February 8, 2004

  • Book Review:  The Da Vinci Code (spoilers for the first scene)

     

    I knew the buzz was on about Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code, but even though I’d read a review or two in passing I’d missed the point.  I thought this was a Very Heavy Duty Serious Tome that just happened for some odd reason to pique public interest.  I thought it would be something like The Name of the Rose.  When the Code was assigned to my book club, to be frank, I cringed.  I’ve read the Rose (although I didn’t make it through Foucault, alas).  I’m a great fan of seriously great thinkers  who also write fiction.  Someday, I will have time to read all of A.S. Byatt, and I’m looking forward to it with anticipation.  But I don’t have time in my life right now for thoughts other than my own, and even those, for sheer lack of time, have to be based on prior experience rather than research.  Right now I just didn’t have one second for serious thought.

     

    Not to worry.  And not to be putting down Mr. Brown, either.  Mr. Brown has actually accomplished a very interesting thing.  He’s written a red-hot, page-turning murder mystery, similar to the better Agatha Christies, and he’s also managed to popularize something I’d never thought popularizable.  Anyone else ever seen PBS's "Frontline" entitled "From Jesus to Christ"?  Unfortunately I myself haven’t seen it in its entirety (because it arrived on the scene after children had arrived on mine, and the latter event erased tv from my life as a time-consuming option).  But I did see enough of them, in passing, to deeply appreciate the insight they provided to the modern guise of Christianity, and also to deeply regret that this fascinating and well-researched information wouldn’t ever reach the general public.  Well now, apparently, it has, in the form of Religious History and Symbology Lite.  And bravo to Mr. Borwn, for that, say I.!

     

    If you are familiar with the standard clichés of the murder mystery genre, you may find the Code a bit old-hat to start.  Sure, it grabs you by the throat and keeps you gasping, but you find time to roll your eyes a bit between gasps.  I mean, like me you might not have known that DaVinci’s famous nude male in the pentacle-within-the-circle was called The Vitruvian Man, but when the opening lines’ macabre murder victim is found to have spreadeagled himself on the floor of the Louvre, with a pentacle painted upon his abdomen and a sweeping circle about him, and the top cops and symbologists and code crackers are all standing around saying “Hmmmm!” or, since it’s France, “Mais qu’est-ce que c’est, ca?” really, you do find time to wander into the kitchen in search of another cup of tea and wonder whether perhaps there was something else pressing on your bookshelf.

     

    Fortunately, however, things improve after that.  Or rather, they stay the same (same breathless pace, same switchbacks to other gasp-worthy scenes elsewhere, same macabre overtones, same weird unknown backstory) but intensify and get more puzzling.  The codes and the secrets soon reach beyond the average ken, and the in-depth research part of the text, although not entirely adroitly intertwined therein, is never dwelt on overlong before there’s another chase, another turn of the plot, another unexpected betrayal, or another puzzlingly clue to solve.

     

    I am left, shortly after pulling an all-nighter just to get all those pages turned, wondering about the degree to which the research part of the story is correct.  I believe it is nearly all accurate (not as in “truth,” but as it “existing speculation and/or documented theory”), and I’m looking forward to a little web-browsing to get a taste of the Christian establishment’s response. 

     

    I am NOT left wondering about Mr. Brown’s firm grip on all the ploys of the successful murder-thriller.  It’s a recipe, and it’s not haute cuisine, but it’s assuredly tasty enough.  And I highly recommend it, particularly if a lengthy plane trip or long weekend without much else of entertainment value looms in your near future.

Comments (16)

  • I dont know about Bookstand top sellers. have read of science manuscripts from the author (a true inspiration) and thats real stuff, I mean stuff that wafts through you until you havent had enough sleep. Brilliant, brilliant, son of a holy cow.

    might be hard to find at your local library, but definately worth checking. His hypothesis' on earth sciences are of particular interest.

  • Well put.  My "review" (since I didn't necessarily write one) should have been as well thought out.

  • what a weird! i am currently reading da vinci code and i feel exactly like you do about it.

    but more important, i happen to be a fan of umberto eco and a.s. bayatt. i liked 'name of the rose' a lot, and i am not ashamed to admit i missed 50% of the allusions and references in focault's pendulum (it's on mo to-re-read list). i also plodded through a.s. bayatt's possession for the better part of a year (it's not a book you enjoy on one weekend), but i enjoyed every minute of it.

  • I did my Literary Corner on this one a bit back - I liked it for the fact that it kept me turning the pages until they were all gone. I did some looking of stuff up but mostly left the conjecture at the door and enjoyed the mysteries. I like the possible "what ifs" of the world

  • I call it the best thing going in education--not education lite, but "trick-'em-into-learning-something" style education.  I read the book last summer, and felt smarter after reading it.  I read the book written previous to this one, Angels and Demons, and also felt somewhat smarter.  However, I will say this, too.  It was not unlike finding a new flavor of cheesecake--good enough to think it's wonderful after the first time, made ya want to get another asap, but definitely leaves you overfull after that second go round. Not to say that I wouldn't read another of his, but they've got to have considerable amounts of time between 'em, I say.  And I treated the theories on the stuff just as that--theories and stories made by intelligent people that seemed pretty logical at the time--and appreciated it for what it was.  I mean, isn't that what the folks who wrote the Bible did?

  • --I read it also... well more like gulped it down... because it was so quick moving... and like Daff felt all the more knowledgeable because of it. It is nowhere near being one of my favorite books, however.

    ps. I hope you're having a good weekend, Faith.

  • Thanks for the review. I too have been skirting the Da Vinci Code. I figured it for one of the mysteries that has a main character that repeats in more than one book. But I'm ready for a new bathtub book and as soon as I finish here I'll order it up from the library.

  • I haven't read it yet, because I am CHEAP and the list in our teeny library here is long to get hands on it.  However, husband ordered it for me as a Valentine's gift from overstock.com, and by golly - I'm going to devour it!

    I'm anxious to read it.  I've been itching to get my hands on it since I first heard it's premise. 

    Thanks for the review!

  • I loved the book.  I didnt wait to finish the book to look up fatual events.  I would have to stop and look them up to satisfy my curiosity.    It was a fun book. 

  • I can't wait to read the book. My dad read it and is sending it my way. I've heard nothing but good things, though.

  • I had intended to sit this book out, in spite of the hype, or rather partly because of it. But you did get me to read Drowning Ruth, which I thought was excellent, and you may well get me to delve into this one too.

  • I'm reading the book now, and pretty much enjoying it.  Alas, life's so crowded and busy that even though "I can't put it down," I literally HAVE to put it down.  It's the book club discussion book for March or April, so at least I'll be ready by then.  I hope.

    Come by my blog today, please.  I'm interested in what people might think of my reply to Terry (comments 4-5).

  • Thanks for the tip...

  • ok. it's february and a good read is a thing of lovliness. . . . beats shoveling the white stuff in the driveway over and over. thank you for the tip. . .

  • I haven't picked this up -- and very likely won't now.  From the sound of it, there are thousands of other books that are more worthy of my time, and I'll never get to all of those as it is.

    I have a large hardcover of Foucault's Pendulum that is as dog-earred as any paperback I've owned.  When you are barely into the first chapter and are confronted with mathematical diagrams because the author cannot convey the theory in just words, you know you're in for a re-read or two.

  • It's nice to know that I'm not alone in not making it through Foucault.  It had some fascinating concepts, but Boy! did it hurt my head!!!

    I loved Name of the Rose (I enjoy medieval mysteries).  Will check out this Davinci Code. Thanks for the review.  I hope that the code parts don't become heavily mathematical!  

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