Saturday, May 13, 2006

My Dan Brown Story

With the release of the movie of The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown's name is all over the place. I haven't read the book or seen the movie, but I do have a Dan Brown story. I went to high school with him.
He was a year ahead of me in school and since we were both day students at the local fancy shmancy private school, we both had our home base in the library, where day students were given carrels to study at and store books. One year Dan was my proctor there, a job that involved making sure the other day students were kept relatively under control while we studied there in the evening. I remember he was almost always with his best friend Chip. They were both blonde and pretty nice, as far as high school boys go. He probably had to yell at me once or twice in his role as proctor for making too much noise in the library. He was a fac brat. His dad taught math.
So many famous authors have come out of that school; Peter Benchley, George Plimpton, Gore Vidal, John Irving. I always knew the odds were that someone there at the same time as me would end up famous. I have to admit I never especially thought it would be Dan Brown. I have no qualms with him being the one to hit it big. Another good author, who happened to be in my same graduating class, is Chang Rae Lee. I've read two of his books. They were excellent.
I haven't read Dan Brown yet because of all the hype. Maybe this summer, now that The DaVinci Code is out in paperback. Maybe I'll go down to Rye Beach and read it and Dan will walk by and I'll ask him to autograph my copy. heh.

2 comments:

YouWho said...

Wow, you need to punch up that story a little. Needs pizzazz. Make up something up how he hit on you or you caught him "experimenting" with Chip in the stacks. Or how he mentioned once he needed to write a paper about the Renaissance and you suggested DaVinci and he said, "Good idea, I'll have to look into that."

Dan writes a good book. They are page turners and by far better than most in the modern pop thriller genre. My only complaint is that just about all his books seem to follow the same plot formula. But they are still a great read.

Devynn said...

You should really take out time to read Da Vinci Code -- it is VERY well written. That is cool you went to school with him!