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DaVinci Code: A riveting read that'll make you think
By Emilie Holmes
November 3, 2004 | If nothing else,
Dan Brown's best-selling The DaVinci Code is
a page-turner. Once you start, and the farther you get,
the less chance there is of stopping until the bitter
end. The no-stopping attitude Brown inflicts on his
readers is part of the reason his provocative historical
fiction novel has been so successful: quite frankly,
he has the reader hanging on his little finger at the
end of every paragraph.
Brown's 450-page story begins with a murder, weaves
through unearthing both a murder mystery and long-time
questions about Jesus Christ's life and interpersonal
relationships. Undoubtedly fiction, I was still left
wondering page after page what was true, what was false
and how much of it was in between. Most falls in the
third category.
Brown takes the book's two heroes through a maze of
decoding cryptographical puzzles, reading between the
lines, traveling between countries and, of course, fending
off the bad guys. The narrative follows a modern quest
for the Holy Grail, while both the hero and the heroine
are learning just what the Grail is and who its keepers
have been for the past 2,000 years.
The book's secret and what keeps most readers reading
is figuring out just who the bad guys were. And, although
most times I predicted the outcome of the next 20 pages,
every once in awhile I was surprised -- at the most
needed moments. The ending is especially surprising.
Of the numerous people I've talked to who have read
the book, only a few predicted the final pages and none
to their exactness.
Religiously, the book has undergone extreme critique.
It's been called everything from a wrecker of Christianity
to Satan's own work. Most closely observed is Brown's
portrayal the idea of a feminine deity and what Mary
Magdalene's true role was. His idea that Christianity
was meant to be controlled by the matriarchy -- or rather,
by males and females as equals, instead of strictly
by males -- goes against everything the Catholic Church
has taught. For that matter, those beliefs go against
basically every major Christian church's teachings.
Even if the facts are wrong and most truth has been
fictionized or twisted, maybe Brown didn't mean for
it to come across as truth, and truth alone. Maybe an
underlying goal of his was to get people to think a
little harder about the religious "facts"
that have been engrained in every good Christian's head
since birth. Maybe he's trying not to change minds,
but to open them.
The DaVinci Code is not brilliant literature.
It's a book that most everyone could write if they were
given the basic plot line. It's simple, easy to read
and as criticized, predictable at times.
Nevertheless, Brown did his research. Oftentimes, I
thought just one page would take a month of
research. And, people are reading it. People are looking
into the deeper meaning. Anyone interested in Christ's
life, the period right after his death, the Holy Grail,
secret societies and the Catholic Church should read
The DaVinci Code. No, not all of it is true,
but, it'll make you think. And, most of the time, thinking
is better than not.
NW
MK
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