The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
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Book Reviews of The Da Vinci Code
Book Review: A Treasure! Don't hesitate to pick up a copy!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Da Vinci Code is an "intelligent thriller" in every sense of the term. Not only is this an intense tale of murder and mystery, but is an art history lesson, a conspiracy theory and an eye-opening provocation all in one. That's not to mention that the characters are very well-developed, interesting and mostly charming and likable. This is a fiction story, but major parts of the book are based on facts that I had never been aware of until now. The novel opens up at the scene of a murder taking place. The characters and events surrounding the murder are suspicious and uncertain. Over the next few chapters, the pieces start falling into place slowly but surely. You learn that the murdered man, Jacques Saunière was the curator of the Lourve in Paris, France. He was also the Grand Master of a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. This mysterious organization has had the mission of protecting the secrets of the Holy Grail, and members of the society have included such prominent figures as Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo and... Leonardo Da Vinci.
The first few chapters also reveal that 3 other murders had taken place on the same night, all 3 victims being other members of the Priory of Sion. The killer is an albino monk named Silas, a member of a sect of the Catholic Church called Opus Dei, working for a Catholic Bishop, Manuel Aringarosa. Both collaborators are working for a mysterious man who calls himself The Teacher and has revealed his identity to no one.
Robert Langdon is an American visitor in Paris, as well as a Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University, in town for a lecture. Langdon had been scheduled to meet with Saunière on the night of the murder, and yet Saunière had not shown up (obviously). Langdon is summoned to the murder scene by the French police captain Bezu Fache under the guise of needing Langdon's expertise. Before Saunière died, he had locked himself in a section of the Lourve and left several clues that suggested that Langdon might able to help the police determine who had killed him and what the motive might have been. However, it isn't Langdon's expertise that was the sole reason for bringing him to the scene of the crime. Langdon is Fache's primary suspect. Before he can be arrested, Langdon is unexplainably rescued by a cryptologist named Sophie Neveu who believes Langdon is innocent... And then all Hell really breaks lose as both of them become fugitives from the law while trying to decipher the clues left by Saunière to determine who the killer really was and why he did it.
The clues Saunière left are nothing short of genius. What's even more brilliant is how Dan Brown is able to intertwine facts and conspiracy theories while coming up with double meanings and applying them to the story line. Most of Saunière's clues are left in the form of codes and symbols, most of which could be found and traced through "pagan" symbols embedded in the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci, as well as Da Vinci's history, lifestyle and beliefs. There were several moments while reading this book when I had to jump up and run to the internet so I could call up pictures of Da Vinci's paintings, as well as his biographies, so I could see if the symbolism and relationships described in the book were founded... and they are. I was completely and totally astonished and blown away by how much I was able to learn and ponder about Da Vinci from reading this book. I am so inspired in fact, that now I want to get my hands on anything I can learn about the man.
The Da Vinci Code is a smooth book to read. The chapters are extremely short, which makes it convenient to find stopping points - not that you'll want to stop (this book is so engulfing). The flow of the story is really easy to follow, even though it often splits up, switching from scene to scene. Brown is masterful at telling the story from one viewpoint, and then switching and telling it from the eyes of a different character.
I cannot give this book enough praise. Not only is it chocked full of information guaranteed to spark the imagination of the conspiracy theorist in anyone, but it is so complex, with intense and unexpected twists and turns all the way until the end. You will be guessing and trying to crack The Da Vinci Code the whole time. What's best, is that the person behind it all, is the one person I would have never even suspected, not even for a moment - and yet it makes perfect sense. I am blown away.
The Da Vinci Code is one of the most intoxicating, cinematic, thought-provoking books I've ever read. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy a good murder mystery and conspiracy theory, as well as to those who are interested in religious symbolism and are fans of Leonardo Da Vinci. In order to appreciate the brilliant complexity of this story, you simply MUST get your copy and start reading it today! A Must-Read!!! And with the holidays upon us, let me take this opportunity to recommend two other recent outstanding titles...WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. I purchased all these books through Amazon, with no special rush delivery, but received them within a week. Outstanding service, I'll admit. Happy holidays everyone!
Book Review: Good fiction, bad history
Summary: 3 Stars
The Da Vinci Code is just about everything a good fiction novel should be. The topic is fresh and interesting, Dan Brown obviously has a command of the material, you'll learn a great deal while reading it (a la Crichton), the story is a page turner and Brown's prose is okay - about what you'd expect for this type of book. However, it *is* fiction, and before you run off and renounce your belief in a Christian god who isn't a woman, it's wise to remember that. As a work of fiction, "The Da Vinci Code" succeeds greatly. As a text to present facts, it is much less successful. Unfortunately, while I would love to just judge the book on things like characters, plot and dialogue, there is a great deal of information in this book that is presented in a very one-sided fashion that while entertaining, will certainly serve to confuse opinions of an already distraught religion.I would liken Brown to a magician. A magician is one who creates an illusion, the audience buys into that illusion completely, and thus we have magic. Brown achieves the same result with "The Da Vinci Code." He is able to convince the reader that the very world is at stake within the outcome of this story, and that Da Vinci's opinion on a topic is as authoritative as the Bible itself. He accomplishes the first task by alluding to supernatural secrets early on, but very gradually reveals that this "world changing" secret is nothing more than the conspiracy theory of some cultish history club. However, Brown does it in such a way that we don't even notice it and the "secret" seems important right up until the end of the novel. This is not an easy thing to accomplish as a writer and it's why I say Brown largely succeeded. (I'll come back to this.) He achieves the second task of making the reader believe in Da Vinci's opinions as gospel by showing us things we've never seen before about his paintings, even though they are right in front of us. For the reader who looks up one of these painting on the internet and follows Brown's analysis of it, it can be startling and before you even realize it, you've forgotten that Da Vinci was just a man with an admittedly warped point of view. This ends the book review. What follows is a short commentary on the topic itself.
First, what's the validity of this secret of the Knights of Templar? Brown writes about their secret documents and what they say, and asserts that the originators of the Bible kept those works out for political reasons. This is conspiracy speak at its best. The fact is when you delve into the documents that weren't included in the canonical scripture, yes they say certain things that seem to contradict other areas of the Bible. But many of them also contain areas of factual inaccuracy, such as historical inaccuracies, that deems them of a dubious source. Compare that with the four Gospels - the most researched, time tested writings in this planet's history - and almost no discrepancies in transcription have been found, even with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Furthermore, the logic that these documents were left out for political reasons is a little sketchy, since including them in the canon would only have tightened the cords between paganism and true Christianity, which is what the conspiracy "experts" assert Constantine was attempting to achieve. Lastly, how important would revealing these secret documents be, even if they directly contradicted established biblical truths? Would the foundations of Western culture come crumbling down around the black hole of the Catholic Church? I don't think so. Just because these documents, if they even exist, say something other than established scripture says, it doesn't mean they are accurate, especially considering they would be presented by people of a very strong theological bias which automatically questions their credibility. At best, all it would do would be to expose a slightly plausible alternative to traditional Christian texts, something that has stood the test of thousands of years and hundreds of scholars. Change the world? No more than Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses or Christian Scientists have, and probably less. There are masses of historical documents that say any number of things we as a culture don't largely believe. This would only be one more set. And most of what Brown criticizes about organized religion applies to Catholicism only - the horrors of the crusades, the intertwining of paganism with Christ - these things were largely addressed by something Brown conveniently ignores, something called the "reformation" which has given us the entirety of Protestantism, a tradition free from the Papal influence he calls into question.
And at the end of the book I was left feeling Brown had done an excellent job of making something out of nothing. He had given the façade of importance to a discovery that would probably make national news, might merit a National Geographic channel hour-long special and maybe would give those few remaining Catholics on the fence after their priests unthinkable actions an excuse to bail out.
So we're back to fiction. As a work of fiction, "The Da Vinci Code" stands strong. I just hope people don't take it too seriously.
Book Review: Controversial Conglomeration of History and Fiction
Summary: 4 Stars
Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is one of those books that come along every once in a while and cause such a flap that even people like myself who wouldn't normally be interested in a book of its genre feel compelled to read it, if for no other reason than to hold an opinion on this cultural phenomenon. The story concerns a frantic race over the course of several days by one American symbologist, Robert Langdon, and a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, to unravel the motives behind the bizarre murder of the curator of the Louvre museum, a M. Jacques Saurniere, whose body has been found in a most unusual condition accompanied by a mysterious inscription. There is essentially no character development. Our detectives are drawn only superficially. Perhaps that's common in modern mystery novels. I wouldn't know. But "The Da Vinci Code" isn't a mystery in the conventional sense. It is more akin to a treasure hunt or jigsaw puzzle. The reader knows the identity of the murderer immediately. The mystery is the meaning of the encoded message found near the victim's body. "The Da Vinci Code" is a fast-paced, edge of your seat, quest to comprehend the seemingly interminable layers of a complex cipher.The meaning of the cipher is where the author Dan Brown treads on very controversial ground. "The Da Vinci Code" owes its intrigue to a provocative combination of religious history and pure fabrication. You may recognize the book's allusions to Gnostic Christian theology and the machinations of the nascent 4th century Roman Catholic Church as being largely accurate. But you may wonder how much of the further politico-religious mythology that our cipher reveals was simply concocted by the author. Dan Brown didn't make any of it up. But some others before him did. Yes, Gnosticism certainly views Mary Magdalene and the quality of Christ's divinity differently than Pauline Christianity. But all of the stuff about goddess worship and the French Merovignian dynasty being descended from Christ is a 20th century concoction. The Priory of Sion, which the author claims is and was a real organization, has actually been a lot of different organizations that have existed over the course of the past millennium. Its 20th century incarnations have no connection to the Medieval Catholic Order of Sion, which was absorbed by the Jesuit order in the 17th century, or to any other organizations that may have used these names in the interim timeframe. "The Priory Documents", a product of the modern Priory of Sion, are the source for the mythology presented in "The Da Vinci Code". And they are universally considered to be a hoax of entirely modern origins.
"The Da Vinci Code" is often accused of being anti-Catholic. It asserts that the Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea, which was convened to establish Roman Catholic orthodoxy in 325 AD, picked and chose from among contemporary Christian theology those texts which served its own interests. No kidding. No history book on the subject says differently, so I'm not sure why the outcry. Perhaps it is the book's portrayal of the modern Catholic Church that has angered people. Truthfully, "The Da Vinci Code" is not so much critical of the Church as it is critical of fanaticism, both Catholic and anti-Catholic. The author is claiming that religious fanaticism, such as that espoused by Opus Dei, makes people susceptible to manipulation by those with unscrupulous agendas.
I have to give Dan Brown credit for being able to create the constant sense of forward motion that makes "The Da Vinci Code" a real page-turner. On the other hand, there is very little actual mystery or story in the book, even less character development, and thoroughly mundane dialogue. The characters, like everything else, exist to showcase the bizarre and controversial conglomeration of fact and fiction that have made this novel a bestseller. I have to admire a book that gets people to read other books, though. It has inspired me to learn more about the life, times and work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Maybe it will move other readers to investigate the reality of Opus Dei, the Order of Sion, the Knights Templar, Gnosticism, the origins of modern Christianity, and what little is known of alternative early Christian theologies. I hope so. "The Da Vinci Code"'s strengths are its edge-of-your-seat pace and its references, in amongst the fiction, to some history of modern thought that readers might not have considered before. The author gets points for writing a book that introduces the reader to a world of subjects that encourage further reading. On the other hand, he loses points for using the "Priory documents" as source material, since they are widely considered to be fraudulent. Dan Brown isn't claiming that they are authentic; his characters are. But perpetuating a hoax isn't a good idea in my view. I give the novel 3 1/2 stars, bumped up to 4 to accommodate Amazon's ratings system because if you don't read it, you'll be culturally illiterate for a year ;-)
Book Review: Will make stupid people think they're clever
Summary: 2 Stars
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code purports to be an brainy thriller of the same stripe as Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum or Iain Pear's An Instance of the Fingerpost, but it isn't, quite: it's a stupid - very stupid - thriller spliced with rather a lot of meticulous (I'm not sure I'd necessarily stretch to "brainy") research on some cloak and dagger Christian stuff.
The research side is interesting enough, to be sure, and had Dan Brown set out to write and idiot's guide to Christian Symbolism in art and literature (i.e., had he left the thriller element out of it altogether), I'd have been more charitable in my assessment of his book. It is good meaty, controversial stuff. I couldn't give a fig whether it's true or not, to be honest, as long as it gets up the nose of the religious authorities, which apparently it has. Kudos to Mr. Brown for that.
But the thriller? Dear, oh dear. There's not one element of it that passes muster.
Firstly, the characterisation is astoundingly weak - so weak that it completely undermines the unfolding plot. The gating question Dan Brown fails to answer is this: why would a four-by-two, dull-as-ditchwater university beak, actually do any of this?
Next, the dialogue throughout is awful (a large contributor to the woodenness of the characterisation) and about three of the characters seem to "chime" everything rather than saying it. Grrr.
Then the plot, however you look at it, is plain ridiculous. We asked to believe that, among other things (NB the following aren't really spoilers):
* pillar-of-respectability Robert Langdon, a world-renowned Harvard professor of symbolism, before even informally being accused of a crime he manifestly could not have committed, would seek to run from local judicial police (instead of co-operating with their inquiries) to the extent of (among other things) hot-wiring an armoured truck, breaking through police lines in a borrowed Range Rover and fleeing French airspace in an illegally chartered plane.
* the murder victim's grand-daughter Sophie - estranged from said victim for ten years (as a result of witnessing him participate in a bizarre sex cult) and a complete stranger to Langdon, herself an employee of the French Police's cryptology department to boot (convenient, eh wot?) - would be the prime mover in Langdon's decision to do, and his main accomplice in doing, this, thus (one would think) completely obliterating her own career in public service in the process for the sake of a dead man she manifestly thought was a pervert.
* on the run from the French judicial police (as well as a rather nasty bovver boy from Vatican hardliners Opus Dei), said professor would frequently stop and deliver lengthy homilies to said granddaughter about L. Da Vinci, the Priory of Sion, the Merovingian Kings, the Knights Templar and all the other usual suspects of Christian legend.
* The point of the pair's flight from justice is apparently not to prove Langdon's innocence, nor solve the actual murder themselves, but instead to find - on this night, of all nights - documentary proof of the last resting place of the most Holy Grail itself.
* that this, along with all other action in the novel (and there's plenty more, you may rest assured) takes place in the course of one uninterrupted evening. About four lines in the novel suggest that Sophie and Robert may also get it on. What a busy pair!
Now I know fiction is all about the suspension of disbelief, but this is ridiculous. We are introduced to an increasingly ludicrous array of plot-functional characters as the drama goes on, whilst Brown spoon feeds his hysterical theories of Christian cover-ups, secret societies and hidden symbols by way of unsolicited authorial essay, pompous soliloquy (usually delivered, as noted, in the teeth of approaching police and/or bovver boys), or straight-out travelogue. There are pages of The Da Vinci Code that read like Let's Go Paris.
Where the opportunity really knocked was to fold the symbolism Brown has researched into the text of the novel itself. This is what sets apart the likes of Umberto Eco - real skill in the craft of writing. None is in evidence here. There is no figurative structure at all, which is remarkable for a book all about hidden codes, so it is really a straight out holiday page-turner.
Which is why the masses like it, and have bought it in their droves: The Da Vinci Code is a dead easy read, but one can feel the achievement of having read (and understood!) a book described on its cover as "erudite".
Makes me sound like a snob, doesn't it?
So be it.
Olly Buxton
Book Review: Good Mystery, Bad History
Summary: 5 Stars
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a gripping mystery novel. The story moves on four fronts: the hero and heroine, the head of a Roman Catholic organization, the chief inspector of the French police and a fanatical murderer. Like checkers on a checkerboard the chapters move these pieces of the story in turn until they all reach home row at the end. The author is able to maintain suspense throughout the story so that it has momentum to the very last page, not letting the mystery completely dissolve until the end. It is not the nature of this book to probe deeply into the human character, the nature of reality or to generate beautiful prose. It reads like a movie script, al la Raiders of the Lost Ark.The author uses two characters as experts on everything, especially Christianity and some of its historical struggles. Because the book is fiction it is able to build its own picture of Christianity and the church without regard to historical accuracy. It does convey a patronizing attitude toward the church and its faith, an attitude common place now and throughout the history of the church.
Theirs is an old scenario: Jesus was a great man whose movement got hijacked by powerful people in Roman society and transformed into a secular power. Their version adds the proposition that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and the two produced children. This story line sets up a classic mystery novel struggle between an evil titan and a heroic minority replete with centuries of intrigue and violence, i.e. Luke Skywalker and the Federation. This is all great fun in a novel, but should not be confused with the truth.
Proposing that Jesus was married and had children is just another way of saying he wasn't the one proclaimed by the Christian faith, that he was a man in the flow of history not an intersect between God and history. Tying this idea in with the worship of a female goddess adds mystery and tension to the story and taps into the energy of the modern struggle between the sexes and society's effort to harness the sex drive.
Genuine historians that are anti-Christian don't claim that Rome hijacked the Christian movement, but rather that the Christian movement hijacked Rome. So even though the church was changed by its being adopted as the state religion, and even though its secular power led to terrible corruption, it's first three hundred years laid down the fundamental message. Constantine did not. What he did do was demand that the church settle its message so he could have a coherent religion to authorize.
The story line of this book elevates the divine female as if this were a breath of fresh air in an oppressive male-dominant Christian society. The divine female is nothing more than the ancient worship of sex. It is as commonplace as Hustler magazine. The worship of Venus three thousand years ago is the same impulse that drives the advertising and entertainment industry today. Just as commerce is dependent on sex today, production was linked to procreation then. If you could get the male and female gods to mate (so they reasoned), you could produce human, animal and vegetable crops on the earthly plane, i.e. wealth.
Christianity was born into a male-dominated culture. It didn't create it. The church has deviated from its earliest affirmation of the equality of male and female ("in Christ there is neither male nor female" -- the apostle Paul, 60 AD.) God's voice in the Bible never admits to being male or female. When Moses asks for God's identity, he gets "I am who I am."
The book's experts are fiction and so is their expertise. Solomon's temple, for instance, was destroyed long before Mary Magdalene came along. We know little about it and certainly don't know what its columns looked like. It was the second temple, the one build by Herod the Great that she would have seen. The holy of holies was not under ground but rather stood at the center of temple mount. She couldn't have gotten in it much less under it, dead or alive. The Crusades were a silly business that brought back nothing of historical value except the knowledge of a Muslim culture more advanced than the European culture. The Crusaders were completely ignorant of the land they conquered. The local people neither new nor cared where the bones of Mary Magdalene might be. They did know they could sell the Crusaders anything with the right story. So the knights credulously or greedily brought back relics purported to be fragments of the cross, the hair of John the Baptist and so on. The grail may have had a forged artifact initially or may have just been a story brought back without the souvenir.
My expertise doesn't extend to all the areas the "experts" in the book claim, but if their errors in fact are consistent with the ones I can pick out without research, I presume that it is all fiction and should be taken as such.
It is a fun book that is irrelevant to the serious subjects of Christian faith, sexuality and hope for a better world.
Roland McGregor
7/2003