Linkmeister

Dan Brown & his book of renown

After all this time The DaVinci Code finally came out in paperback within the last two weeks, so I picked up a copy. I finished it last night, and I don't understand how umpty-fratz zillion copies have been sold. Well, wait. I understand how they've been sold, but I sure don't understand how many people might have enjoyed it. The writing is positively horrid, the plot's not well defined, and it doesn't even make a lot of sense. Caution! Spoiler follows! Stop reading here if you haven't read the book and you plan to!

The whole theory is that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married and had children, and that the line continues up to the present day. The Vatican is desperately trying to hide the evidence in order to maintain what it thinks is the true Church, another guy with some hirelings is trying to find the evidence and display it for all the world, a member of Opus Dei is trying to find it to keep his organization from being decertified as a Papal favorite, and the hero (a pretty poor one, I have to say) is stuck in the middle by virtue of his expertise.

Ok. That's a standard plotline, found in many good novels. But Brown tries to twist the plot towards the end, making a good guy into a bad guy. He also gives a cop who's on the trail of our hero a sudden "Aha" moment when he (the cop) does a 180-degree turn and becomes an after-the-fact accessory to the denouement. In the hands of a good author, this could be done well. But Brown doesn't do it well. He doesn't explain the motives well, and he's clumsy with the scenes in which these turnabouts happen.

Then there's the ending. It feels forced, like he ran out of story and hit an "End" key. "Hmm," he says. "I mentioned this family thing at the beginning, and it was meant to be foreshadowing, so I'd better toss it in here. And I've got a hero and this female, so I'd better throw them together at the end, too."

Don't waste even $7.99 on this thing.