An Odd Couple of Books

I thought that I would give an update of my recent reading. In terms of this week it has been an odd couple of books. I borrowed The Sea by John Banville (and this year's winner of the Booker prize) as well as Dan Brown's notorious Da Vinci Code from the Oxford Union library and I have since finished both. As reading combinations go, the two together must seem decidedly odd - one the epitomy of the airport bestseller read, the other the epitomy of contentious, high-brow literary award winners. I am happy to say that I enjoyed them both.

The Sea literally made waves when it won the Booker, if only because it was such a rank outsider. It is written in Banville's very lyrical Irish voice, which seems even more suited to the subject matter of rememberance, love and loss. It isn't a long novel, and there isn't a great deal of plot to it, as many critics have pointed out, but my answer to that is - who cares? It was a beautiful, poignant novel, which I greatly enjoyed - sad and honest and true, and it is highly recommended. That makes two (and a half) of the six Booker prize shortlisted books that I have finished, and I must say that the quality has been superb thus far.

I had sworn not to read the Da Vinci Code. I have a general aversion to bestseller lists in general, though admittedly having grown up on a fair diet of John Grisham and Michael Crichton. Lest I be accused of snobbery, I think in all fairness it comes from just realizing that I don't really enjoy all these bestsellers anymore. Seeing the Da Vinci code being read by no less than 6 different people on my flight back to London from Singapore was the final nail in the metaphorical coffin so to speak. However, that being said, I am by nature a very curious person, and bestsellers bring this to the fore. It does prompt one to ask the question: what is it about this particular book that has captured the imagination of everyone else? What is the secret behind it? This led me to read the notorious Bridges of Madison County in 1999 when it was at the waning point of a year and a half long stay on the New York Times bestsellers list and it was what prompted me to read the Da Vinci Code too.

In the end, I did enjoy the book. True, it verged on melodrama at many points, in particular the opening scene in the Lourve, which I had read a year or so previously and taken as confirmation of my worst fears that this was a hack thriller and nothing more. Where is stood out was the slipping in of real and interesting historical facts - from history, art and so forth. Being a bit of a trivia hound myself, I was quite intrigued by these, though a further question that arises is the accuracy of what Dan Brown confidently states (a few facts such as the one that the Louvre pyramid has 666 panes of glass have already been refuted). He also keeps the suspense up admirably and it was a page turned in every sense of the word, with little let up in the action, and things zipping from Paris to London and beyond. One stand out feature was definitely many of the puzzles that were thrown in - from word clues to crytography - which added immensely to the fun of the novel; seeing the popular appeal of crossword puzzles and sudoku, there seems to be a natural love of puzzles in many of us.

So, an odd couple of books as term time reading goes, but both enjoyable in starkly different ways. If only I found as great enthusiasm and enjoyment reading about Metaphysics and Cold War Politics.