Customer Reviews

Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I was advised by a friend who also loves historical mysteries that this novel was a must-read, but the criticism I read here got me worried. Nevertheless, I trusted my friend and read the book - and I'm glad.
I guess there is some kind of misunderstanding concerning this book: it seems to me that this is not a thriller, at least not in the traditional sense of the genre. If you're looking for an action-packed novel, you're bound to be disappointed. There are no shootings, no chases, no last-minute escapes.
So, why did I enjoy so much the novel? Well, precisely because it's not an action thriller. If it's a thriller, let's call it a thriller of ideas. What is thrilling here is not the physical action, but the mystery around Columbus - and we are talking here about a true mystery, not a fictional one. The real action is thus not set in the character's plot, but in the way the characters question and unveil the past.
Believe me, here the book is one of the best thrillers I've ever read. It surely beats Dan Brown. Some of the things it reveals are really mind boggling and did change my understanding of the process that lead to the discovery of our continent.
This is a novel for people who seek understanding, not for people who seek blood.

CODEX 632 - THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, a Novel, written by Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos. Reviewed by Harvey Greenberg

Who was Christoper Columbus. Was he an uneducated Genoese silk-weaver, who had very little education and who suddenly became a great mariner (as the standard story goes), or was he actually Krishtobal Colon (Portuguese pronunciation), a Portuguese Jew who was educated and already an experienced seafarer, when he sailed the ocean blue for Spain in 1492. Was he an Italian, or could he have been a Jew?

CODEX 632, THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, written by Portuguese journalist and Lisbon University professor Jose Rodrigues dos Santos, is a wonderful historic novel and a really fun book to read. Columbus was an enigmatic person, who never actually told people where he was born, and kept many things about himself and his family secret. This book is about many of those secrets. Columbus, who always called himself Krishtobal Colon, and never Columbus, may have been something other than Italian. Many books have been written purporting that Columbus was actually a Jew, and there is much circumstantial evidence and otherwise to show this to be the case. In this novel, the author uses mostly known facts, but also much conjecture to give a great story.

The story starts as a Professor Toscano, from a university in Lisbon, dies suddenly in Rio de Janeiro, while researching Columbus' roots for an obscure New York-based historic institution. Tushcano has kept his conclusions from the institution, and he died mysteriously prior to giving the institution his conclusions. The historic institution enlists Professor Thomas Noronha, also of Lisbon, to complete Toscano's work. The New York institution offers to pay Noronha $5,000 per week and $500,000 if he succeeds in solving the mystery. How can Noronha say no? He doesn't.

Professor Noronha is a specialist in teaching about ancient codes and cyphers. During his research, Noronha travels to Rio, Jerusalem, New York, as well as numerous places in Portugal. Noronha gets into jams worthy of a spy thriller (Noronha has a damaging affair with a student, and his daughter has Downes Syndrome).

Dos Santos' wonderful story finds Noronha meeting with Kaballist Rabbis in Jerusalem. The Rabbis conclude that Columbus' signature contained Secret Marrano Jewish Code (this is probably factual and is mentioned in Encyclopedia Brittannica - my late father showed it to me in his edition). Noronha meets Professor Toscano's aging wife, who lets Noronha borrow and copy Toscano's personal notes. Mrs. Toscano tells Noronha that Toscano's most secret papers are in his safe, but she has only a cryptic code indicating the safe's combination (remember - codes are Noronha's specialty). Mrs. Toscano tells Noronha that he should visit Prof. Toscano's old friend, a Count in Tomar, for some hints regarding the code and otherwise. You won't believe what startling facts Noronha learns from The Count. You need to read the book to find out - The Count tells Noronha shocking and amazing things!!!!!

When Columbus received nautical charts from Abraham Zacuto (a Portuguese Jew), were they written in Portuguese, or in Hebrew?? When Columbus corresponded with the famous Italian Scientist, Toscanelli, why did they correspond in Latin, rather than Tuscan (the italian written language of the day - weren't they both supposed to be Italian?? Odd, huh??????). Why did Toscanelli write to Columbus that "you who are of great courage, and the whole Portuguese nation, which has always distinguished itself in all great enterprises, are now inflamed to take this voyage" if Toscanelli considered CC anything but Portuguese? If Columbus was just an undeducated silk-weaver, how could he have corresponded with Toscanelli (In Latin, rather than in Italian - Columbus, like Toscanelli, was Italian, wasn't he, or was he at all?). And, why did Toscanelli write an uneducated silk-weaver back? Was Columbus really some sort of Royalty from Portugal (hmmmmmmmmm - interesting possibility, huh?)

Why do all the quoted sources of the day state that CC spoke Spanish with Portuguese artifacts and dialect?? These allusions are factual - curious, isn't it???? Did CC speak or write in Italian at all??? NO eveidence exists at all of his even knowing Italian!!!! Odd for an Italian, huh????????

I have read many of the sources referred to by the author in Codex 632. In SAILS OF HOPE, Simon Wiesenthal asserts with much evidence that Columbus was a Portuguese Jew. In Salvador de Maderiaga's CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS - BEING THE LIFE OF THE VERY MAGNIFICENT LORD, DON CRISTOBAL COLON, the author devotes the entire book to proof of Columbus' Jewish origins, and offers much tangible proof of this thesis. These two books are only an example of two of the numerous texts to which our author alludes in Codex 632. My personal historic interest is coincidentally Columbus being a Jew - I have read these and other books, and I recognize many of Dos Santos' allusions as being based on factual evidence, much of which is from Weisenthal and de Maderiaga's sources. Dos Santos weaves these bits of information and proof together in thrilling fashion, and that's not all.

Besides this book being a great read and a thrilling story, Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos gives readers helpful primers in many important historical subjects, including: Kabbalah, Linguistics, Codes and Cyphers, The History of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), Anthropology, Archaeology, Information on the Discovery of The Rosetta Stone and its contents, History of The Templar Knights, Classical Literature, The Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition and Forced Conversion and Expulsions of the Jews, and long sections describing the Marranos (also known as Neuvo Christianos - New Christians and/or Conversos). Codex 632 gives the reader so much!!!!!!!

So anyway, let's ask again: Who was Christopher Columbus? Was he an Italian from Genoa, as the old story goes, or, was he someone else altogether - perhaps a Jew from the Portuguese town of Cuba ?

You need to read Codex 632, by Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos to find out.

Enjoy!!!!!!!

Harvey Greenberg
August 10, 2008

Sometimes fiction is the best way to get people who would otherwise discount anything with the slightest hint of looking like a history textbook to stop and take time to read and learn. Yes, the book wasn't full of action and adventure like Dan Brown's books, but it was still clever and interesting. I found the qestions it posed about Christopher Columbus to be thought provoking; and the use of code to be engaging. I admit a bias to historical novels; and am a big fan of people like Shaara, Eco, and B. Cornwell. This fact does not mean I don't enjoy a good story, and this was a good story. It could have used some more character depth and action scenes; but it was still enjoyable. Don't sell the reading public short. I'm not the only one who enjoys a book that challenges me to think.

I think much of the disappointment with this book can be attributed to the cover proclaiming a that it is a thriller in the mode of Dan Brown. The only similarity is that symbols and codes are involved. Dan Brown writes (and I read) thrillers that are fast paced. You get short chapters ending with a cliff hanger. The style reminds me of Grisham, who does it better than Brown, and Patterson, who does it worse. The style and pacing of this book are the exact opposite of Brown's style and pacing - no cliff hanger chapter endings and no 2 or 3 page chapters. Rather than cardboard characters you get characters that you begin to understand and who feel like real people. There are a few places where the story drags a little and I have some problems with the way he concludes the main story line but the overall effect was quite interesting. Like the best of fiction you do learn something even if it is to question established belief.

Some reviews of this book have panned it for not being a thrilling-enough thriller. In my view, thrillers are a dime a dozen, and this book stands out as actually offering some credible substance about an important topic. If you've ever had a hankering to understand what the mysterious Christopher Columbus was really all about THIS IS THE BOOK YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

You can see why the author thought this would be a good book. The main premise of the plot--that Christopher Columbus wasn't who he said he was, that he concealed his real identity, and that others since have conspired to continue his deception--sounds like something Dan Brown would write. The difficulty is that there's no suspense, really, in the plot, and so the book winds up reading like a history lesson, and not a very convincing one at that.

Our hero is Thomas Noronha, a Portuguese historian who's been hired to replace someone researching the Portuguese discovery of Brazil. The old researcher dropped dead in a hotel room in Rio de Janeiro, so Thomas must replace him and essentially re-discover everything he's uncovered. What he finds leads him quickly from the discovery of Brazil to the possible alternate identity of Christopher Columbus.

There's other stuff going on here: the main character has a disastrous affair with one of his students, his daughter is sick, other things of that nature, but the plot plods along, none of the characters very interesting and frankly none of it very suspenseful. Much of the book is conversations with the author using secondary characters so that the main guy has someone to explain the twists in his research to. It's a bit much, and at the same time not very much at all.

The premise here is interesting. I am something of a history buff myself, and much of what the author says is interesting. If this were non-fiction I'd probably be rating it higher, but as a novel it's a bust.

I was hoping for something revealing and inspiring regarding this enigmatic figure...to say that Codex 632 doesn't offer new insights is an understatement.
Not only is a shallow and plodding parody of a suspense novel...as I got deeper into it got worse and worse...I kept on reading hoping that it would improve...
but it DIDN'T...after a while I'd jokingly make a conjecture of how it could possibly get worse...and I was right it did! The concluding chapters were so bad that they
defied belief...and then suddenly the author mercifully ended it...Whew!

Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

The cover makes Dan-Brown-esque promises, but the author clearly does not have the ability to deliver. The author makes a truly lame and half hearted attempt to build a story around the research into Columbus. I'd say it falls flat, but it goes beyond that. This book is bad. Painfully bad.

It reads as if it were written by a sophomore in high school. A "C" student, at that.

Several times, I found myself exclaiming, "My God, this is terrible! How did this get published?"

The last 3rd of the book is about the main character's pathetic home life and sick daughter. It has nothing to do with the fairly interesting research into Columbus presented earlier in the book. A writer with any talent at all (along with the help of a decent editor) could have done something interesting here, but reading what this author wrote was like trudging through mud.

In short, it was terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Well here's a book that is worth reading!
Please take the time to read this book and you will not be sorry!
Page turner, so well structured, full of historical facts that will keep your head spinning after you have finished reading it.

Columbus, a man that that will definatly keep researchers researching, writers writing and readers reading!

My only negative comment is the translation, i think a better job could have been done.
I am about to read the portuguese version now...

I purchased this book because I am fascinated by Portuguese history. I currently live in a Lisbon suburb. I read the original Portuguese version of this book.
1. This book's plot moves along at a pace that can only be described as glacial. The author manages to cram 100 pages of story into a 600+ page book.
2. Cardboard characters. Most of the characters were lifeless blobs.
3. Unrealistic story line. Some mysterious American Historical Society hires the protagonist to go kiting off across the world for what exactly? Said Historical Society also goes to the absurd extreme of hiring a high-dollar call girl to seduce the protagonist, just to keep an eye on him.
4. Stereotypes. Americans are all rich, foul-mouthed jerks who happen to be super-criminals as well. Portuguese are pretty much smarter than everyone else in the world. The Portuguese version emphasizes this especially. Everyone except the Portuguese characters stumble when speaking a foreign language. The American creep constantly stumbles over his Portuguese words and swears in English, despite having been a professor at a Brazilian university.
5. No new information actually revealed.
6. Unsympathetic characters. The main character is whiny and self-centered. I held out hope that he would be struck by a falling safe.
7. Flimsy attempts at spicing up the story by randomly inserting exotic locations. The main character flies off to various locations around the globe for no clear reasons. Often just to accomplish something he could have done with a fax machine.
8. Main character has to meet up with his "contact man" from time to time. The contact decides to hang out in Lisbon at a pricey hotel while the good professor does his work. Have these people never heard of e-mail or phones?
I could rant about this worthless waste of trees for at least 10,000 words but I will stop now.

For me the only really interesting part of the book was his references to places. I would read about him living in Oeiras and think "Hey, I go there every week!" or read about the Cascais Shopping Mall and think "Hey, that is the mall where I bought this waste of a book."