ダン・ブラウン 「インフェルノ」 INFERNO by Dan Brown

全く期待はずれ。
１．ゾビイストは、なぜわざわざ人類人口減の薬品のありかを暗号にして隠したのか。初めからばらまけばいいじゃないか
２．ラングトンは、人類人口減薬を求めてフィレンツエやイスタンブールに行くが、小説では、名所旧跡の観光案内で半分以上のページが割かれている。観光案内本を読んだほうがまし。
３．最後で、その薬が蔓延しているが、読者としては、薬が蔓延する前にどう止めるか、どう対処するかを期待して読んでいるのに、どんでん返しがない。
４．Divine Comedyを小道具にしているが、わざとらしい。

INFERNO by Dan Brown

Totally disappointed. The worst story Dan Brown has ever written.

1. Why doesn’t Zobrist spread the plague the instant he invents it? Why does he take the trouble to hide it and encipher the place?
2. Langdon travels to Florence and Istanbul to find the plague. The novel describes the sightseeing spots in these places in too minute details. More than half of the pages of the novel are used for the description. A sightseeing book does a better job. This is a novel and not a sightseeing book.
3. When Langdon reaches the bag of plague, it is already open infecting human beings—this is the conclusion. This is cheap. The reader expects a surprising ending where Langdon grabs the bag before it is opened.
4. How is Dante’s Inferno related to the story? I don’t understand.

I won't read his book any more. It's a waste of time.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY by James Thurber

　　This is a humorous story. It depicts Walter Mitty’s heroic and manly daydreams. He dreams the dreams where he is a pilot of a U.S. Navy, a magnificent surgeon, a deadly assassin, a Royal Air Force pilot, and a man facing a firing squad. Since he is a henpecked husband, he retreats into quite different worlds for balance.
　　The ways he flees into or returns to reality from a different world is unique: when Mitty is trying to fly the hydroplane through the storm as a commander, his wife pulls him back into reality by saying, “Not so fast!”; when he wears a glove, he becomes a surgeon; when he sinks down into the chair, he is a brave pilot who walks to the door of the dugout; when he smokes, he faces the firing squad. The most funny part is when he remembers to buy ‘Puppy biscuit’ which is triggered by his words “You miserable cur.” Everyman has daydreams.
　　If you exaggerate them, you can create such a humorous story like this story.