Maybe it’s that the world is an imperfect place, but if you spend all your time looking for something better you’ll only end up somewhere even worse.
Published prior to the 2008 Market Meltdowns (and just one year after the runaway success of The Da Vinci Code), Codex – as I read it now in 2015 – is already hopelessly stuck in its own time. Edward – an investment banker who, at 25, is well on his way to making his “sizable personal fortune” – is asked by his firm to catalogue an important client's rare book collection. Despite balking at the menial task once he realises what's being asked of him, Edward decides to spend his first vacation in four years – time he is supposed to be spending getting ready for a move to London – uncrating and examining books that he knows nothing about, while keeping an eye out for a medieval codex that may or may not even exist. He meets a bunch of people that don't matter, plays a videogame that has eerie parallels to what's going on in his life – which turns out to be a meaningless coincidence – and makes incomprehensible decisions.
There's an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon gets mad at Amy because she points out the fatal flaw in his favourite movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, saying, “Indiana Jones plays no role in the outcome of the story. If he weren’t in the film, it would turn out exactly the same… If he weren’t in the movie, the Nazis would still have found the Ark, taken it to the island, opened it up, and all died, just like they did.” That's pretty much the fatal flaw in Codex, too. Edward is this passive character, forever intending to quit the plot, but for whatever reason, he risks his job and safety to place himself in the middle of a thriller. In the end, his actions don't affect anything, and worst of all, his character doesn't evolve; he's still the same passive character throughout. Even when he finishes playing the MOMUS videogame – which we are led to believe will be significant – Edward falls asleep and can't be sure if he won it or not. The very last lines – and this is not a spoiler because it doesn't have anything to do with what went before – have Edward thinking, “It was funny to think that they were still expecting him at the office tomorrow morning...It was even funnier to think that he would probably be there.” Despite having been involved in a Dan Brown-style credibility-straining potboiler, Edward (the money-focussed hotshot Manhattenite workaholic) will continue to just take things as they come. Good luck in the coming Great Recession, Edward.
I did like the background about the codex and its cryptographic nature but thought that author Lev Grossman was over-reaching when he had his manuscript expert, Margaret, evoke The Name of the Rose by way of explaining some medieval idiosyncrasy. And I don't care if it's meant to be self-aware or not, but incredible situations aren't forgiven by having the main character describing them as “stupid sitcom hijinks”, “too bizarre, too convoluted, like something out of a spy thriller”, or “it all sounded so unreal – like the clumsy exposition in a cheap horror movie”. And speaking of regrettable dialogue, what was with Caroline (Edward's best friend's computer geek wife) who said things like --
I downloaded this audiobook because, after enjoying the fluffy Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, I noticed that a few reviewers thought that Penumbra was a blatant ripoff of Codex, and this being available, I thought it would be interesting to go to the source. I don't regret finishing off my experience by now understanding the Codex references, but do want to end by saying that if Penumbra was a ripoff, it was also a huge improvement.
There's an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon gets mad at Amy because she points out the fatal flaw in his favourite movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, saying, “Indiana Jones plays no role in the outcome of the story. If he weren’t in the film, it would turn out exactly the same… If he weren’t in the movie, the Nazis would still have found the Ark, taken it to the island, opened it up, and all died, just like they did.” That's pretty much the fatal flaw in Codex, too. Edward is this passive character, forever intending to quit the plot, but for whatever reason, he risks his job and safety to place himself in the middle of a thriller. In the end, his actions don't affect anything, and worst of all, his character doesn't evolve; he's still the same passive character throughout. Even when he finishes playing the MOMUS videogame – which we are led to believe will be significant – Edward falls asleep and can't be sure if he won it or not. The very last lines – and this is not a spoiler because it doesn't have anything to do with what went before – have Edward thinking, “It was funny to think that they were still expecting him at the office tomorrow morning...It was even funnier to think that he would probably be there.” Despite having been involved in a Dan Brown-style credibility-straining potboiler, Edward (the money-focussed hotshot Manhattenite workaholic) will continue to just take things as they come. Good luck in the coming Great Recession, Edward.
I did like the background about the codex and its cryptographic nature but thought that author Lev Grossman was over-reaching when he had his manuscript expert, Margaret, evoke The Name of the Rose by way of explaining some medieval idiosyncrasy. And I don't care if it's meant to be self-aware or not, but incredible situations aren't forgiven by having the main character describing them as “stupid sitcom hijinks”, “too bizarre, too convoluted, like something out of a spy thriller”, or “it all sounded so unreal – like the clumsy exposition in a cheap horror movie”. And speaking of regrettable dialogue, what was with Caroline (Edward's best friend's computer geek wife) who said things like --
Actually it's not really the practicalities of moving that we're so much concerned about. It's more the underlying ambivalence about this new phase of your life that your obvious reluctance to deal with those practicalities betokens.Who talks like that?? And what did Edward mean by saying that a medieval book written on parchment can't be burned? Was Grossman thinking of modern parchment paper that people bake with? And when Edward said that he was a child chess prodigy who suddenly lost the ability to play when he hit puberty, is that even possible? And I won't even comment on the ending besides noting that Codex is ranked first in the goodreads list named The Ending Ruined the Book
I downloaded this audiobook because, after enjoying the fluffy Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, I noticed that a few reviewers thought that Penumbra was a blatant ripoff of Codex, and this being available, I thought it would be interesting to go to the source. I don't regret finishing off my experience by now understanding the Codex references, but do want to end by saying that if Penumbra was a ripoff, it was also a huge improvement.
