The Da Vinci code - A Roller-Coaster ride

Here I am, sitting on the couch, warmly ensconced in a faded, old blanket, in the dark hours of midnight, listening to raindrops strike the eaves of my apartment, sounding more like boulders than raindrops, as the wind howls through April blossoms and all else is quiet.

You may wonder why I am still awake at this hour of the night. Well, I was reading "The Da Vinci code" and I just finished it.

The book started off excellently. Granted, time seemed compressed in it; things happened at an unimaginably fast pace. But the story itself was intruiging. I love solving puzzles and the story almost explodes with a plethora of them. Anagrams, symbolic clues, cryptic clues, you name it!

The middle part was fascinating as well, especially to an iconoclast like me. Anything that smears the face of established religion automatically draws my attention. With what seems to be meticulously researched information on Jesus Christ and Christianity, and the lies that have been propagated about them, the novel became so gripping that I walked to the bus stop one morning - a good thirty minute commute, up a steep hill - with my face buried in the book!

I was thoroughly enjoying it. Had I stopped right there and written a review, I would have given it an A+ for sure. Unfortunately, I waited a little too long. I tasted the dregs before I commented on my coffee. The ending was - how shall I say this right? - anti-climactic. Or must I say pedestrian? Or incredible? Whatever the word is, I was utterly disappointed.

I have watched too many Hollywood movies to appreciate such unrealistic twists in tales. Things came too easily to the protagonists: people were easily conned by them, characters that posed an impediment to their quest somehow removed themselves from their path, and they solved clues with what seemed to be blinding alacrity. Things seldom, if ever, come so easily in real life. The story showed all the ugly signs of the usual conflict-resolution-conflict-resolution-all-is-well-or-you-never-know formula. It suddenly felt like a trashy novel not worthy of being read by eclectic readers.

That said, would I recommend the book to a friend? Absolutely. Would I call it a one-of-a-kind, must-read book? Perhaps not. The book is very well researched and has a cornucopia of food for thought. If you're very used to reading meandering classics and expect stories to be not predictable, you might be disappointed with this book, but the overall ingenuity of it perhaps might trump your disappointment, as it has done for me.

The movie comes out on May 19th and I'll surely be in line to watch it!