I have just finished reading the Da Vinci Code which was our Swallow Bookworms choice this month.
Did I enjoy it?
No, not a lot.
Would I have finished it if it hadn't been a club choice?
Yes, probably.
Was I disturbed by it?
No, not really.
I was told by a fellow book club member that, once you got past all the hype and controversy, it was just a Dick Francis without the horses.
No, it wasn't that good.
I found the narrative technique reminded me of nothing so much as a Famous Five type adventure where each little section of the story leads rapidly through a false trail to the correct solution before the next set-up is revealed. All very well in 150 pages of rapidly read large print, but rather wearing over 600 pages.
The character drawing was rudimentary in the extreme - a group of plot hangers rather than people. Even in the most basic thriller one needs to care about the people involved.
And the MacGuffin itself - the source of all the controversy - it just doesn't hold water because, once you deny the divinity of Christ, the grail - whether it be the actual vessel used at the last supper or the blood-line from Christ and Mary Magdalene - becomes meaningless, no more than an historical curiosity.
I am not saying that it is a particularly bad book, just not a very good one. I have heard scholars on the radio discussing it and dismissing Dan Brown's claims and his so called detailed research. What amazes me is that such a mediocre thriller ever reached a level of fame deserving to be discussed in these terms in the first place. After all it is classified as fiction, not theology or history.
So, I'll stop discussing it until our next Bookworms meeting, and just add that the film, if faithful to the book, will need all Mr. Hanks' considerable charm to get me to watch it when it turns up on television.
