I also like Dan Brown's books. I continue to be a "wannabe" when it comes to this mystical type of fiction. I have written a copyrighted two part "creative nonfiction" novel called EXPERIENCE FOR SALE. It has some supernatural events in it.

I am considering checking ANGELS AND DEMONS out of the library and think that THE LOST SYMBOL might be a good read, too. Like yourself, I also liked THE DA VINCI CODE. It was a good piece of religious historical fiction. Believe it or not, I still haven't seen the movie. But I liked the reviews. The "Angels and Demons" movie also looks interesting. Perhaps, I'll "bite the bullet" and rent both of them at the video store if 'time and the river' permits.

Interesting coinage: your word, metafictional. I love that word. Kind of gets me in a metaphysical or mystical mood. Ever read any stuff by Philip K. Dick, like the THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH?

*Swoon*

something about your Dan Brown confession is deeply winning. I read that book when babe #2 was a week old and totally loved it: it's crazy, but exciting books are exciting sometimes.

Like John Updike, JM Coetzee writes pretty good essays, criticism. But their fiction doesn't grab me.

Nikos Kazantzakis is more my speed, not Dan Brown

I like crappy books, too, sometimes, but Dan Brown is such a terrible writer, I couldn't even drag myself through The Da Vinci Code, let alone any of his other books.

He's a good plotter, but that's about it.

new coetzee is always welcome. i was lukewarm toward his last book but 'youth' was terrific and i'm looking forward to 'summertime'. jmc is a world-class novelist, one of the best.

still haven't read powers. i'll have to change that. you've piqued my curiosity about weber and baker. and hello from arlington and welcome to the area.

good luck with your new book, bill. big up kazantzakis, dlt.

dan brown, i have a symbol. it's raised and in your schlocky cliched face.

i've been reading--

the tin house 10th anniversary issue. so far steve almond is the standout. also has a good if rough one from an undergraduate dfw.

i read 'the kindly ones'. overall it's good and has a few sections i would call brilliant, but posterity won't annoit it with literary greatness. the introduction floored me and made me excited to read it., but that was the best bit, and littell plainly wrote it last. vast swathes of the middle are taken up with a play by play of the nazi invasion of russia, subsequent retreat, and ultimate fall. it's written in a reporting style, with some facility, but still gives the impression of a history book. the protagonist, aue, meets the major players of the regime and does his best to survive their machinations. his personal life is the more interesting, his relations with his family and the few exceptional people he meets in the party. the novel presents a peculiar thesis on the holocaust, as it is from the nazi point of view: given the dictates of monsieur moustachio, the constraints of a war on multiple fronts, and the german pride in efficiency, the only possible solution was the final solution. littell massages the device of character empathy, and so as the deportations give way to camps this heightens the tragedy and the revulsion in the reader's mind. another successful bit of the book was how the novel stayed true to itself. littell could have gone a number of predictable ways with the ending, a screaming action blow-up, a pull out into the meta, an ambiguous psychological dilemma -- but he resisted and gave us a noir-slapstick ending that i initially rejected but, sitting there staring at the page, found myself smiling at, feeling satisfied. it's worth reading and i will read his next one.

i've checked out a couple other contemporary frenchies. amelie nothomb is apparently very popular but i found her writing slight and presented without insight. i read 2 of her novels, which couldn't have run to more than 20,000 words a piece. for a good one, check out emmanuel carrere sometime. he has great control. i've only found one of his translated, 'the adversary', but it was very well done. i've heard good things about 'europeana' by patrik ourednik and when i track it down it's next.

Dan,
I partially agree with your reading of The Kidnly Ones, but would add Littell brilliantly inserts, with grace, long brilliantly researched historical digressions that fascinated me, especially the digressions on the language groups of the Caucusus. This novel may not be considered a masterpiece, but you can tell he is going to be an important writer.

I've read Eurpeana and it was amazing! I wish the Dalkey Archive would publish more of Ourednik's works.

Tom

Maybe think of Dan Brown as the anti-pynchon. The Da Vinci Code has an excellent premise and the promotion was brilliant, showing those paintings, almost like a Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not feature, drawing people into the fun of the mystery. Who can blame Brown (or maybe his publisher) for deciding to enlarge the tent to include young readers and/or people who seldom read? My own son took an interest in history because of this book. It doesn't matter if Da Vinci really believed the stuff, the point is, it's fun to speculate.

tom, fair points. that particular character, the linguist, is one of the stars of the book. and littell is certainly an important writer. i'd like to see his next one come more from his muse and less from his notes. hearing your words on 'europeana' is like midmorning in the office, someone is eating something good, and you're hungry already.

Oh, and Steve, I'm a Philip K. Dick fan. I've read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch but my favorite is VALIS.

Levi, there is an excerpt from the new Coetzee book in the current issue of Harper's magazine.

And, I'm definately getting the new Sam Savage. Firmin was a really nice book, very humanistic even if it was about a rat. A humanist rat, one could say.

Also, the new Pynchon, mentioned in the NYTBR sounds good. Come on - a doper detective in 70s LA with homage to Chandler and Hammett? What's not to like? Plus according to the times it's only 300 some pages. A short story!

Two words:

Evil.

Albino.

The willingness to read past page 2 of the DaVinci Code is proof the reader's taste is null and void.

Point well taken about the evil albino. I keep forgetting that part.

Which reminds me, whatever happened to Johnny Winter?

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that your Tom Hanks clarification was aimed at Jamelah and/or Caryn.

To me, one Sam Savage novel is worth a thousand DaVinci Codes.

Vollmann's IMPERIAL.

I think I might be reading this for all of 2010 as well.

And I just subscribed to the Archipelago Books series, so I'll have something new and delicious and unknown arriving periodically as a respite.