A Review of Dan Brown's Inferno

            First of all, my instinct is to apologize for the blog that has lain dormant for a year. I must however shush that instinct, because truth be told, I am not at all remorseful that I didn’t write over the year. I simply couldn’t have. I was working very hard on completeing my Master of Arts in English, while holding up not one, but two jobs. I just wrapped up my final paper in August, and almost immediately after left for a wonderful (but whirlwind) trip to Ireland for two weeks. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been recovering from a touch of burn out… which has brought me to writing for you, at this present moment. I’ve sorely missed writing, even though its only been a few weeks.
             You see, as part of my recovery, I took a little vacation from writing, and even from reading. I started with… I am deeply ashamed to say this… deep breath… tabloids. Pictures and short shallow blurbs were the only things that seemed salient to be all my exhausted and ADD addled brain in the airports to and from Ireland.
             Next I moved on to various more content focused magazines. One that have I particularly enjoyed is ELLE. I am not at all even remotely claiming to be a fashionista; most of the fashion content goes right over my head. They do however have an excellent selection of journalistic articles and reviews of a variety of subjects, books, and films. Such articles were good reads, but did not involve the long term commitment of a novel or a book (oh the drama… alas, this is how tired I was.)
             My next, most recent step has been to move on to a book. I’m proud to announce that I’m back to real big kid books, complete with stories featuring developed plots. I am not so proud to announce the book I chose for my return is Dan Brown’s Inferno, which was in a word, wretched.
             I did not begin this book expecting epic plot, nuanced characters, or even beautiful prose, but I did expect that I would have had some sort of plot progression. Instead, I endured Inferno’s pointless plot and Brown’s worst, most dry writing to date. And yes, finishing this book was an act of endurance.
             To quickly gloss this book for those who are (blissfully) unaware, Inferno is Dan Brown’s latest installation into the adventures of Robert Langdon (of DaVinci Code fame). The beginning of the book had me hooked: Langdon wakes up in a hospital and cannot remember any recent events, or where he is; a deranged scientist simultaneously threatens to release a dangerous virus.
             In typical Dan Brown fashion, Robert Langdon’s adventure begins at the intersection of science of religion, dealing with overpopulation, scientific interventions and their redundancy due to the Catholic Church’s intervention. From the get go, the issue of overpopulation, while terrifying, does not create the immediate intrigue in the audience when compared to the wild conspiracy theories featured in Brown’s other novels.
             I will admit that there was a twist that I did not see coming, and for good reason. Brown essentially renders his entire plot moot on multiple occasions. The book ends up being literally pointless.
             As for the writing: Dan Brown has never been Ondaatje when it comes to the poetry of prose, but Inferno was a new low. Much of the close readings of art that I do enjoy in Brown’s other books is missing here. Brown also missed many opportunities to create symbols: going to great lengths to set opportunities up, only to leave them dangling (a great mystery considering the book is about a symbologist). I typically enjoy the descriptions of Langdon’s travel adventures, being an aficionado of travel myself, but honestly… My lonely planet travel guide to Florence read more elegantly than parts of Inferno. Brown focused on bland and pointless details, shifting focus from the already lacking plot. There is also no character development, meaning there was no reader investment into any character, an integral function that was missing. If none of the action has any consequence because the reader doesn’t care about the characters, where does that leave an action novel? Collecting dust on the shelf.

Did you read Inferno? If so, what did you think? Has anyone had a good read lately? I’d love to hear any recommendations in the comments!

Eating, Drinking, and Loving Italy

My partner is obsessed with Italian food. He worked in an Italian restaurant, and even though there is a tendency to fall out of love with things you work with all the time, I think this must have just reinforced his passion. Sometimes I wonder if he is with me because of my Italian grandmothers cooking. He says its just a perk, but I wonder… He is truly in culinary heaven in Italy.
             Our tour of Italian cuisine started in Florence. We had some incredible pasta and pizza, and our hostel had great meals (3 portions of rice and a full small chicken for 7 euro!) on the cheap. The real prize of Florence cuisine for me was the wine. Particularly, Chianti. The first time we had it, it was a warm night on the patio, which I have already stated already makes everything taste better. Although we had a red wine, it was chilled, which made it refreshing after a hot day. Sometimes after you walk 30 kms in a day, you just want something cold to drink, and since I don’t drink beer, wine doesn’t really fit the bill for me either. But this Chianti certainly did. It had a full flavour, but was very light. Definitely have a new favourite wine. I can’t bring the Tuscan hills home with me, but hopefully every time I drink Chianti it will be a nice reminder.   
             The next stop on our Italian itinerary was in Rome, which was sort of underwhelming in terms of food. More expensive for less quantity. After two subpar dinners around the tourist areas, we decided to follow the locals across the river to Trastavere. Here we found a slight decrease in the expense and a definite increase in the quantity of the food. We found many family owned restaurants right near the river and sat on the patio, because I have to sit on the patio unless its cold or raining. For drinks, we made our way to Campo di Fiori, a short walk from Piazza Navona. In the mornings, Campo di Fiori is a square that is filled with market stalls. In the early afternoons, all the stalls are cleaned up and tucked away, and the square turns into a giant open air pub. On our last night, we went for dinner with our two flat mates from Rome at a favourite place of theirs called Cesars very close to ruins. It was a family owned place, and our flatmates had become regulars throughout their stay in Rome. We had bruschetta, pasta, panna cotta and tiramisu for 12 euro per person! We also indulged in three bottles of wine and stayed at the restaurant until after 1 am… Time flies when youre having fun.
             Naples was all about the pizza. The birthplace of pizza is reknowned for doing it right. And did they ever. The prices of everything in Naples were extremely cheap because the city was literally drowning in trash and unbelievable sketchy. I literally mean unbelievably. It is still a shock to me. But more on that in another post at another time. The one positive perk of this was that I had the best pizza of my life for 5 euro. I had a pizza with blue cheese, spinach, and walnuts, and it was incredible. My Italian food loving companion combined his passion for pasta and pizza by selecting a pizza with mozzarella cheese covered with Bolognese sauce and soft ricotta like cheese on top. I’m not going to lie, his was definitely better.
             On the last leg of our tour in Italy, we stopped in the small town called Rutigliano (near Bari—close to the heel of the boot) where my grandparents are from. We stayed with family there, and we got to truly experience what a day eating in Italy is like. For breakfast, or la collazione, you generally eat a croissant, or a croissant like pastry filled with chocolate, or cream. This can be accompanied by a collection of cookies and/or cakes, and is certainly accompanied by espresso. Luckily my aunt knows that I am a pansy and made me a cappuccino instead. Breakfast of champions. The main meal of the day is pranzo, around 2 in the afternoon, when everyone leaves work or school for an hour or two. Pranzo consists of a primo piatto (a first plate) of a pasta dish, a second dish of carne (meat or fish) followed by salad, and peppered throughout with lots of bocconcini, a type of mozzarella cheese and focaccia, a thick oily bread covered with tomatoes, or onions and cheese. Dinner or cena is a much later meal in the evening after 8 or 9, and unfortunately I did not get an accurate representation of this because I had another massive feast for my little cousins birthday party. I hear that cena is usually a smaller meal, but we had so much food at the party that it don’t believe it could be smaller than pranzo. On a day trip, we went to some of the surrounding areas, including Monopoli, Arberobello, and Polignano, where we had a granita: a cup with pane (or whipped cream) on the bottom, coffee flavoured ice, and topped off with more pane.
             Now its time to walk it all off in Greece…

Firenze's Art Scene

I am becoming more aware of certain scenes, that is, specific sites that seem to create, facilitate, or draw a community of creativity during a specific era. For example, in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson’s character yearns for the art scene of Paris circa 1920. Through my travels I am learning the extent of the symbiotic nature between an art scene and its location. The location provides a sense of community to the artists, and a culture as a baseline or starting point at least to integrate or build off of for work. In return, the location of that art scene receives tattoos of its cultural influence for that particular era that live on through passages in books, subjects and scenes in photos and paintings, and rhythmically through music.

Through my time in Florence, I am learning about the House of Medici’s heavy influence on the arts in Italy during the Renaissance. The Medici family grew their wealth with starting a bank, gaining political prowess through the Tuscan state, marrying royalty, and even producing a few Popes in the process. This money allowed them to provide financial support to Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Da Vinci.

With the death of Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, the house was extinct. Anna Maria bequeathed the entire Medici estate, including their massive art collection, to the Tuscan state, provided that it never left Florence. Say what you will about the Medici’s, but to me, that is incredible civic loyalty and passion. This donation was the cornerstone of the Uffizi, one of the world’s best collections of Italian Renaissance art.

I can see why Florence would be a flourishing art scene, even aside from the influence of the Medici family. The city is small enough to foster a strong sense of community, but large enough to have a wide sampling of people. The Tuscan hills are omnipresent, but not in a looming way: Florence, to me, is a very open and free city. Oh, and the wine doesn’t hurt either.

I wonder what we will consider to be the biggest art scene of the early 21^st century. Looking at the patterns of power and economic influence and the weight that that has afforded people to spend more on artistic pursuits, it makes sense to me why France, Italy, and England were major art scenes at the times that they were. Following this pattern, in combination with my limited observation of what is happening where in the world today, I would say New York or perhaps somewhere in California.  Another real possibility could be that with the dawn of globalization, such art scenes will be harder to localize to just one geographic area.