The Da Vinci Whore

Alright, you can't say I didn't fight it. But against all the odds (and my better judgment) I finally gave in. I caved. Converted to the dark side, or rather at least, the extremely popular side. Yes, just over a week ago I began reading "The Da Vinci Code."

It wasn't that I hadn't heard over and over again how much I'd love the book. On a family vacation a year ago (or was it two years ago?... this novel has seemingly been in our public consciousness for decades) I remember my dad feverishly recounting key plot points as he devoured the book whole in nearly one sitting.

"When you lived in Paris did you visit Saint-Sulpice?" "Oh, remember the Louvre?" "Uh oh, they're driving down the Champs Elysees!" "Wow! This character grew up loving Disney movies just like you!"

He went on and on, and it wasn't so much that my interest wasn't peaked as it was that I simply had no intention of reading a novel that practically every single other human on earth was reading at that exact same moment.

Needless to say, this is no longer my position. With the film version entering movie theatres this evening WORLDWIDE I very much found my interest peaked. It didn't help that every bookstore I entered was flooded with the countless obligatory 'companion' or 'rebuttal' editions.

Just scratching the surface I discovered "The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code," "Exposing the Da Vinci Code," "Unlocking the Da Vinci Code," "Rejecting the Da Vinci Code," "The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction," "Cracking Da Vinci's Code," and "Cracking Da Vinci's Code: Student Edition."

However, I knew that before the movie was to be seen or the companion editions were to be peered over I had to finally give in and crack the spine of that novel whose very jacket design had once given me a strong yet snobbish sense of disgust.

And shockingly enough, the book turned out to be wonderful. I believe that perhaps I am the last human being on the planet to have read this Goliath of a work of fiction. But if by chance you are in fact the VERY last in line, then by all means crack the spine yourself (and the code if you belong in Mensa).

Certainly, the last thing author Dan Brown needs is an endorsement from the likes of me, but his stunning work of historical fiction truly is a mind-opening, thrilling and fast-paced read.

From what I hear, the film leaves much to be desired. But with the original novel the mystery is easy to de-code, people are reading this book because it's brilliant. And it doesn't take a Harvard symbo-cryto-whatever-o-ologist to figure that out. Proudly be the last person to read it today.