The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I read (listened to) this book when it first became popular and promised myself I would buy it when it came out in paperback. Well, I ended up spending as much, or even more than I would for the hardback, but I got the illustrated version - and love it. I am always frustrated when books talk of paintings or architecture and I would like a visual to see what the characters are seeing. This was perfect for an illustrated edition, as it mentions so many works of art and architecture. For example, I had seen pictures of the new I.M. Pei pyramid addition to the Louvre, but to see the inverse pyramid in the lower courtyard helped me visualize the after hours activities in the Louvre described in the book. When I first read the book, I went looking for the Leonardo Da Vinci paintings mentioned, especially the Last Supper. I also have a wondrous childhood memory of going to see the Mona Lisa in some museum in New York, waiting in long lines to see this small, but significant painting.

Though I remembered the basic plot, I still enjoyed all the twists and turns in Brown's book. I am also very sympathetic to the basic premise, that the feminine or "sacred feminine" as Brown calls it, was squelched by the male leaders in Christianity. I don't care very much if Jesus was married or if some of his descendents are still alive today, but I am angry at all the women that were persecuted by the church, and how so many natural processes became sinful.

One thought that converged in my mind while simultaneously reading this and the Constant Princess (to be entered into the blog soon), where a Spanish princess is forced to receive treatment from a Moor doctor, who knows so much more than the English or Spanish about herbs and natural healing. When the Spanish forced the Moors out of their land, they also lost that knowledge and many became sick. So too the church fought so hard against the wise women throughout the lands, and later the "medical profession" fought against midwives, thus losing a wealth of knowledge about healing that we are trying to regain today.

I liked the characters of Robert Langdon, that tweedy academic, and Sophie Noveu, the French cryptologist who is the granddaughter of Jacques Sauniere, the curator of the Louvre. Sauniere is killed in the prologue and leaves a series of cryptic messages for his granddaughter to decipher, with the help of Langdon. It is an exciting mystery novel, so that I could even tolerate it when it started getting too preachy.

This book has created lots of controversy. We even had a discussion with one of the critics, a religion professor at our university. I actually read one of the criticisms (see next entry), but found I really didn't care for the arguments. Some are faith based, so if you don't believe in the basic premise, the criticism doesn't make sense. I liked the speculation in the book. This is a work of fiction, so it is not expected to reflect all truth. I think am intrigued enough to do some more reading on this.

(Finished reading 5/1/06)