Holy science-meets-the-spooky-mystery-of-religon!
It was only YESTERDAY that I told one of my sisters not to bother with Dan Brown’s novels ( three of which I recently read, including ‘Angels & Demons’ and ‘The DaVinci Code’ at the insistence of two other sisters who RAVED deliriously about the books).
After having listened to rave reviews of the novels, I had eagerly awaited my turn at them but was sorely disappointed by the quality of writing. I felt the bare bones of the story premise had a lot of potential but that Dan Brown’s writing was predictable, on the boring side, sadly cliched and that the plot, not to mention the story’s conclusions, were contrived.
It felt like he wrote the book step by step with his pen in one hand and the text “How To Write A Novel in 12 Easy Lessons” in the other.
But then that’s certainly not the opinion, apparently, of millions of others….
- Patrice

I couldn’t even finish the stupid Da Vinci Code. Over-exposition, crappy dialogue, and about 6th grade grasp of grammar. And don’t even get me started on the plot…

I forced myself to read it, even though it was atrocious. I wish I hadn’t wasted my life like that.

The review of THE DA VINCI CODE had a hilarious quote from the book, where someone speaks “chillingly close” to a character… then it’s revealed that “chillingly” close is “only fifteen feet away”.
Only FIFTEEN FEET! Shock! Horror! No, please don’t laugh at the distinguished Mr. Brown’s proximity phobia…. I regularly stay at least 30 feet away from people I talk to, so they won’t sneak up fifteen feet closer.
My God… fifteen feet! The horror!
;-P
Jokes aside… I detect a “Zeitgeist” thingy here. When a bad book becomes a smash hit (soon to be a movie, I’m sure), it’s because it reflects something in the cultural climate… namely, the wish to blame all problems on a convenient scapegoat.
How much easier life is, when we can blame the economy, Iraq, terrorism, and all things depressing on an Evil Papist Plot.
Here’s my capsule review of THE DA VINCI CODE:
“Jesus wept.”
-A.R. Yngve
http://yngve.bravehost.com

See now I feel smart for not having read it.

I read Angels and Demons after hearing lots of raves of how it’s so great, and even better than the Da Vinci Code. I haven’t read DaVinci Code, but I found Angels and Demons to be the perfect fluff to read while traveling, so perhaps DaVinci Code would be equally suitable fluff. Dan Brown is a mediocre writer. His stuff is like cotton candy – kind of fun but neither filling nor satisfying. It’s hard to find good fluff these days (I hate romance novels – it’s porn for women. igh.), so I gotta give him props. If kids someday are reading this stuff as “literature” that’ll be a sign that if the end of the world isn’t near, it should be!

I got my degree in English, so maybe I’m extra sensitive about bad writing that’s posed as good writing. I definitely think Brown is a fluff writer. Whether he’s a good fluff writer is debatable :-)