All I Hope Ever to Have to Say on "The Da Vinci Code"

[quasigeostrophy]

I liked the book. Not a literary breakthrough and a bit telegraphed, but an entertaining and quick read. Even though I've heard the movie (understandably, considering the book is a lot of exposition) drags, I may go see it for the heck of it.

Currently, I've been half paying attention to a documentary on The History Channel called Beyond the Da Vinci Code which is uncovering the truth behind many of the so-called claims in the novel. I like the approach of this documentary. The facts are being presented neutrally. I've read so many similar debunkings that annoy me with a tone, explicit or implicit, of "Dan Brown got it wrong!"

Give me a break. He wrote a work of fiction!!

Many years ago, I fell in love with a novel called The Eight, the first book by Katherine Neville. It's still one of my favorite books. It's a creative placing of historical characters from around and after the time of the French Revolution linked to another story thread set in the 1970s. They're all where they were, doing for the most part what they did that is recorded historically, when they did it. But Neville changed their motivations, often extremely. To me, whatever his actual intent, Brown's The Da Vinci code is the same sort of thing, except only with present day protagonists.

People having cow puppies about things Brown claims in the novel about the Catholic church and so forth, IMHO, just need to get over it.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I simply hated "The Da Vinci Code". The writing gave me a headache.

On the other hand, I adore Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. So what the hell do I know? :)

Are you into English detective fiction at all? Reginald Hill is a simply gorgeous writer, and his Dalziel and Pascoe series gets better with each book.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I can see where Brown's style, in that book anyway, might not leave a large continuum between like and dislike. As I mentioned, even though it's a different topic, for that type of story I liked Neville's The Eight much better.

As for English detective fiction, I've only read some of the Doyle Sherlock Holmes stuff, but I'm always open to suggestions. Especially considering I am a huge anglophile. :-)

[geekchick]

I think not quite what was intended, but try Ellis Peters' Cadfael books. There are a lot of them, but they're all pretty short. Cadfael's a very interesting character. Plus there's the TV series with Derek Jacobi, whom I adore.

Also, try some of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books. (That's Scotland, not England, though. ;) )

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, Cadfael. I've heard about that, and I also love Derek Jacobi, ever since I first saw him in I, Claudius when I was a kid. I've also thought about looking into whether or not DVDs of it are out and adding them to our Blockbuster.com queue, except it already has 584 items on it. :-)

That's Scotland, not England, though. ;)

Like that's a problem for me? ;-)

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

In terms of the Cadfael series, I have to say I'm a huge, huge fan of the books, but wasn't very taken with the TV version despite Jacobi (and I was hoping to be, honestly). So if you don't like that version, I wouldn't say it's reason to cross the book series off of the "possibilities" list.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

The entire Cadfael television series is available on DVD.

Now, how would I know that, I wonder? :)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Love the Cadfael books. I have the whole series in paperback, and revisit it at least once every two years or so.

Rebus is also wonderful.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Reginald Hill is contemporary rather than historical, but his writing is terrific, and as he got deeper into the series, he wasn't afraid to experiment.

Wikipedia lists the novels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalziel_&_Pascoe) in order. I believe they're all available in paperback, except Death of Dalziel, which hasn't yet been released.

The TV series is not available in the U.S. (or in the UK, from what I can tell), damn it. Although it took, in its second season, a major departure from the books, A&E ran the very first one, A Clubbable Woman, which I saw and liked, but another has never crossed the pond, nor does it look to be happening any time soon. Ah, well.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll file the info for when I feel like I have much time to read fiction again. :-)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that may be awhile :).