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June 11, 2003
Review: (book) The Da Vinci Code
When the advanced reader copy came into my store, my boss grabbed it and took the day off. She liked it so much she actually managed to (accidentally) insult my religion while furiously recommending it to me...
The book seized my store. Before the plebes got a copy of it, we had an in-store waiting list; that many people just wanted to get their hands on this book. When it finally came out it was an instant best seller. I was intrigued. Is can any book be that good? The answer is yes. Unfortunately, The Da Vinci Code isn't...
It has all the right ingredients, but the author is a bit smug, a bit full of himself. Before the book actually begins, he makes the comment that (quoting from memory, the book isn't in front of me) "all architecture and artwork depicted in this book are accurate". What a breathtakingly arrogant comment! It leaves no room for a difference of opinion, no room for typo or other error, no room for anything except the author's own perfection...
The puzzles are clever, exactly what they should be in a thriller. Mr. Brown, however, continues to beat us over the head with how clever the puzzles are. He constantly comments on how smart one of the characters is for having planned all this out; given that that author is the one who really planned it, MR. Brown is patting himself on the back...
The other thing is the tone. There is a certain tone that "I-can't-believe-I'm-not-an-essay" polemical novels take. Ayn Rand was infamous for it, Christians flock to the Left Behind books for it. I can't really define it, but I can always tell I am reading such a book when the narrative flow is broken up by a paragraph or two on how everyone else is wrong...
For all that, it was an interesting book. It was fairly well paced and plotted, with an interesting take on the Grail stories. The author just needs to realize that he is not the possessor of all wisdom on earth, and I'll be a happier man...
Rating: 2 holy grails out of 5 holy grails. A good yarn, but the author needs to drink from the cup of wisdom first...
Posted by Andrew at June 11, 2003 03:55 PM
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