Dismantle My Bed

The Da Vinci Code has some merits, though whether those merits are owed mostly to Dan Brown or to the men who accused him of stealing the ideas they put forth in their non-fiction book is debatable. Where the book has merit is in the storyline itself. As far as plot goes, it is, for the most part, intriguing. What The Da Vinci Code lacks, in my own personal opinion though, greatly overshadows what it has to offer. The writing is commonplace. The dialogue is cheesy. The characters are either devoid of human traits (Robert and Sophie are nearly perfect in every way) or are too over-the-top (everyone else in the novel). I found myself doing a fair amount of skimming while trying to get through this book, and I am not a skimmer.

I’m supposed to love it, right?

I should. I really should. I mean, a novel about a woman’s descent into certifiable insanity? This should be a theme that is very close to my heart.

But I didn’t love it. I didn’t really even like it.

I found it hard to care about the main character, and the fall into madness wasn’t nearly as wrenching as I was promised it would be. It disappointed… to say the least.

It did have its moments, though. Some of the uses of flashback and the intricacies of small scenes were just brilliant. It’s worth a read, but as a whole, I found it lacking.

If I’m going to come out in favor of books I love, I feel it is my civic duty to also warn people against books I didn’t love. But, of course, reading is a very subjective thing, and what one person hates, another is bound to find great pleasure in. So, these hater reviews will merely be in my humble opinion, just as my more loving reviews will be.

It’s all about the words, all about the writing, all about the books. There is some great literature out there in the world, but there is also a lot of codswallop. There is even some codswallop masquerading as great literature.

Man, I’m gonna get flamed for this.