Code

[badseed1980]

pierceheart lent me The da Vinci Code today. As I'd just finished reading a book and needed to pick something quickly to bring to work, I tossed it in my backpack. I started reading it on the way to work, and read a good deal more of it on my lunch break. So far (and granted, I'm only on page 110), my main reactions to the book are as follows:

1. It's not bad. Entertaining enough. Nifty mysterious plot.
2. This man is working DESPERATELY hard to show off the amount of research he did for the book. "Look how many details I found out! See? See?" It rings from every page, and very frequently makes the flow seem clumsy and interrupted.
3. For some reason, I find the characters stiff and wooden. The main character's interior monologue really doesn't do it for me, for some reason. It seems almost amateurish. Not that I could do any better, of course. But I'm a much better reader of fiction than a writer of it.

I'll certainly finish it, but I doubt it's one of those books that I will re-read many times over for the sheer joy of it.

Comments

[nepenthedreams]

I felt the same way about the Da Vinci code. Quick, fun little read, but many things about the writing annoyed me. In particuclar, the "tour guide to Paris" attitude in the beginning. I felt he was showing off how worldly he is, but to anyone who has been to Paris, it's like "okay get on with the story already."

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

LOL...yeah, that "tour guide to Paris" description fits just right!

[mzwyndi.livejournal.com]

*nod* That was my impression. Brown's "Angels and Demons", which was earlier, was actually slightly less clunky. It's pretty much a pure ROMP with no attempt to be serious at all. Lovely brain candy.

My guess is that people read A&D, and said, "Good first novel, but it's not believeable that a Harvard prof would be so clueless about the symbols he specializes in. Needs more research." Stuff like that.

And then, you know, he overdid.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

HA! You know, I can believe that...

[leenah.livejournal.com]

i read most of it, i couldn't finish it. just didn't care anymore, though i did skim to the end so i'd get the general story. but the details got dull.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Like I said: I think the reason it was such a fast read for me was because of iarwain having forced me to read Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Leigh Teabing Baigent and Leigh back in 1992. And then of course, there was the floating fat man who claimed to be a member of Priory of Sion, and ALSO claimed that P2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due) meant Pere Priuere de Sion.

Once upon a time, I was a believer in that shit about the grail.
I need it to be true, to validate my Paganism and Catholicism.

Now, I need no validation that is externally provable.

My Gods talk to me, and when I'm smart, I listen.