Master of the thriller, author Dan Brown visits CLiF’s ‘Book Group for Grown-ups’
February 26, 2021 | By Caleigh Cross Author Dan Brown has written a lot about religion. He finds God in the invisible strings tying humanity together.
The COVID-19 pandemic, he says, has both tightened those connections and stretched them to their limits — but whatever else it's done, it's made for some fine writing time.
Author Dan Brown, top left, meets with CLiF’s ‘Book Group for Grown-ups’ on Zoom Feb. 12. Zoom meeting screenshot.
Brown, 56, is the author of nine critically acclaimed books, including "The Da Vinci Code," which spent almost 200 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has blossomed into a blockbuster film franchise starring Tom Hanks. He spent more than an hour with a virtual book club hosted by Waterbury's nonprofit Children's Literacy Foundation recently to discuss his latest book for adults, "Origin," and "Wild Symphony," his first offering for children.
Brown is accustomed to solitude but says "it has affected the topics I want to write about pretty dramatically. I’m writing now in a space that I didn’t imagine I’d be writing about, and I think it’s a function of a lot of solitude. I’m guessing a lot of us are feeling that now, and whether we’re writing novels or writing journals or even just talking to friends, there is a solitude right now" that's not natural to the human condition.
He was glad to be invited to the Zoom book group, he explained, because "we are connected; it's just different."
More than 100 people from a scattered variety of places including Hawaii, India, Baghdad as well as New England joined the online session with burning questions for Brown. They began discussing the architecture featured so prominently in his novels. His settings have taken readers to Rome, Venice, the Arctic Circle and the National Security Agency, among other places described in quick, vivid, reverent prose throughout his canon.
For readers discovering Brown during a time when travel is restricted, his descriptions can quench the thirst to see new places, if only temporarily.
"You just get to transport yourself to the place, and it just rounds out the whole experience of reading the book. It’s not just about the person, it’s also about the place,” said Katya D'Angelo, new owner of Waterbury’s Bridgeside Books, about Brown's storytelling.
Brown says he always wanted to be an architect but lacked the artistic skill before computer drawing technology was widely available.
"I really feel like location is a character in a book, if you draw it correctly. A conversation that is had in a little restaurant might not be as interesting as a conversation had walking in the gardens," he said.
He's visited most of the locations described in his books, with two notable exceptions — a Turkish prison and the Arctic Circle, where he set 2001's "Deception Point."
Childhood inspires ‘Wild Symphony’
Asked how he found inspiration, Brown first described a New England childhood with an emphasis on creativity and learning.
He talked about growing up the son of two teachers, his mother a professional classical pianist and his father a math teacher. Brown says his family didn’t have a TV or a radio.
‘Wild Symphony’ is Brown’s children’s picture book of poems with original music compositions. Courtesy photo
"They wanted us to read books and play music, which is exactly what we did. Some of my fondest childhood memories were just sitting on the floor reading Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak and listening to my mom’s classical music collection," Brown said, adding with a chuckle, "I had no idea there was anything but classical music."
Those early days of picture books and classical music remain an inspiration and led to his
2020 children’s picture book, “Wild Symphony,” geared toward pre- and early readers ages 3-7. Its whimsical, colorful drawings are the creations of Hungarian illustrator Susan Batori.
The book is a collection of poems “in the vein of Dr. Seuss – light and silly and playful words,” Brown described. “Each poem is about an animal. And each animal has a little moral to teach the child or sometimes the parent.”
It’s not surprising to learn that Brown not only writes books, he composes classical music as well. He wrote a short classical piece to go with each animal in the book, which comes with a digital app to allow readers to listen to the music.
“It’s been really gratifying and a lot of fun to see what kids are doing with this – bouncing around like kangaroos … or flying like manta rays.”
He segued to talking about the work the book group attendees were eager to hear about, starting off with a tease. “Not to fear, I am back in the middle of a Robert Langdon thriller. I’m working hard on that now and I hope to deliver before the end of the year,” he said to the fans’ delight.
Emphasis on education, religion
Brown turned to reflect on how those seeds planted in early childhood also blossomed into creative careers in his family. Brother Gregory Brown wrote "Charles Darwin Mass," a musical composition featuring the writings of Darwin in chants like one might hear in a Latin Mass.
"That piece really got me thinking about religion’s view of evolution, and the fact that the piece was so disconcerting really got me thinking in terms of “Origin of Species,” evolution, and where will evolution end up? Evolution has ended up with [artificial intelligence]. We have evolved to the point where we are building other intelligent life forms," Brown said. That concept in his constantly churning mind eventually turned into his novel, "Origin" published in 2017.
Brown's books often explore the connections and friction between science and religion, another interest sparked in boyhood.
"I would say I was a religious child and loved mathematics and loved science. When I was 10 years old, I went to the Boston Museum of Science and there was a whole exhibit on the Big Bang. I went to my priest" and started asking questions, Brown said.
"I moved away from religion at a young age and became very entrenched in science — cosmology, physics, mathematics, geology. The further I got in science, as those of us who have studied science know, the ground gets mushier the further you go. ... You realize you’ve kind of come full circle. Science and religion are just two different languages attempting to tell the same story," Brown said.
The focus on education in his childhood home is also reflected in the heroes Brown writes.
"I grew up thinking learning is fun. When I set out to write a hero, you just draw on your personal experience. I didn’t know any SEAL spies. I knew teachers. Robert [Langdon, the "da Vinci Code" hero] became a conglomerate of all the teachers that had inspired me, including my dad," Brown said.
He emphasized the importance of organizations like CLiF in ensuring kids have access to educational materials and reading early.
"When I was a kid, there was nothing that was more exciting to me than a trip to the library or the bookmobile. Reading is absolutely critical to our society and our culture," he said.
Brown joked he may owe his writing career to a teacher he'd had at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he attended high school.
"The teachers that were hardest on me were the ones that I ended up remembering the most. I was starting the ninth grade and had just that summer been on a rafting trip down the Colorado River and our first paper was to write about an adventure we had had," Brown recalled. "I wrote a paper I was absolutely positive was an A-plus, but it came back with a note that said 'Let’s not overdo it' with adjectives" and a C grade, Brown laughed. "There's hope for everyone."
Advice for beginners
Brown fielded a lot of questions from beginning writers, mostly asking how he found the motivation to finish entire novels.
"I wish writing always came easily. It does not. I don’t get writer’s block, but I often find that what I’ve written might not serve the story," Brown said.
He sometimes writes conversations from each character's point of view before deciding which works best.
He says for every page of "The da Vinci Code" readers devoured, "I threw out 10.
"When you are a creative person, all you have to guide yourself is your personal taste. What do you like? You can’t go chasing what other people like. I was starting to think that nobody liked my taste. There was some patience to the process" of finding a readership, Brown said.
He recommended today's beginning writers look into self-publishing their work.
"What happens then is you actually have convinced yourself you can write a book. At that point, you might be inspired to write another book, and maybe this one is a little bit better" and publishers are interested this time around, Brown said.
More advice?
"Practice. You’re not going to become a great violinist or great soccer player without doing a lot of it. Remind yourself that what you’re writing is really just for you. At this point, what you’re writing, you’re the only one who’s going to see it. We all have this tendency to be incredibly hard on ourselves at the beginning. If you get so locked in to making sure that everything is perfect at every step, you’ll really be crippled and won’t be able to move on. The first draft is a pencil sketch. Paint over it with something that’s better than the first thing that’s on the page. Take it easy on yourself. Be kind," Brown said.
CLiF’s Virtual Book Club for Grownups series is ongoing with new dates on its website under events. Recordings of the sessions, including the meeting with Dan Brown, are on CLiF’s YouTube channel. With book giveaways and literacy programs, CLiF works to foster a love of reading and writing among low-income and at-risk children in Vermont and New Hampshire.