Book Review: The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

My palms started itching the moment I heard of a book that was supposed to be a munchy delight for the avid quizzer, a caffeine for a sleepy brain and to top it all, stir a lot of controversy. This is the kind of book I was waiting for and got served with the right potion. The book starts with a solemn pledge... All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. I'm not a historian to judge the accuracy of the pledge in the context of the book, neither could I claim this to be the sanctum sanctorum to all your historical conundrums. But what I would claim is, the story does its job - being a grippingly indulging story. The historical references that give us new insights into a lot of our day-to-day aspects on why is Friday the 13th bad or why is Olympics being held once in 4 years does open more than an eyelid to new thinking. The book moves a little deeper into more non-trivial aspects of life when it goes about trying to explain things like how and why the discrimination of women (which continues to this day..!!) began in ancient times... and why is sex considered a bad thing today even though its a basic element of almost every living organism. The most reverberating parts of the book are its interpretations of Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork and its descriptions of what they mean in relevence to the context that penned the story and also from a historical perspective. Have we ever thought of Monalisa's beauty beyond her smile.. oops.. wait a minute.. Did I say "her".. There's more to just a "her" that makes Monalisa the beauty that Da Vinci's genius brings. I've heard of the mathematical brillance etched within "The Vitruvian Man", but the real essence of it all that the book endows makes me only bow to the genius that is Da Vinci. The even more reverberating parts of the book are so super-sonic that the hairs of researchers, preachers, archaeologists and critics would stand up in an equally unvarying unision. To the preacher it might be rubbish, while it might be an appetiser for the researcher, a bit of both for the archaeologist and a feast for the pens for the critics. Whether all that Dan Brown claims in the book is true or not will be an endless debate in itself (as though all the present religious confusions are not confusing enough). Something to despise for preachers and something to dig into for the researcher. Their debate will never come to an end.. not atleast till Apocalypse. Dan Brown deserves full credits for weaving a fine line between history and a story set at the present day. The series of hidden crypts that lead to the ultimate truth (well, almost) is certainly not another ink mark of Dan, but are richly brain whacking pieces to be weighed up. Atleast the story was good enough to make a slow-reader of books who is even more lazy when it comes to a 450+ page novel, sit up with eyes bulged open and finish the book in a span of days... Too fast by his standards...!!

vijay@london

hi all, this time i hav a happy news to tell u. coming wednesday i m travelling to my client's place in london. duration - 6 months. -vijay