Confusion from the Author

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, a fictional novel, was written in a factual means. Brown took controversial topics like religion and myth and created a literary masterpiece. The author used actual organizations, places, and even some actual names. He also created fictional characters and places, but made no attempt to allow them to appear. Although the facts used in this book was misinterpreted, it played an important role in distracting the reader's attention away from their own thoughts and onto those of the author.

A Historical Story

The Da Vinci Code was different than books that I usually take the time to read. I was lucky enough to have the version of the novel that had pictures and explanations of the historical objects used in the story. If I did not have that, I would have lost with all these Parisian artifacts. All the mysteries and the solutions that come from it are so suspenseful that I did not want to stop reading. There were stories and myths on religion predominately.

A Puzzling Story

Another interesting novel to read was the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The main character, Robert Langdon is the professor of religious symbology at Harvard University. He tries to attempt to solve the murder of the renowned curator Jacques Sauniere of the Louvre museum in France. Near the curator’s body was a perplexing code found. The curator’s granddaughter and Langdon attempt to decipher the strange riddles and are surprised to find a path of clues hidden by the efforts of the artist, Leonardo Da Vinci. Brain teaser and number puzzles were involved. The last, most thought-provoking challenge was finding the Holy Grail.

Lovely Bones Reflection

Novels like this make the reader think about someone who actually suffered through trauma like this. It is sad to think that no matter when one reads this novel there will probably be a child missing in the news and a family trying to adjust to the new horror in their lives. I researched information on the author, Alice Sebold and she was brutally raped as an 18 year old. The inspiration for the story came from her personal experience. It is not that The Lovely Bones makes light of this kind of tragedy, but it does bring some healthy insight into the role of death in our lives.

Personal Opinion of Lovely Bones

It was Susie’s insight from heaven that made me love reading this novel, since it was a different approach to a novel. She sees how her murderer lives, and how her family coped without her. But it's watching her family and friends as they begin to heal where the heart of the story lies. She's there when her father realizes that the immortality that should have come with bearing three children was not as assured as he thought; and he reacts by pouring his love into the living. Since Susie was only 14 years old, I expected another kind of tone to this novel. But Susie Salmon is not sad, angry, or bitter. Instead she is a mix of curiosity and hope about the people still on Earth. The Lovely Bones is about Susie watching her family and friends heal and finding their way back to being connected with one another. It is about restoration of a family after it is devastated.

A Huge Impact

The death of Susie Salmon surprisingly impacted almost everyone close to her, even a couple people who were not. Her mother leaves her father, after he kept assuming that the murderer was their neighbour, George Harvey (who is the murderer). Her father tries to catch Harvey but was crippled in the process. Susie's sister and brother are driven into emotional retreat, becoming very distant from their previously peaceful family. Ruth Connors, an unpopular girl in Susie’s class, is also impacted by Susie’s death. She is the last person Susie touches as her spirit leaves Earth. As a result, Ruth becomes obsessed with death and even begins seeing the dead on Earth. Everything and everyone important in this young girl’s life changed solely because they were traumatized from her death.

1st Summer Book

This summer I read an interesting and thought-provoking novel called Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. The main character and narrator of the story is a girl named Susan Salmon, who was raped and killed at the young age of fourteen. Susan tells her story from her view in heaven, where she sees her friends and family living down on Earth. She sees how her family and friends changed significantly mostly from her death, and she even sees her own murderer living down below.