirical essays is that they are very much tied to the present day when they're written.

Overall, not a bad collection but nowhere near to my expectations.

This collection of essays combines travel with intellectual barbs. The book journeys from the surreal, such as the logistics of manipulating life-sized maps of a territory, to the all-too-real and malodorous such as the title story of the hotel with the broken computer, overly attentive housekeeping, and thus a slowly decaying fish. And the book will please word-fetishists, as the sentences are cleverly assembled.

In this collection of short essays published in a span of over 30 years in various magazines, Eco takes all kinds of themes in a mood for parody and satire.
Dealt with here are various modern day commodities (phones, gadgets etc.) as well as ...trains, buses, libraries, waiters, and in general themes that bear no connection with them ..
Reading this book through is not much different than being engaged in conversation with a very witty person who's got an opinion on everybody and everything and has a very special way to deliver it on top of it.
Some of the subjets of these essays may seem a bit out of time (times have indeed changed since some of these were written) but the humor is the prevailant factor here, a caustic humor characteristic of Eco anyway.
If you've gotten to know this brilliant author and mind through his classics such as "Foucault's pendulum" and "The name of the rose" you might find yourself surprised with what's on offer on this book. It's a style you might've not expected, but this does in no way mean you'll be dissapointed. On the extreme contrary!
Great book, reads through like a breeze, and so packed with hilarious lines/conclusion/observations that you'll surely return to it many times.

The Italian author Umberto Eco has written several humorous articles in his career. This book is acollection of the classics. All articles are at least mildly entertaining, containing some all-too-true comments of the modern society, and a few even managed to put a smile on my face. It is a quick and fun read with pointed social criticicm and irony-filled sarcasm. A nice little gift idea.

...or the logical illogic behind everyday life. ..Umberto Eco is one of my favorite writers/thinkers and I was well pleased when he allowed some of his followers like me off the hook with a down to earth, easy to follow book. Sharp witted and clearly with tongue placed firmly in cheek, Eco skewers human habits and modern day customs with a faux/not faux rationalism...sometimes with the same stance you'd imagine he'd lecture a graduate course in the theories of semiotics.

But, fear not, dear reader, Dr. Eco is just having a little fun. An essay entitled "How to Be a Television Host", turns out to be a parody on how the powers-that-be who produce entertainment/shows/movies must think the audiences are really dumb. Even though he kinda went overboard with applause and the fictional Bonga nation (somewhere "between Terra Incognita and the Isle of the Blest"), it is truth. He even parodies himself and academicians like himself in the piece 'Three Owls in a Chest Drawer' (in which two more of my favorites--Erica Jong and Camille Paglia--get a nod) which ends with a wry punchline "This, and only this, is what Poetry demands of us."

Eco says one should never fear exaggeration in writing parody. Well...truly, he is fearless in these essays.

You read these essays and you know what Eco is talking about. Those thoughts you can't articulate when you're on the train, but you know they mean something--Eco has read your mind. These experiences, whether or not you are also a world-travelling world-famous essayist, are common to the human experience. How do you judge what is and what isn't pornography? How well do you travel with a salmon? What would happen if the Italian (and Canadian) military bureaucracies were the only survivors of Earth in a future pan-galactic civilization? And they were in charge? You will roll on the floor laughing, wince occasionally, and come away with a better understanding of yourself and your society.

Though some of the essays may seem a bit dated, they are ALL very clever and worthwhile. I suggest this lighthearted book to anyone, particularly to fans of Eco.

I've read both _Foucault's Pendulum_ and _The Name of the Rose_, so I can fully appreciate Eco's genius, his careful research into topics, and his knack for expressing all the details in an interesting and captivating way. This book is COMPLETELY different than what I'm used to with Eco, and *I love it*!