So what's all the fuss about?

Ruby Martin of Chicago writes:

I read The Da Vinci Code several months after the book was released and to be quite honest, I thought it was a pretty good read, even though I didn't think Brown was anywhere in the league of guys like Grisham or Ludlum.

For the life of me, though, I couldn't understand how anybody could take the book seriously! Mary Magdalene sitting by the side of Jesus at the Last Supper!? Admittedly, the person next to Jesus did look extremely effeminate, but if that was Magdalene in the painting, there would need to be 14 people in it - Jesus, the 12 apostles and Mary. Count how many there actually are!

There were, of course, several other equally glaring mistakes in the book, but then the copyright page of the novel did say this: "In this work of fiction, the characters, places and events are either the product of the author's imagination or they are used entirely fictitiously."

So what's all the fuss about?

People who ask this question usually have not read the page of The Da Vinci Code titled Fact, where the author, Dan Brown, asserts that "all descriptions of [..]documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" and are based specifically on the fact that "in 1975 Paris' Bibliotheque Nationale discovered parchments, known as Les Dossiers Secrets" which reveal the story of the Priory of Sion. For more about the Priory of Sion and other claims that Dan Brown makes in his book, please read the The Da Vinci Code FAQ, or Will the Real Priory of Sion Please Stand Up? by Massimo Introvigne on Holy Spirit Interactive.