I know it's so customary to slam other people's success that any attempt at it seems suspicious, but I confess that my reaction to "The Da Vinci Code" was the same as this:
With its flat prose, stick-figure characters, wooden dialogue, perfunctory scene-setting and an unfortunate tendency to interrupt the action with momentum-killing lectures, the novel is in some ways the unlikeliest of best sellers. Many Chicago writers, critics, scholars and book-industry insiders are flummoxed by the book's success.
Like Bill Young, quoted in the story, I got through about 50 pages of the book and gave it up. I like popular fiction, especially mysteries, but trying to read this book was a chore.
Of course, 50 pages is all the further I ever got into "Moby Dick," despite repeated efforts, and most of the critics say that is a great book, so maybe I'm not the best judge.
