The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown:

Is there any one yet to read this book? Vinod asked me this. I think the answer is no… or may be there are a few people in this world still waiting for the movie to come out. Tom Hanks plays Langdon. Should be interesting… but is already under a lot of controversy. It seems, they were not allowed to shoot at Westminster Abbey where Newton is laid to rest. Coming back to the book, it was gripping… just as Andy had told it would be. I know two people at least, who say they have read only half of it… how did they manage to stop it in the middle?? Forget about Christ… his wife or his kid or the conspiracy theory that church re-wrote the Bible… Even if you take out all of them and replace with any other secret worth guarding (like the NOC list of Mission Impossible or the Enigma) the story is still equally potent. Yes, all over the world this book is famous for throwing light on other wise murky questionable history of the Roman Catholic Church. But I would say it would be equally potent just as a thriller. There are a few things that seem to be only in the author’s imagination. Was Fibonacci (an Austrian born) ever involved with the Priory?

But the style of writing becomes pretty frustrating… It’s like those sops where the chapter ends in a clue that is left un-explained. When it happens in every chapter, it gets to you. How many times there was a reference to the secret societies’ ritual before Sophie spilled the beans about what she saw… Yes, if it frustrated her, it had to be sexual but it gets confirmed only at the end of the novel… There are many such occurrences where Dan has tried to sneak in an element of surprise where there was no need for one. Yes, you can never know who is friends with whom until the last few pages… yet, it does not seem to be a total surprise either.

A word of caution for all those who raise their expectation about this best seller…

• the codes and puzzles are not even as tough as the INFY puzzles let alone MSFT of GOOGLE. It only requires you to be a European History major
• You need to have access to some of the paintings mentioned thru some other means (www of course) to appreciate the theory... But lack of it does not deminish your pleasure of reading... as I said earlier Christ or otherwise, the book is interesting.
  
• Does not answer you questions about Mona Lisa.
• You can never know who is right??
  

It was a wonderful suspense thriller that I liked more for the plot rather than the secret being protected… However both of them turned out to be a big anti climax…