Books › Comment voyager avec un saumon
Comment voyager avec un saumon
First published 2000 · 339 pages
A brilliant philosopher turns his towering intellect toward the mundane annoyances of modern life, with hilarious results.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting in a European café with the world's smartest, most charmingly exasperated professor. Eco takes the towering intellect he usually reserves for semiotics and medieval history and aims it squarely at the mundane indignities of late-twentieth-century life, from impenetrable gadget manuals to the Kafkaesque nightmare of hotel minibars. The pace is brisk and snackable, making it perfect for reading in transit. The mood is wry, cynical, yet fundamentally joyful, driven by a playful prose style that elevates everyday complaints into high art. It will thoroughly delight fans of dry, erudite satire who love watching a brilliant mind unravel the absurdities of bureaucracy, technology, and human folly.
- Mood
- amused
- cynical
- intellectually playful
- breezy
- Tone
- wry
- satirical
- playful
- erudite
- curmudgeonly
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the absurdity of modern life · bureaucratic nightmares · technological frustration · human folly · the indignities of travel
- The writing
- Sharp, witty, and elegantly structured, blending high-minded academic language with mundane, everyday complaints.
- The arc
- Moves from mild irritation at everyday inconveniences to a delighted, philosophical acceptance of human absurdity.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate dry, intellectual humor and enjoy seeing the trivialities of modern existence dissected by a brilliant mind.
Content notes
- mild language
- satirical depictions of violence
About the book
How to Travel with a Salmon is a highly engaging collection of what Umberto Eco calls his diario minimo - minimal diaries - after the magazine column in which he began "pursuing the pathways of parody.".
These essays, written in the late eighties and early nineties, are his playful but unfailingly accurate takes on militarism, computer jargon, Westerns, art criticism, librarians, bureaucrats, meals on airplanes, Amtrak trains, bad coffee, maniacal taxi drivers, express mail, 33-function watches, fax machines and cellular phones, pornography, soccer fans, academia, and - last but definitely not least - the author's own self.
How to Travel with a Salmon gives us Umberto Eco's acute vision of the absurdities of modern life.
Description from Open Library.
Books like Comment voyager avec un saumon
See why they match
EssaysItalo CalvinoA luminous, philosophical love letter to the enduring magic and mechanics of literature.
History Of BeautyUmberto EcoA lavish, intellectual stroll through the galleries of human history, guided by a master philosopher.
Travels in Hyperreality (Harvest Book)Umberto EcoA witty, semiotic road trip through the artificial landscapes and cultural obsessions of the late twentieth century.
The Salmon of DoubtDouglas AdamsA bittersweet, laugh-out-loud rummage through the desk drawers of a departed comedic genius.
Sous le soleil jaguarItalo CalvinoA cerebral and intoxicating exploration of human desire filtered entirely through the overwhelming power of the senses.
Consider the lobster, and other essaysDavid Foster WallaceA dizzying, hyper-articulate plunge into the absurdities and moral anxieties of modern American life.