Rating: 
Summary: Not the usual fictional Eco
Review: It seems to me Eco's "The island of the day before" is a classic example of love it or hate it. Those who love it do so because of the beautiful prose, the interesting philosophical implications and discussions, and the unusual frame of mind of the characters. Those who hate it do so because of the difference between "The island of the day before" and Eco's other fiction books, "The name of the rose", "Foucault's pendulum" and "Baudolino". "The island..." seems more like an essay. The book begins telling how Roberto della Grive became stranded in a deserted ship on the other side of the world, and what his mission there was. Two thirds of the story are a description of Roberto's early life, a war, his passage through Paris, a platonic love affair and a conversation with Cardinal Mazarino. The final third tells how Roberto, alone in the ship with the unreachable island across the 180º meridian in front of him, slowly looses his mental faculties, creating a new, imaginary life for himself and disussing with no one about the size of the universe and thinking if the moon is inhabited or not. This book is a combination of historical fiction with philosophy class. But I think Eco would not be my favourite teacher. Sometimes he simply tires the reader with endless discussions about uninteresting topics. However, there's no denying "The island of the day before" is, for the most part, a good book, extremely well written and very beautiful. But it was not entirely for my taste, and I think Eco's other fictional books are better than this one. Grade 8.1/10
Rating:
Summary: A multitude of books in one - but not for everyone
Review: OK, this book has gotten a very wide range of mixed reviews. Basically, the deal seems to be this - after "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucalt's Pendulum," one might have thought of Eco as the writer with the trademark combination of erudition, history, intellectual theory and popular narration.However, this book is none of that - it is a very strange blend of some of these features, but in a different way that ends up being unappreciated by many.
There is no essential plot to the book. It is about Roberto, a young nobleman who becomes cast away on an abandonned ship. What follows is a wide array of the memories of his life thus far, his quirky thoughts and happening on the ship, as well as the reasons why he is on the ship. The result feels like 5 or 6 books stuck together - which is interesting but hard to read. Thus, the first book might be entitled "The Anatomy of Rennaisance Sieges", the second "Paris as an Intellectual Flowerbed", the third "The Hunt for Longitude as a Means of Conquering the World", the fourth "A Jesuit Perspective of Metaphysics" and the fifth "The Yearning for the Orange Dove". All of these describe each of the implicit sections of the book, but don't do it justice.
As can be seen from the titles, the book parades you through the various intellectual milestones of the Rennaisance, from theology to metaphysics to astronomy and the history of science. If you are interested in any of these, the book is a worthwhile read. Also, despite the style being deliberately obscure, I felt Eco's signature playful manner of rearranging ideas shine through.
Also, unlike previous books, we have a more traditional protagonist - and I enjoyed identifying and getting to like Roberto in his idealism, slightly-misguided intellectualism and quirky worldview. All of this is characterised by his desire for the Orange Dove (towards the end of the book), where I found emotional overtones that are rare in Eco.
On the down side, it is definitely hard to read - at times it seems like it's completely deliberate and that's annoying. The highly fragmented nature doesn't help either. If you do read it, it helps if you're a fast reader and can take a short time to do it in - otherwise you'll end up like me, with flashes of insight from each day of reading, but because of the struggle, it becomes a long chain of flashes that are hard to connect together.
I liked it but I can see why many didn't. This is the book for you if you don't mind:
1)putting aside prior perceptions of Eco
2)a deliberately hard read and
3)fragmented ideas (where it's more up to the reader to make sense of it all)
Rating: 
Summary: Put it off til tomorrow; and STILL do it today!!!
Review: The meaning behind the name of this book struck me about a quarter of the way through. Sometimes I forget titles while I read and just enjoy the contents. But this had so much significance to what the book was actually about, it stayed with me. Imagine; even if only 'imagined', the ability to swim to an island within your sight, and arrive in the prior day. Not too shabby, compared with most titles I see, and the meanings behind them.
But a clever title is not all to be found with this Umberto Eco novel. Theology; existentialism; lost language; and even one of my favorite words (discovered first while performing in 'The Pirates of Penzance); escutcheon. Others criticize Eco on his meandering thoughts and ideas; on his half-truths/half-fictions; his playful use of alternate reality; and his obvious disregard for probability. I say 'what the heck are you reading Eco for, then?' It took me four years of owning this book to read it. Prior to this, I could not do it. But now, with Name of the Rose and Baudolino under my belt, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, devouring it from cover to cover, and opening my mind to all that Eco has to offer... Roberto, the 'hero' of the story, finds himself stranded on board the Daphne, a boat anchored just offshore an unreachable island. Without wind, without crew, and without a know-how of swimming, Roberto explores his new 'prison', having survived a shipwreck of the vessel Amaryllis. Finding that he is indeed NOT alone on the boat, Roberto prepares to flush out the intruder and face him down. But what Roberto discovers is not quite what he set out to find.
The novel flows back and forth in time, as well as in and out of 'reality' as Roberto weaves a tale of his childhood and the invention of his dark twin Ferrante, who dogs him throughout his life, to the discovery of his lady-love, Lilia; to his induction as a spy for Cardinal Richelieu; to his arrival on the Daphne, and the education he receives there in mapping the latitudes and longitudes of the planet. Like the other 2 Eco novels I have read, there is so much to be gleaned from the pages of this book...whether you enjoy the mingling of fact and fiction or not, for an avid reader like myself, willing to open my mind to flights of fancy...the challenge to your thought processes cannot be beat. A wonderful read....and worth the wait to be able to accomplish it.
Rating:
Summary: A curl-up-with-your-dictionary, scientific jewel of a poem.
Review: _________
Fluff or not? NOT.
_________ Robert de la Griva, our protagonist is first shipwrecked then washed up on a deserted ship anchored off a mysterious Island. Our story follows the rantings of this slightly unhinged and lonely, lovesick, sailor. With equal energy he pines over his immaginary love and yearns for the safety of the island within tantalizing proximity to his lonely outpost. Langauge in all its complexity and glory, history with its heroes and discoveries, love, poetry, death, and disappointment - they're all here. Just beware, when you set out to enjoy this book, be ready to keep a good dictionary handy. +: immaginative, unconventional, thought provoking, beautiful, fun, poetic, lots of new words to learn
-: not a light read, numerous unfamiliar words really required me to stop often and use my trusty Webster's
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