Wednesday, March 17, 2004

The Thrill of Books

Fans of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code might be interested in Codex by Lev Grossman, a search for a mysterious book that supposedy contains a secret code. Somehow an obesseion with a video game converges with the search for the book. You can read a review at The Village Voice. Dennis Lim, the reviewer calls it a "page-turner" that has some flaws. But in spite of the flaws, "Codex is unusually generous metafiction. Never better than when its protagonist (and by extension the reader) is in a fugue state of narrative immersion, the book wonders what it means to truly get lost in a story—and keeps an admirably open mind about the numerous ways that can happen." Sounds like a good summer beach read or a fun book for a rainy day. But what I really want to know is, what happened to Mr. Grossman's hair?