Leonardo and Priory of Sion

At the beginning of this year, Christine and I were in a bookstore trying to find something interesting to read. It was then when I first heard of “The Da Vinci Code”. Christine told me about this very famous novel, which of course I have not heard of before. She told me it was about the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. Since I didn’t know what she meant by the Holy Grail nor who Magdalene was, I thought then, a controversial Christian story does not appeal to me.

Until Aminah got a copy from it from a colleague, read it and recommended it to me!

The Da Vinci Code, written by Dan Brown, turned to be a combination of my preferred literature genres: Detective, Thriller and Conspiracy theory. Though the book alleges that the Catholic Church is involved in a conspiracy to cover up the real story of Jesus, the main conflict in the novel revolves around the solution to two mysteries: 1) What secret was the curator Jacques Saunière of the Louvre Museum in Paris protecting that led to his murder? and 2) who is the mastermind behind his murder?

Even though I figured out who is the mastermind behind the murders early on in the novel, I was intrigued and captivated by different parts of it, like:

• the anagrams explained throughout the book, and also trying to solve the series of the brain-teasers.
• the details of the mysterious society, the Priory of Sion, and religious rituals of Opus Dei.
• the interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci paintings, such as the Mona Lisa (I personally dislike this painting as an old relative used to say I looked like the lady in it and since I thought she is ugly, I never accepted the repeated comment as a compliment!), the Last Supper, and Vitruvian Man.
  

I liked the book, and couldn’t put it down. I recommend it highly, though beware, if you are looking for excellent literature, the book isn’t for you. I consider Brown’s English easy and simple. Compared to Dean Knootz (whom I love his writing ability, though not always his storylines), Dan Brown is simply a good storyteller but not a writer!

Anyone wants to borrow it from me? While I read my new Knootz book :D