The DaVinci Code

I finished it, revealing Dan Brown’s exquisite attention to detail and mastery of suspense. The story unfolds in a spurious manner, keeping its protagonists on the precipice of failure and possible death over a quest to solve heady puzzles left by the just-killed curator of the Louvre museum in Paris. Mr. Brown’s clever insight and meticulous research shine through his characters, revealing a lie perpetuated by the Church for over two millennia.

The introduction to symbols of femininity and female Pagan deities the Church campaigned against is made convincingly as the story unfolds. Many examples are woven into this wonderful plot of society’s continuation of our reverence of the female and her mystical birth-giving power. As Brown writes, she is seen in Mother Nature, celebration of May Day, even Disney movies like The Little Mermaid and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The Priory of Sion, a secret society whose leaders include Leonardo DaVinci and Sir Isaac Newton, is tasked with keeping the secret of the Holy Grail safe, but when its highest-ranking members are assassinated, the truth must be leaked outside the society to protect its very existence.

The author shows a remarkable propensity for interweaving plots in parallel and displays an enjoyable sense of introducing pieces of the puzzle in a non-linear fashion. I suggest that people read this book, as it is quite engrossing, but also entertains true notions about the foundations of modern religion in the Western world and conveys a breathtaking array of facts surrounding many misconceived notions that people take for granted today.

I do not want to give away too many hints, so I leave you with that. If you have read this book, let me know what you thought about it.

P.S. I loved the intermingling of the French lines—so simple but stylistically very pleasing.

[update] I misspelled Sion in Priory of Sion. It is now correct.