Behind Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol
For Dan Brown fans, here's a look at some followup stories about his new novel, The Lost Symbol, which is due for a Sept. 15 release. They may help tide you over -- at least until the Angels and Demons movie opens on May 15.
This story examines the pressure on famous writers to keep the hits coming. J.D. Salinger became a recluse. Ralph Ellison never finished another novel after Invisible Man. Grace Metalious, author of Peyton Place, drank herself to death. And Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind was her last novel.
The Vatican, concerned about how the Catholic Church is portrayed in Angels and Demons, is debating a response to the movie's release. A strong condemnation or call for a boycott might simply boost interest in the movie, by giving it the “oxygen of publicity”.
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
Comments
"Angels and Demons" is an exceptional book. I much preferred it to "The Da Vinci Code". I believe that people read fiction books for their entertainment value, not to transpose what is written into actual fact. It was interesting however, that I read this book just before going to Rome and spent some time tracing the path of Bernini outlined in the book.
Posted by: MDtopdad | April 23, 2009 11:50 AM
Didn't it take Joseph Heller 20something years to follow Catch 22?
Posted by: Eve | April 23, 2009 12:18 PM
The Vatican, concerned about how the Catholic Church is portrayed in Angels and Demons, is debating a response to the movie's release.
When The DaVinci Code (the movie) was out, I went to a (Protestant) church-sponsored event entitled (something like) "Facts and Fiction."
I understand that movies are make-believe, but I still thought the evening should be interesting. Instead(!) we were shown a DVD of some religious writer who had, himself, written abook about the same secret organization (whose name escapes me at the moment) with over 400 footnotes. And the writer/DVD talkinghead guy seemed very angry that Dan Brown's books are such huge sellers and his didn't go anywhere. Go figure.
Posted by: Eve | April 23, 2009 12:30 PM
I didn't know that they had made a movie of Angels and Demons until a few days ago when I started to see the articles on the Internet about its director, Ron Howard, responding to a Catholic group and proclaiming that he wasn't anti-Catholic. I wish that the church and the various Catholic groups would just shut up about Dan Brown's books and movies. Their tactics are having exactly the opposite effect of what they planned, and there so many serious issues to be considered in the world right now. Why waste time on critiques of fictional books and movies?
By the way, "The Lost Symbol" is already #1 on Amazon's bestseller list (due to pre-orders).
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | April 23, 2009 2:16 PM