Dan Brown’s The
Da Vinci Code seems to have been on the bestseller lists for ages. It
combines the murder mystery genre with the mythic content of books such as
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh
and Henry Lincoln which was itself a best seller back in the ‘80s (or
possibly the late ‘70s). An apparently irresistible blend of a relentless
thriller chase and conspiracy theory. A murder in the Louvre leaves a series
of baffling clues that send Robert Langdon, American symbologist and Sophie
Neveu a French cryptologist on a trail to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci,
and the answers to a mystery from the dawn of Christianity.
One of the reasons
for this book’s popularity is that it is an ‘easy read’. This not
necessarily a bad thing – it may encourage those people to have a go at a
book who would not normally do so. Unfortunately, there is another reason
for the book’s popularity, and that is interest in the mythic information
about the Holy Grail, etc. I say unfortunately, because there appear to be a
lot of people in the world who believe stuff verbatim when they see it
written in a book. I retain an open mind about this ‘information’ although I
am inclined to believe in the early Catholic church’s character
assassination of Mary Magdalene. It would appear from the plethora of books
that have been written since The Da Vinci Code that a lot of people
are a lot more trusting. For goodness’ sake, don’t let me put you off
reading the thing. Try it and make up your own mind.
At the back of my
copy of The Da Vinci Code is the first chapter of Dan Brown’s
Angels and Demons. I recently was stuck for something to read on
holiday, and ended up reading the whole thing. The reason for this brief
additional paragraph is to provide a one word review of that book –
Formulaic!
I would never have
believed that I would or could review a book with a single word, but heh all
things must pass. My definition of formulaic would be: take an existing book
such as The Da Vinci Code, change the names of the hero and heroine,
strip out the Holy Grail stuff and put in some other mythic international
conspiracy such as within the Catholic church, keep the quest, and light the
blue touch paper … if you don’t believe me, read it. As always, feedback
would be most welcome to rod@rodcameron.co.uk