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Read The Secret Supper (2007)

The Secret Supper (2007)

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Rating
3.36 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0743287657 (ISBN13: 9780743287654)
Language
English
Publisher
washington square press

The Secret Supper (2007) - Plot & Excerpts

This is the complete review as it appears at my blog dedicated to reading, writing (no 'rithmatic!), movies, & TV. Blog reviews often contain links which are not reproduced here, nor will updates or modifications to the blog review be replicated here. Graphic and children's novels reviewed on the blog will generally have some images from the book's interior, which are not reproduced here.Note that I don't really do stars. To me a novel is either worth reading or it isn't. I can't rate a novel three-fifths worth reading! The only reason I've relented and started putting stars up there is to credit the good ones, which were being unfairly uncredited. So, all you'll ever see from me is a five-star or a one-star (since no stars isn't a rating, unfortunately).I rated this novel WARTY!WARNING! MAY CONTAIN UNHIDDEN SPOILERS! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!Originally published as La Cena Secreta, I read the English translation of this novel some time ago, before I began blogging. I came across the audio book version of it in the library, so I decided to give it a listen so I could blog it here. The problem was that once I started listening, I also started wondering how in hell I'd managed to not only read this book, but also think it was worth retaining the book in my collection with a view to possibly re-reading it at some point down the road.Clearly I'd found something in it the first time around that was just as clearly absent this time. Has my perspective on novels changed so much? It wasn't that long ago that I read this - maybe two years? Have I become so much more critical - so much less forgiving? I guess!The novel is set around 1520 when Leonardo da Vinci was painting The Last Supper fresco. The conceit here is that it's the recorded words of Agostino Leyre, a chief inquisitor in the Catholic church. He's supposed to be putting this story on paper (or parchment or whatever) in his old age while living as a hermit, but no one actually writes like that in those circumstances! That struck me as false.If you are writing a diary, you might record a conversation, but even then you wouldn't record it like you do in a novel. If your conversation went like this, for example: Jane entered the room with an aura of frustrated anger covering her imposing form. "That's it!" she said with an explosion of air that had evidently been tightly constrained by her lungs for far too long. Mesmerized slightly by the rain of dust motes caught in the brilliant afternoon sunshine filtered by the trees outside and by the dirty windows of her apartment, it took me a minute to register the full force of her presence and her declaration, let alone figure out what was upsetting her. Is something wrong?" I asked superfluously, trying to gain myself some time and perhaps elicit further information before I was forced to commit to a response and perhaps to yet another exercise in frustration with her. "Have you not been listening?" she asked in sheer disbelief. This engendered in me a sour feeling of further reduced assurance than I was already harboring. What was I, some sort of NSA operation that I listened in on her every communication?! "I try not to listen to people on the phone," I said, slightly nervously. The truth was that I'd tuned her out completely, and dissolved into a rather soporific day-dream, the memory of lunch still heavy on my stomach as it was. Jane gave me one of her 'what do I have to do with you' looks and took a deep breath. "Dick no longer wants to run with me. He says I'm too slow for his pace and he's found a new partner. This is the guy I got back on his feet, and now I'm back to running alone. In these streets." She paused and I suddenly got the feeling that this was all about to come back on me. It always does. I hadn't even begun to get my head-shake in motion before her face took on a look like it was the dawn of a new age and she asked, "Why the hell don't you go running?" Seeing that look on her face, I must admit I suddenly felt like it. ©Ian Wood 2014Now let's consider that same event as written in the 'victim's' diary: So I had lunch with Jane this afternoon, and we ended up back at her place, which is still a mess, and Dick the dick calls her out of the blue to say he's ditching her as a running partner. Now she expects me to saddle up. That ain't gonna happen. OTOH, I'm not about to let her start running these streets again on her own. ©Ian Wood 2014See the difference? Obviously no one writes a diary the same way as everyone else, so your idea of a diary entry will differ from mine, but I guarantee you no one writes a diary like the first example, either; that's how it's written when it's not actually a diary but is actually a novel outright lying that it's a diary. In the same vein, no one writing a real reminiscence writes like Agostino Leyre is supposed to be doing here, so from the off, this thing shouted fake to me (but this kind of falsehood will win you medals and 'literary' prizes!). How did I get past that last time? I honestly don't know.One thing I became really tired of hearing was multiple repetitions of "Santa Maria delle Grazie". This is simply a church name: Holy Mary of Grace. What I didn't get is why these names are never translated in novels? Why is everything else translated (for example, we might get Rome, not Roma in a novel or Florence in place of Firenze), but then we get Santa Maria delle Grazie? It makes no sense. Nor did it make sense to keep repeating this instead of simply referring to it as "the church" or "the cathedral" or some other variation. Just a pet peeve!So the story is about Da Vinci hiding secrets in his paintings, and an anonymous "Soothsayer" making prophecies, and Leyre's investigation into this. I honestly don't recall the ending (or most of the plot). I just remember that I once liked this, but now apparently don't! So I can't recommend it!

Πόσα μυστικά μπορεί να κρύβει ένας πίνακας του Λεονάρντο ντα Βίντσι;Ο συγγραφέας εμπνευσμένος από το Μυστικό Δείπνο πλέκει ένα σενάριο κρυπτογραφίας, δολοφονιών και θρησκευτικού φανατισμού. Πλείστα πρόσωπα της πλοκής υπήρξαν στην ιστορία και άλλα δημιουργήθηκαν στη φαντασία του συγγραφέα. Στο τέλος του βιβλίου παραθέτει σύντομο βιογραφικό για το κάθε πρόσωπο. Η ίντριγκα που αναπτύσσεται δεν είναι τόσο συγκλονιστική όσο θα περίμενε κανείς. Ο ενθουσιασμός μου περιορίζεται στο ότι εστίασα τόσες πολλές φορές στον πίνακα ή σε λεπτομέρειές του, θαυμάζοντάς τον.Ενώ ο Αλέξανδρος ΣΤ' ηγείται της Δυτικής Εκκλησίας το 1492, ερχόμαστε σε επαφή με τον Αδελφό Αγουστίν Λέυρε, ο οποίος ανήκει στο Τάγμα των Δομινικανών και συγκεκριμένα σε μια είδους μυστική αδελφότητα που ασχολείται με την αποκρυπτογράφηση πληροφοριών υπέρ του Πάπα. Ο επικεφαλής Αδελφός Τορριάνι θα τον στείλει σε μια αποστολή στο Μιλάνο. Ένας άγνωστος αποστολέας μηνυμάτων, που ονομάζουν Μάντη Κακών, προβλέπει το θάνατο της Βεατρίκης, συζύγου του Δούκα του Μιλάνου και ενημερώνει για παρεκτροπές που συμβαίνουν στα διακοσμητικά έργα της Σάντα Μαρία ντέλλε Γκράτσιε. Ο Λέυρε αποστέλλεται για να κατασκοπεύσει τα δρώμενα και να βρει την ταυτότητα του Μάντη.Ο Λέυρε θα συναντήσει τον πρόθυμο βιβλιοθηκάριο της Μονής, Αδελφό Αλεσσάντρο. Ο ηγούμενος Βιτσέντσο Μπαντέλλο και ο βοηθός Μπενεντέττο καλούν τον Αγουστίν να λύσει τα κρυμμένα μυστήρια της τοιχογραφίας και σε αντάλλαγμα θα τον βοηθήσουν να λύσει το δικό του αίνιγμα για το Μάντη, όταν αρχίζει μια σειρά από δολοφονίες και εκτοξεύονται κατηγορίες κατά των Καθαρών...(view spoiler)[Ο Λεονάρντο, οπαδός των Καθαρών και του Πλάτωνα, στέλνει ένα μήνυμα με τον πίνακά του που έχει σχέση με τη σειρά που εμφανίζονται οι Απόστολοι και τις ιδιότητες που αποδίδονται σε αυτούς. Τα κείμενα που έδωσε ο Μαρσίλιο Φιτσίνο στο Λεονάρντο, τα κείμενα του Ιωάννη, κάνουν λόγο για 2 εκκλησίες. Επικράτησε η εκκλησία του Πέτρου και όχι της Μαγδαληνής και του Ιωάννη που υποστηρίζουν και οι Καθαροί, διατείνοντας ότι δε χρειαζόμαστε εκπροσώπους για την επικοινωνία μας με το Θείο. Ο Μάντης των Κακών, ο Αδελφός Μπενεντέττο, σκοτώνει τον Αλεσσάντρο, κατηγορεί ευθέως το Λεονάρντο ενώ θανατώνει τον Αδελφό Τζούλιο που έχει πάει να προσκυνήσει τη Μαεστά του Λεονάρδο. Κατά την πορεία του βιβλίου αρκετοί από τους Αδελφούς της Μονής αποκαλύπτονται ως Καθαροί, όπως ο Γερμανός νεωκόρος Γκιμπέρτο που αυτοπυρπολείται για την πίστη του. Ο Λέυρε όχι μόνο θα λύσει όλα τα μυστήρια αλλά θα έρθει σε επαφή με τους Καθαρούς και δε θα τους φέρει μπροστά στην Ιερά Εξέταση. Ο Μπενεντέττο Θα πεθάνει από φυματίωση και ο Λέυρε θα αποσυρθεί σε μια σπηλιά της Αιγύπτου αναζητώντας τα γνωστικά Ευαγγέλια. Θα πεθάνει πριν ανακαλυφθούν το 1525. Τα Ευαγγέλια βρέθηκαν το 1945. (hide spoiler)]

What do You think about The Secret Supper (2007)?

Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for reading this right now. It seemed contrived, dry as dust, and utterly irrelevant. Set in Milan during the painting of the Last Supper, an Inquisitor has been sent to look for the person sending damning clues that something is being concealed in the mural, and it could crumble Christianity. He settles in among the priests at the monastery and starts detecting. An expert at codes, he must solve the riddle that is the writer's signature so he knows who to approach. DaVinci is portrayed as some kind of evil insane genius (which he may have been). The bodies start piling up, seemingly tied to those who are looking for an obscure book that supposedly holds clues to the abomination being worked into the Last Supper. But, really? You can find hidden messages and meanings in anything, from the phone book to a masterpiece. I didn't really need to read yet another theory about the mystery of the Last Supper or anything related to DaVinci.
—Lori Whitwam

Interesante novela escrita sobre la ultima cena que pintó Leonardo da Vinci en Milán a finales del siglo XV.El libro está escrito en 2.004, un año después del que escribió Dan Braun sobre la ultima cena y la teorica presencia de Maria Magdalena en el cuadro. Parece un libro un tanto oportunista, aunque por la cantidad de referencias que tiene no es facil que se haya escrito en poco tiempo.No está mal el libro pero tampoco es una maravilla. Es entretenido y de alguna manera mantiene el interés durante toda la trama lo cual es muy positivo.
—El Segoviano

After just having read Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, I needed something to cleanse my palate. That said, neither is this book as bad as its detractor's make it out to be nor as brilliant as its fans extol.A bit convoluted, with a nod toward Eco's Name of the Rose, with secrets within secrets, Sierra uses the format of fiction to promote an interesting notion, that da Vinci was a covert Cathar, a member of the heretical group supposedly exterminated by the Church two hundred years earlier, but
—DROPPING OUT

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