Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Book Review: The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown


                                                           
The Plot: American symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu are thrown together in a bizarre murder, and find themselves targeted as the prime suspects.  Now they have to elude the French police while trying to decipher clues left at the murder scene, in hopes of uncovering the real killer.

What the clues reveal, however, is far more shocking.  The murder victim, Sophie’s grandfather, was the head of the Priory of Sion, a secret society dating back to the time of Christ.  According to legend, the Priory of Sion’s membership included prominent figures, such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Sir. Isaac Newton.  And they protected a secret powerful enough to topple the Christian faith.  Langdon and Neveu must discover the secret, the Holy Grail, before the killer catches them.


Okay, I know I’m a little behind the times on reading this one.  But it is a really fascinating read, as long as you are not too easily offended.  Without doing your own research on the history of the Church, Brown’s (not very positive) views on Christianity, especially Catholicism, can be easy to believe.  He does twist or leave out huge portions of history in order for his story to flow, but this is a work of fiction, he’s allowed to do that.  I was impressed by the amount of codes and double meanings throughout the book, whether the original authors intended them to be there or not.  I also loved the switching viewpoints throughout the book.  It kept m interest without causing confusion between the storylines.  My only complaint is that I occasionally felt like I was back in a college lecture hall.  Brown definitely did his research while writing this book, and to prove that, he filled pages with lists and facts that did not end up being important to the text.  To me, it was like trying to remember a huge amount of material that was not actually on the test.  But, since one of the main characters is a Harvard professor, perhaps that is on purpose.  

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