Could't even sleep while reading this book!!!

books:


	• The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown Anchor, 2006 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 3526 reviews view larger image
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Could't even sleep while reading this book!!!

This is by far one of the best new books on my bookshelf. While i am a christian and do not agree with all that is put in this book i know it is just that, a book. Not someones ploy to convert me to another religion but just simply a wonderful read to be enjoyed but thousands of people. Thank you dan brown for this and all of your other wonderful books!!!

Best fiction I ever read....

I never used to read fiction books/novels for pleasure. I had to force myself to read required books in college. Then one day, about two years ago, my wife borrowed this book from my brother. I decided to give it a try. I read it in 3 days. I could not put it down. I then proceeded to get Dan Brown's other three books and read them immediately. I now have a personal library collection and read novels every chance I get (Steve Berry, James Rollins, etc.). The story, the puzzles, the twists.....unbelievably well thought out. I am most impatiently awaiting his next novel. Thank you Dan.

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Relax -- It's Just A Story!

Usually, when someone has to say something like "relax -- it's just a story!" it means that the work in question is trash.

Good stories normally don't require a defense; they are their own justification.

But, it seems that Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is one of those rare instances of a good story that does require a defense beyond simply pointing to the work. Why should this be so? I think it's 1) due to the enormous popular success this book has enjoyed, and 2) the faux-seriousness of its subject matter (i.e., how it "blasphemes"). If The Da Vinci Code didn't somehow become a mainstream hit, and didn't strike some people's sacrosanct nerves, I doubt anyone would be so incensed as to try to tear it down, as people obviously do.

To begin with, The Da Vinci Code is a good book. What Dan Brown understands -- and better than most contemporary authors -- is the art of suspense. His management of information, leading cliffhanger to cliffhanger, and always making sure that the pressure is on, is superb. I grant that the book is shy in terms of classroom literary aesthetics, but what of that? It isn't every author's dream to compete with Beckett or Joyce; some simply want to construct stories. Some might say that Brown's characterization is flat, or obvious, etc., or that his situations are cliche -- one of the Spotlight Reviewers here complains at the use of an albino monk, but is that any more preposterous than Hugo's Hunchback, or Shakespeare's Caliban? The question about whether or not Robert Langdon is Indiana Jones Mark II, or not, misses the point -- none of those elements would mean a thing if the work as a whole were poorly constructed. It isn't whether he uses archetypes, but whether he uses them to good effect or not.

By aiming all of the darts of their critiques at those areas where Brown isn't much concerned, they miss the genius of his work. It is as though they think the book has sold all of those copies by accident. Brown's strength is in his pacing, and in his clarity of communication, and in his clean descriptions, and in his mastery of the elements of suspense. By incorporating elements of popular culture, conspiracy, and some fascinating (if not always accurate) historical detail, Brown creates a monster of a book that doesn't *need* powerful metaphors or poetic descriptions to do what he wants it to do.

I take it that most of Brown's critics must believe that what he does is, somehow, easy. That, if literary authors left off trying to reinvent language, and tried their hardest to just hammer out a story that could grab people by the hair and pull them through a plot... well, they could do it in an instant. I'd like to suggest that there's more talent in doing something like that than they realize, and that Brown could probably write a "deep, literary" novel faster than they could construct a would-be megahit.

Brown's book isn't, perhaps, what you want it to be. But what it is, it is truly great at being, and this is the secret of its success.

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