The Da Vinci Code

I just finished The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and I don’t recall ever finishing a book so quickly. It is no wonder that the book topped the New York Times Best Seller List and will soon be made into a movie.

I won’t say much about the plot (that’s for you to read and discover), but what bothered me about the book was the fuzzy line between fact and fiction. Of course the story is fiction, but I’m talking about the claims that Brown makes about actual historical events and figures such as the crusades, Da Vinci, Pope, Newton, Jesus and others. Brown claims that 99% of his historical references are true but many web sites claim the opposite. So what is one to believe? A non historian like myself is left stranded knowing that some of what he writes is true. But how much?

The book is a lot of fun, but you just need to pretend that Da Vinci and Newton were not real people.