by Jared Garrett

Created on: January 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

A proper evaluation of Dan Brown as a novelist should discard his wild success and the polemic that arose around his most famous work, The DaVinci Code. Why should we do this? Because the moniker 'novelist' implies that a person has written more than one novel, which Dan Brown has done. Thus, we really ought to evaluate him on the basis of the work he's done, rather than the success one single novel has had, although often success is a good gauge of quality. Please note that we said, sucess is "often" a gauge, not always.

Thus, we come to the idea that we ought to evaluate novelists in much the same fashion that other artists are discussed and treated.

For example, how timeless is the work? Will it remain a part of the greater societal conversation for years, even decades and centuries after it enjoys its heyday?
As for Dan Brown, no. Who is still talking about the DaVinci Code, aside from the random little pockets of people like us? Who really cares any more? Was he ever hailed as a masterful writer, a commander of prose, an expert wordsmith? No, the hoopla was all about the subject of his book.

His characters are flat and out and out unbelievable. His subject matter, while interesting, is by any account absurd. Seriously now, we have a group (the Priory) protecting a Jewish woman who was ostensibly married to Jesus, the founder of the Christian faith. They are protecting the Christian tradition? Pagans who practice fertility rites? Huh? That makes no sense at all. Why would they care? If they think Mary Magdalene is significant due to her marriage to Jesus, then they must have thought that Jesus was something pretty important as well, since He was her claim to fame. It simply makes no actual sense.

So, couching fun and entertaining ideas in lackluster prose and completely forgettable characters who seem mostly immortal and invincible does not, in fact, make a good novelist. It makes a good marketer. And an artist who does his or her art simply so that it will sell like hotcakes is not exactly being true to his or her artform. This is often referred to as selling-out.

For a good novelist who can take timely and intriguing subject matter and form a powerful novel, read Greg Iles.

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