The Island of the Day Before (Abridged) Audiobook

" The prose was good, thought provoking, and sometimes funny. I had to read and re-read some sentences in order for me to understand. I could visualize the protagonist, melancholic in a ship, on a purest blue but rather deserted waters. i liked the idea of one time time zone being just under your reach, but unable to reach it. Umberto was good. But I could not really understand where the story was going. Themes and various sub-themes rather mixed up my simple mind. "

" I'm sure this book is a great read if one is solely interested dazzled by Eco's erudition, which is staggering by any measure. However, in English, at least, the novel is almost unreadable. Almost every page is taken up with making fun of the Baroque understanding of the universe and the people who tried to apply it practically. Sometimes, this mockery is quite funny. Mostly, I just find it tedious. "

" I was completely confused and missed the point. "

" Eco's worst book, I think. Still entertaining and original in places, but oddly weak as a whole. "

" If in the Name of the Rose Eco has acheived a fine balance between his love of ideas and his responsibilities as a novelist here he has failed to the detriment of the reader. "

" Definitely my least favorite of his novels. "

" Wonderful atmosphere--hard to follow. Can't quite remember the "argument" of this one. I guess the guy on the boat is stranded in time on the international dateline. More than that, I just can't say. "

" A wandering, pointless work with a thin plot. I only finished it because it was Eco, and haven't read anything by him since. Did he improve? "

" Really good until the very end and then hard to finish. Read if you like 14th century European Scientific fallacies and the search for longitude. "

" I tried...3 times I tried, but it just didn't grab me at all. "

" This book was not for me - too much imagery of things I have no knowledge of. And the plot, if there was one, went nowhere. A guy os stuck on a boat because he is too afraid to swim to the adjacent island so he writes about his own history. That was about all I could gather from this book. "

" I love this book. I've read it twice. "

" This is a rough book. Maybe it's brilliant, but I just didn't get it. I just got a headache. "

" More readable than the Foucaults Pendulum, but still too dense. "

" One of my favorite Eco books! It is complex, and takes things to a different meaning. His explanation of 'Love conquers all!' is great! "

" Imagine looking at an island just over the international date line and knowing it was yesterday over there. This book deals with the paradoxes of space and time, while never failing to entertain the reader. A work of lyrical fiction (even when read in translation). "

" Tortuously erudite, but engrossing. As painful as pleasurable. "

" Storytelling like spider's web spun around a central tale that is as strange as long. "

" Goodness, I TRIED, I swear! I just couldn't get that deep into this book before I gave up and said "I'll pass." Very dense writing style, requiring the reader to slave away with a mental machete. Ugh! I wanted to read this because the cover was so beautiful. Dumb, I know... "

" This is one of my favorite books--something I will read every few years for many years to come. "

" Great to read in conjunction with Sobel's Latitude "

" I read this one in the late 90s, bought a copy for my best friend shortly thereafter. I saw Ray Rizzo with a copy one evening at Ramsi's, I told him I enjoye dit and replied that he was eager. Oh, those 90s! I should reread it quite soon. "

" All the erudicy and eloquence one invariably expect from the master. However, not very much more. "

" quite difficult, want to read it again and hope I understand/ remember more of the different stories in it "

" "But is it true, then, that the stone feels nothing but its stoniness?" Puleeeze. "

" Loved this book. So haunting. "

" Ricco di idee e curiosità, e non metto in dubbio che Eco riesca qua a ricreare il clima culturale dell’epoca, ma pare scritto da uno che fa il verso a Umberto Eco. "

" I couldn't finish reading it "

" I read this back in January of 1997. I remember being intrigued by the concept of an island viewed across the international dateline and the various philosophical musings of the shipwrecked sailor. Can’t remember how it ends though, so maybe I should read it again?? "