Book Review : Origin by Dan Brown

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I always loved Imtiaz Ali and his movies as he used to bring the best out of his actors working for him. Though as his career moved forward, one thing was quite redundant in his movies. The main protagonists meet each other at an unexpected location, they travel and find a change in their character when they fall in love with each other. So, why am I discussing Imtiaz Ali instead of Dan Brown's book here? The main reason is Dan Brown's books so resemble Imtiaz Ali's movies. The same plot where we are introduced with the character who is apparently a friend of Robert Langdon, the murder of the character followed by Langdon being framed for it, Langdon assisted by a female character, an assassinator involved who will most certainly die when we reach the final quarter of the book and a cult/group who will be framed. Also, one should not forget a character apart from Robert Langdon who will be portrayed as a villain but eventually does not turn out to be.

So, let me explain a bit on the plot in detail. Robert Langdon is on his way to attend a presentation delivered by his friend Edmond Kirsch, a renowned world scientist and an atheist. Kirsch is murdered by Admiral Avial, a Spanish navy man while he is on the verge of declaring his life changing discovery which talks about "Where has man come from? Where will the man go?" Langdon who is devastated by his friend's murder, tries to reveal the secret that Kirsch was trying to reveal along with Ambra Vidal, fiancée of the future king of Spain.

As always, Dan Brown has provided us with excellent explanations on various architectures across Spain. We are introduced to Guggenheim Museum to a bit of history of Royals of Spain to Gaudi's renowned architectures of Barcelona. I still remember my trip to Barcelona and the story has stirred my memory quite a bit reminding me of the beautiful Park Güell (which is currently under renovation), Casa Milà and Sagrada Família. The research Dan Brown puts in his books are quite commendable and this always seems to work well for him in his books.

What does not work for him this time is the redundacy in his stories which he has stretched this time quite a lot. Eventhough, we are introduced to a lot of new information on the architecture and the church, they seem quite less and the drama that takes place in the book seems quite stretched. It feels so stretched that when the final showdown of the mystery takes place, the readers feels highly disappointed on the way the whole book is sensationalised. The book will surely do wonders due to the hype surrounding it, but the hype is the only reason the book will survive. Dan Brown should start exploring a different pproach to his books as he has done with Deception Point and Digital Fortress rather than sticking to the same old formula.

Before signing off, I'm putting up two of my favourite quotes from the book which I loved to the core. One of them is "And history has proven repeatedly that lunatics will rise to power again and again on tidal waves of aggressive nationalism and intolerance, even in places where it seems utterly incomprehensible." and the other one is "Love is a private thing. The world does not need to know every detail". Hope, people would learn to apply this in their lives.

Rating - 🌟🌟 out of 5 (Ideally, I would have given 1.5 but the memories of my trip to Barcelona made me favour this a bit)

Photo Courtesy: Google Images

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