So, before I rush off to do Father's Day type things

[maharetr]

I thought I'd post this query. I've ended up reading The Da Vinci Code for a uni assignment (an 800 word book review), and while I've planned what I'm going to say, I'm curious if anyone in my rather small circle of lj-friends has read it and if so, what did you think?

(Warning: All good ideas, comments and/or concepts will be stolen for purposes of assignment <EG>)

Comments

[laney-1974.livejournal.com]

I've read the Da Vinci Code and loved it. While it didn't have a lot of character growth or development, I did find the themes and the philosophical/religious implications the book raised incredible.

Seriously, think about it. Religion is the single biggest influence on society as a whole (world wide) so imagine what would happen if people found out that what they had based their entire belief structure on wasn't true? Or finding out that Jesus had descendants?

I shudder to think of the impact it would cause. It made me think and when I read that last page... I got goosebumps.

The idea was good, but...

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

...as writer, I *really* struggled with the execution. I was pleased with the ending, I was glad it was more about the journey, the reverence for the sacred and so forth rather than this instant power and wealth giver. And as an agnostic-with-Pagan-leanings, I was delighted to finally see some half-way accurate information about Goddess worship, the pentacle etc, but the writing was ... bad. The characters weren't people, they were things to advance the plot -- literally, all the pieces of italics used to denote supposed thoughts actually moved the plot along, and in a painfully clunky way. So, idea good; intention, very good; package it came in? :(

Re: The idea was good, but...

[laney-1974.livejournal.com]

I agree, the characters were plot devices but my theory on that is that he wrote a novel which was story not character driven (which makes me believe that perhaps he should have written it as a script rather than a novel). But the reason I liked it was simply because it wasn't overtly character focused... I had just finished reading a really involved series at the time and this book seemed a really easy (and kind of simple) read.

I did the same with another of his books. After reading a very complicated book I read it and presto, no problem with it.

Am I the only one

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

.... who didn't like it?

I couldn't finish it. I thought it was pretentious, poorly put together and implausible. The bits that really annoyed me were the random dumping of information which was all pretty darn obvious. The Louvre has a pointy pyramid entry way, Opus Dei is pretty right wing, numerology has been around for a while. Well duuuuuuuuh!

Re: Am I the only one

[whooz-queen.livejournal.com]

No, you're not the only one. Both the Mister and I were appalled by how badly written this book was. The boredom factor was increased by the predictability and neither of us understands why the hell its on the best selling list. Ack!