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Review: The DaVinci Code
Feb. 29th, 2004 07:21 pmI have been avoiding this book for quite some time, mostly because I knew I was going to be disappointed. A book about sacred geometry, symbolism, and mathematics? Telling the story of the Priory du Sion and the Knight Templars? As a best-selling page-turner thriller? This was going to have to suck like a Vax. It didn't help that the people who kept telling me to read it were my students - and that one of them kept saying "You'll love it; it's anti-Christian." (That student is Catholic, by the way.) However, it became clear that it was either read that and be able to discuss it with them intelligently, or go see Passion of the Christ and deconstruct it for them. I don't have the stomach for that, either gore-wise or theologically, so The DaVinci Code it was. (The month before it came out in paperback, yet; at least it was 30% off at Perimeters.)
I was pleasantly surprised. I am, however, curious as to why it's a bestseller; my theory on that at the end of the review.
Part I: Review of the Book as Literature
I'm generally not a fan of the "page-turner thriller" genre. Fortunately, the author's style is more like Grisham's or Creighton's than the average spy-novelist's. The chapters are too short, and the storytelling is choppy; Brown likes to leave us at a mini-cliffhanger every few pages. Partially because of this, the only character in the entire novel who feels fully-fleshed out at the end is the victim of the crime that opens the novel. The main character is one we've met a dozen times before, the academic whose research requires that he run off adventuring every so often. This one is at least not a swashbuckler; he's dragged into this adventure (almost literally). Most of the secondary characters feel flat, even predictable. The author also seems to like dropping references and then not explaining them for a chapter or two. The dialogue is as choppy as the plotting, although it at least never becomes wooden.
Having said that, it's a fast read. Very fast. It's a 450-page book in hardback; I started it on the bus to A&M Consolidated High School at 6:30 am and finished it at 11:30, with non-trivial interruptions (like getting my kids off to the Number Sense and Calculator tests on time and properly equipped). Granted, I'm a swifter reader than most, and I knew most of the background already, but even someone who is barely familiar with the art and completely unfamiliar with the Priory theory should have no trouble finishing this in three or four days. Even though it's as chopped-up as it is, the story flows decently, and the author's vocabulary is complex enough to be interesting without getting in the way. (Although, I did have to explain a few words to my student who was also reading it on the trip.)
It's no literary masterwork. It does do the job of telling the plot, though, and the plot is sufficiently interesting to make up for the deficiencies in pacing and character.
( Part II: Review of the Content; WARNING: Spoilers! although I try not to give away the Big Twist (TM) )
Overall: B - not great literature, but fast, fun, and either mildly thought-provoking or a nice nod to one's already-held worldview.
I was pleasantly surprised. I am, however, curious as to why it's a bestseller; my theory on that at the end of the review.
Part I: Review of the Book as Literature
I'm generally not a fan of the "page-turner thriller" genre. Fortunately, the author's style is more like Grisham's or Creighton's than the average spy-novelist's. The chapters are too short, and the storytelling is choppy; Brown likes to leave us at a mini-cliffhanger every few pages. Partially because of this, the only character in the entire novel who feels fully-fleshed out at the end is the victim of the crime that opens the novel. The main character is one we've met a dozen times before, the academic whose research requires that he run off adventuring every so often. This one is at least not a swashbuckler; he's dragged into this adventure (almost literally). Most of the secondary characters feel flat, even predictable. The author also seems to like dropping references and then not explaining them for a chapter or two. The dialogue is as choppy as the plotting, although it at least never becomes wooden.
Having said that, it's a fast read. Very fast. It's a 450-page book in hardback; I started it on the bus to A&M Consolidated High School at 6:30 am and finished it at 11:30, with non-trivial interruptions (like getting my kids off to the Number Sense and Calculator tests on time and properly equipped). Granted, I'm a swifter reader than most, and I knew most of the background already, but even someone who is barely familiar with the art and completely unfamiliar with the Priory theory should have no trouble finishing this in three or four days. Even though it's as chopped-up as it is, the story flows decently, and the author's vocabulary is complex enough to be interesting without getting in the way. (Although, I did have to explain a few words to my student who was also reading it on the trip.)
It's no literary masterwork. It does do the job of telling the plot, though, and the plot is sufficiently interesting to make up for the deficiencies in pacing and character.
( Part II: Review of the Content; WARNING: Spoilers! although I try not to give away the Big Twist (TM) )
Overall: B - not great literature, but fast, fun, and either mildly thought-provoking or a nice nod to one's already-held worldview.
