DAN BROWN'S INFERNO ; THE GOOD AND BAD OF A BEST SELLER
BOOK REVIEW by CHRISTINE TRZYNA
Since it's already on the best seller list and been reviewed countless times why am I bothering to add my voice? OK, like Steven King has become, Brown is the multi-genre genius. A spy thriller, a fast chase movie, futuristic novel, a love story kinda, set in foreign travel, art history, cutting edge biology and medicine, a who-done-it mystery, and did I mention literary?
Here's an example of the time old trick of letting literature refer to literature that is considered literary to make your book more literary.
Page 82 - Professor Langdon speaking
"As you are no doubt aware, Dante* is best known for his monumental literary masterpiece - The Divine Comedy - a brutally vivid account of the author's descent into hell, passage through purgatory, and eventually ascent into paradise to commune with God. By modern standards, The Divine Comedy has nothing comedic about it. It;'s called a comedy for another reason entirely. In the fourteenth century, Italian literature was, by requirement, divided into two categories: tragedy, representing high literature, was written in formal Italian; comedy, representing low literature, was written in the vernacular and geared toward the general population."
"As you are no doubt aware, Dante* is best known for his monumental literary masterpiece - The Divine Comedy - a brutally vivid account of the author's descent into hell, passage through purgatory, and eventually ascent into paradise to commune with God. By modern standards, The Divine Comedy has nothing comedic about it. It;'s called a comedy for another reason entirely. In the fourteenth century, Italian literature was, by requirement, divided into two categories: tragedy, representing high literature, was written in formal Italian; comedy, representing low literature, was written in the vernacular and geared toward the general population."
And so we readers are in the classroom being lectured.
Or this, on age 215, Professor Langdon speaking again.
"In ancient mythology," Langdon offered, "a hero in denial is the ultimate manifestation of hubris and pride. No man is more prideful that he who believes himself immune to the dangers of the world. Dante clearly agreed, denouncing pride as the worst of the seven deadly sins... and punished the prideful in the deepest ring of the inferno."
This book is populated by characters, male and female, who are geniuses and have much to teach, and maybe that's what was bothering me. All that genius, and the only dummy in the story is the reader. All that lecturing, even during breaks in the chase, which, by the way tired me out. I couldn't believe that the aging Langdon, a bookish fellow, could even run so fast or so long. Even James Bond hopped into fast cars to get places pronto. The endless detailed descriptions of architecture and landscape also had the effect of stalling the action. Looking at the book as one in a series about Langdon, I'm frustrated because he keeps repressing his interest in females. No, I don't want Brown to add erotica to his novels as yet another genre, but if Langdon had a real romance once in a few books maybe he'd have more dimension to his character.
There's just no place for an everyman in his work. No place with all the intellectualism for a deep feeling. Inferno is a story to be witnessed but not participated in. It's too high, too mighty, to allow the reader of a mystery one pleasure, the chance to figure a few things out before the characters do!
*(Ct notes Dante Alighieri)
C 2013 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
"In ancient mythology," Langdon offered, "a hero in denial is the ultimate manifestation of hubris and pride. No man is more prideful that he who believes himself immune to the dangers of the world. Dante clearly agreed, denouncing pride as the worst of the seven deadly sins... and punished the prideful in the deepest ring of the inferno."
This book is populated by characters, male and female, who are geniuses and have much to teach, and maybe that's what was bothering me. All that genius, and the only dummy in the story is the reader. All that lecturing, even during breaks in the chase, which, by the way tired me out. I couldn't believe that the aging Langdon, a bookish fellow, could even run so fast or so long. Even James Bond hopped into fast cars to get places pronto. The endless detailed descriptions of architecture and landscape also had the effect of stalling the action. Looking at the book as one in a series about Langdon, I'm frustrated because he keeps repressing his interest in females. No, I don't want Brown to add erotica to his novels as yet another genre, but if Langdon had a real romance once in a few books maybe he'd have more dimension to his character.
There's just no place for an everyman in his work. No place with all the intellectualism for a deep feeling. Inferno is a story to be witnessed but not participated in. It's too high, too mighty, to allow the reader of a mystery one pleasure, the chance to figure a few things out before the characters do!
*(Ct notes Dante Alighieri)
C 2013 Christine Trzyna All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
