The Da Vinci Code - awful

I've started reading the Da Vinci code, expecting to be bowled over by the book which has sold more copies than Harry Potter (which is also crap). Never have I been so under whelmed by a novel. I'm still reading it now, but not a page goes by without me being struck by the poorness of the writing.

Dan Brown has obviously done a commendable research job for this book and in a way the Odyssey of the main protagonist must mirror the journey undertaken by the author. So the book is full of details, factoids and knowledge (occasionally of an esoteric bent). Brown has stuffed the pages full of explanations, tangents and nuggets which he feels the reader must need to 'complete' the book. These bits of information are presented in a wholly condescending way.

There is no mystery in The Da Vinci Code because Dan Brown explains and elaborates every little detail to perfection. Many readers enjoy this because nothing is taken for granted. He refers to les Jardins Tuilieres as "Paris's own version of Central park" - not only patently US-centric, but also horribly patronising.

How did this style of novel come to such huge success? I suppose it must be the fault of American readers who demand the simplification they are given in TV news 'shows'. This 'Paris, France' mentality is not new in popular fiction. Put simply, the novel requires no graft on the part of the reader: no thought has to go in to understanding any aspect of it because everything is so blindingly explicit. So this makes The Da Vinci Code a classic piece of 'bangers and mash' reading - parts of it are genuinely entertaining (except all that stuff I've already complained about, and also this albino Silas character who's like a kind of Gollum fellow and very badly realised)… and of course, some of the nuggets of information are quite interesting (stuff like origins of symbols and so on). But this is not a book which is particularly thought provoking or rewarding.

Share This
August 26, 2004 | Filed Under General 

Comments

Leave a Reply




Close
E-mail It