Review: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Doubleday
Year: 2003
ISBN: 9780385504201
Rating:

An edge-of-the-seat thriller, Dan Brown’s most popular novel features Robert Langdon, who explores hidden secrets of the world of Christ, tracing the heir of the origin of his religion and other mysteries.

Some thrillers are excruciatingly boring, but some make you glued to the novel with every flipping page. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code comes in the second category. By now, most of you must have seen the movie, but believe me, the book offers you a lot more and is not as dull as the movie.

The novel is filled with tons of essentially Christian puzzles which the Harvard Symbologist Professor, Langdon has to solve. Be it The Divine Feminine, Knights Templar, Opus Dei or Illuminati, Langdon has to search his encyclopaedic brain to solve mystical messages and coded paintings in some time-ticking pressure moments. Perhaps the greatest con of the novel is the characterization.

Langdon is portrayed, not only here but in other novels too, as a larger than life character, having knowledge of almost everything in the entire world. Even another character, Sophie Neveu, who is touted as a brilliant French police cryptologist, spends most of her time playing second fiddle to the virtuous knowledge of Langdon. They run around Europe, in a 48-hour period, being chased by the members of an influential cult, French Police and other ‘assorted’ baddies. This Europe-wide clue chase has been set in train by Sophie’s grandfather who, while being murdered, somehow manages to set up an elaborate tail, leading them to the ultimate secret.

It is notable that Brown’s writing is pedestrian. He is not a writer who writes something of literary merit. But then, he doesn’t need to, since the novel is absolutely plot-driven. It would have been interesting to read something which not only has depth in its situation, but adrenaline fueled too, but I guess that can’t really be expected from Brown.

Finally, while his writing is simple so as to attract mass readers, the plot is absolutely well researched, though not without anomalies, and the book makes you read every chapter in a single go. So for those who are still alien to this phenomena, grab a copy now.

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