How to Travel with a Salmon
And Other Essays
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Impishly witty and ingeniously irreverent" essays on topics from cell phones to librarians, by the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum (The Atlantic Monthly).
A cosmopolitan curmudgeon the Los Angeles Times called "the Andy Rooney of academia"—known for both nonfiction and novels that have become blockbuster New York Times bestsellers—Umberto Eco takes readers on "a delightful romp through the absurdities of modern life" (Publishers Weekly) as he journeys around the world and into his own wildly adventurous mind.
From the mundane details of getting around on Amtrak or in the back of a cab, to reflections on computer jargon and soccer fans, to more important issues like the effects of mass media and consumer civilization—not to mention the challenges of trying to refrigerate an expensive piece of fish at an English hotel—this renowned writer, semiotician, and philosopher provides "an uncanny combination of the profound and the profane" (San Francisco Chronicle).
"Eco entertains with his clever reflections and with his unique persona." —Kirkus Reviews
Translated from the Italian by William Weaver
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this collection of parodies, satires and whimsical mini-essays written over the last 30 years, Italian novelist/critic Eco (The Name of the Rose) takes readers on a delightful romp through the absurdities of modern life. A curmudgeonly cosmospolite, he waxes irate at his pet peeves, which include American trains, taxi drivers in New York City and Paris, soccer fans and cellular phones. He mockingly deconstructs Western movies, art catalogues, library regulations and, with tongue in cheek, proffers advice on how to take intelligent vacations and how to become a Knight of Malta. Eco parodies science fiction in a tale of intergalactic sex and espionage, and spoofs detective fiction in an account of ``the perfect crime.'' Serious issues that emerge from the antics include how the mass media confuses reality and fiction, and how our ``consumer civilization'' turns adults into children whose endless needs require constant gratification. First serial to Esquire.
