01/26/2006 9:23 PM
Posted by VeggieSteph

Codex by Lev Grossman

Codex is a book that probably never would have been published if it weren’t for The DaVinci Code. (Now I know Dan Brown has been honored with lots of praise for getting adults reading again, etc. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know. I know the debate is, “It’s great! It’s intelligent!” vs. “It’s asinine! It’s ‘intelligent’ to no one with a brain.” I just know that I haven’t read it, and if it’s anything like Codex, I never will.)

Codex deals with in investment banker named Edward who is hired to sort through a very rich couple’s library of old books. He made them some money in the past, and for some reason, despite having no qualifications whatsoever, the Duchess hires him to sort and catalog the library, hoping he will find a priceless medieval book that scholars claim doesn’t exist. Despite knowing he has no qualifications, he ends up being obsessed with finding the book (although you never really understand why he does), and eventually fortuitously runs across a pretty uninteresting graduate student named Margaret who is also writing her dissertation on this obscure medieval writer. He convinces her to join in the search, and of course, he falls for her, despite having nothing in common. Throw in an extraneous subplot that includes a weird MMORPG called MOMUS, which of course ends up being loosely and unnecessarily tied into the search for this book as well, and you have pretty much got this absurd excuse of a book.

If you can’t tell, I didn’t like this book at all. It’s not very often I read a book and feel like I wasted my time. Codex wasted two days of reading time. It has characters that are completely uninteresting, all like cardboard cut outs. The premise is intriguing, at least in the first few chapters, but once you realize that as deep as you’ll get is reading how much he is interested in finding this book without getting any real depth to his motives, the story just gives out. You know how all of your writing teachers would always tell you, “show, and don’t just tell”? I think Mr. Grossman missed that class. If The DaVinci Code is anything like this book, I’ll pass. However, if you like a kind of mystery that pulls in some literary intrigue that is reasonably intelligent, you might try books like The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, or The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert. These were all excellent books with great literary subplots, a well thought out mystery, and many interesting characters. I recommend you try them instead. I’d really like to send this one back, but since it’s too late, I’ll be tossing it in my sell to Half-Price Books pile (even though, if anyone buys it later, I’d really like to apologize).