Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Novel tries to crack Columbus code

It is natural for us as humans to question and doubt that which we cannot experience ourselves. As a result, history has been questioned numerous times, and there are those who devote their entire lives to proving history and clarifying its mysteries.

“Codex 632,” a Portugese novel by Jose Rodrigues dos Santos translated by Alison Entrekin, dives into the mystery of Christopher Columbus and his secret identity, attempting to capture the allure that led to the success of “The Da Vinci Code.” The novel follows Thomas Noronha, a professor at the University of Lisbon and expert cryptographer. Noronha is the solution to America’s problems after the passing of the revered Professor Toscano. Toscano’s death in itself is strange, but as Noronha begins to unravel Toscano’s life work, secrets are revealed that could quite possibly change history as we know it.

Mixing in his personal life with his career, we also meet Noronha’s wife, Constance, and his daughter, Margarida. A picture of his home life is painted throughout the novel, giving us a glimpse of Noronha’s personal struggles with his daughter’s Down syndrome diagnosis. The high medical costs and battles with the school board over Margarida’s enrollment take a toll on the couple.

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Dazed by the troubles that surround him, Noronha, although doing his best in spite of everything, fails to meet standards for peer review. They begin breathing down his neck, begging for answers. Time presses on, and deadlines grew closer with no definite sign of answers to their questions, and they grow increasingly impatient. The reader also begins to question the motives for all this research. Why now? Why is it so urgent?

With each clue resolved, the answer grows tantalizingly close. Although the book delves into an interesting topic and examines it thoroughly, the pacing of the mystery is lost as it jumps back and forth between the characters’ work and personal life. A great amount of unnecessary information is provided that throws the readers off track from their own quest to find the answers.

The novel, however, does an excellent job forcing the reader to question his or her own knowledge of history and everything else that we have come to know as the truth. It is the sort of rumor that gnaws at you until you know if it is true or merely spreads more lies to spark a controversy.

The secrets unveiled in this novel may also lead us to question whether everything else we accept as fact is really pure fiction. Are all the great societal figureheads truly as amazing or respectable as we may imagine them? The selective sharing and hiding that goes on in Portugal not only echoes the society laid out in “1984” but also leads us to question how much Big Brother may be presently monitoring our own lives. Are we in fact living in that world? Are we being stripped of our freedoms without even knowing it? Some may argue that the Iraq war is a mask that allows our government to take away the rights set forth by our forefathers, and situations in this novel reflect this situation eerily.

These are scary thoughts to grasp, but “Codex 632” further exemplifies how real a society like this may or may not grow to be. With all the riddles and codes possibly hidden in the beloved texts and documents set before us by the founders, this may all be purely a game. But who knows? We may never unveil the secrets of our past but, with “Codex 632,” it seems as though Jose Rodrigues dos Santos is trying.

3 1/2 stars out of 5

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