The opening of Clive James’ delightful take-down review in Prospect of Dan Brown’s latest tome:
As a believer in the enjoyably awful, I would recommend this book wholeheartedly if I could. But it is mainly just awful. Nevertheless it is still almost worth reading. In the publishing world they have a term, “pull line,” which means the few words of apparent praise that you can sometimes pull out of a review however hostile. Let me supply that pull line straight away, ready furnished with quotation marks: “The author of The Da Vinci Code has done it again.”
Once again, that is, he makes you want to turn the pages even though every page you turn demonstrates abundantly his complete lack of talent as a writer.
You can read the whole thing here.
Also see, “Don’t Make Fun of Renowned Dan Brown,” where Michael Brown writes in the Telegraph, “The snobs and critics will have a field day with the US author’s latest work—but I’m not joining in.” But do read the whole thing.
HT: @JohnStarke