The word for “The Da Vinci Code” is a rare invertible palindrome. Rotated 180 degrees on a horizontal axis so that it is upside down, it denotes the maternal essence that is sometimes linked to the sport of soccer. Read right side up, it concisely conveys the kind of extreme enthusiasm with which this riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilaratingly brainy thriller can be recommended. That word is wow.
The author is Dan Brown (a name you will want to remember). In this gleefully erudite suspense novel, Mr. Brown takes the format he has been developing through three earlier novels and fine-tunes it to blockbuster perfection. Not since the advent of Harry Potter has an author so flagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase and coaxing them through hoops. Consider the new book’s prologue, set in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre. (This is the kind of book that notices that this one gallery’s length is three times that of the Washington Monument.) It embroils a Caravaggio, an albino monk and a curator in a fight to the death. That’s scene leaving little doubt that the author knows how to pique interest, as the curator, Jacques Sauniere, fights for his life.
Desperately seizing the painting in order to activate the museum’s alarm system, Sauniere succeeds in buying some time. And he uses these stolen moments? Which are his last? To take off his clothes, draw a circle and arrange himself like the figure in Leonardo’s most famous drawing, “The Vitruvian Man.” And to leave behind an anagram and Fibonacci’s famous numerical series as clues.
Whatever this is about, it is enough to summon Langdon, who by now, he blushes to recall, has been described in an adoring magazine article as “Harrison Ford in Harris tweed.” Langdon’s latest manuscript, which “proposed some very unconventional interpretations of established religious iconography which would certainly be controversial,” is definitely germane.
Also soon on the scene is the cryptologist Sophie Neveu, a chip off the author’s earlier prototypes: “Unlike the cookie-cutter blondes that adorned Harvard dorm room walls, this woman was healthy with an unembellished beauty and genuineness that radiated a striking personal confidence.” Even if he had not contrived this entire story as a hunt for the Lost Sacred Feminine essence, women in particular would love Mr. Brown.
The book moves at a breakneck pace, with the author seeming thoroughly to enjoy his contrivances. Virtually every chapter ends with a cliffhanger: not easy, considering the amount of plain old taking that gets done. And Sophie and Langdon are sent on the run, the better to churn up a thriller atmosphere. To their credit, they evade their pursuers as ingeniously as they do most everything else.
When being followed via a global positioning system, for instance, it is smart to send the sensor flying out a 40-foot window and lead pursuers to think you have done the same. Somehow the book manages to reconcile such derring-do with remarks like. “And did you know that if you divide the number of female bees by the number of male bees in any beehive in the world, you always get the same number?”
“The Da Vinci Code” is breezy enough even to make fun of its characters’ own cleverness. At one point Langdon is asked by his host whether he has hidden a sought—after treasure carefully enough. “Actually,” Langdon says, unable to hide his grin, “that depends on how often you dust under your couch.”
21. Why does the author use the word “wow” to describe the novel The Da Vinci Code?
22. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
23. It can be inferred from the passage that Harry Potter is all the following EXCEPT ________.
24. The major factor that contributes to the success of The Da Vinci Code is ________.
25. The author’s attitude towards “The Da Vince Code” is ________.
