NovelCritic

Before the movie actually came out, I borrowed a copy of The Da Vinci Code from my father-in-law to figure out what all of the hubbub was about. (I did the exact same thing with the very first Harry Potter book.)

I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

Most people who are mildly to very interested in reading the book have probably now seen the movie that was recently made and has just now come out on DVD, but I’ll recap anyway.

Robert Langdon (who also appeared in Dan Brown’s first book, Angels and Demons) is a college professor at Harvard and is very well versed in history, especially in the history surrounding a lot of the Renaissance artists and the beliefs about the sacred feminine (which seem to permeate this book). While visiting Paris on a lecturing tour, he is sucked into a murder investigation where he is the prime suspect. Along the way, we find out that everything that is happening has something to do with the Holy Grail, which is not really a chalice but the literal descendants of Jesus Christ who have been hidden from the Catholic Church for two millennia.

Dan Brown does an exceptional job of bringing in a lot of thought-provoking ideas, whether you happen to believe them or not, and weaving them into a fast-paced adventure. Even if you have already seen the movie, you will enjoy all of the extra information and history that found its way into this book. In the interests of time, the movie (which I thought was done very well) had to chop out some very interesting things — the very things, in fact, which probably caused the most controversy and the most buzz. The very things, in my opinion, that push this book from a mere “very good” to a “must read”.

Even if you don’t believe it all, read the book! It’s well worth reading.

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