The Gaudi Key: A Novel (edition 2008)

I can't judge the plot because I was skipping the pages more than I was reading them, but I really liked the analysis of Gaudi's work.

It finally explained to me his expansive popularity with the Japanese. It pointed out Gaudi's compositions connections to Zen through its imitations of the natural shapes of cliffs, grottoes and plants, with the native stonecrop, Sedum acre, given quite a prominence. Gaudi turned birds' nests, anthills, stalactites, mountains, trees, rocks and plants into towers, vaults, pillars and cupolas in his architectural design. For him originality meant going back to the source, and natural beauty was the brilliance of the truth.
The Japanese love Gaudi because his compositions are reminiscent of suiseki- art in stone created by nature. His work is full of symbolism: his rocks and trees are full of hidden meaning.

So, this was interesting, but as I said, I can't comment on the book.

I rather enjoyed this thriller, written somewhat in the style of "The DaVinci Code". Maria is the granddaughter of a person who worked with Antonio Gaudi. As he is in the last stages of life, she has been designated to carry out a mission involving interpreting the symbols found in Gaudi's architecture in Barcelona. She is aided in the quest by her boyfriend, a mathematician.

The story throws out a lot information for people who might prefer their thriller to be all action-paced. However, I thought of all the heavy detail in George Perec's "Life a users manual", so Martin's detail rather intrigued me. Perec's novel is based on the working out of a puzzle, and this one is based to a degree of interpreting riddles, which have obscure references to symbols. The book is both a paean to the work of Gaudi as well as the city of Barcelona, and fun to follow if a little extravagant at times. Gaudí was a devout Catholic and wanted his famous cathedral (still being finished), La Sagrada Família, to show that faith. This novel captures that. ( )

This is basically the Da Vinci code, but set in Barcelona and with Gaudí being the guy who's hidden all the secret symbols in his work. It contains lots of architecture porn, which I enjoyed, but some parts (the torture scene, the protagonist's boyfriend just happening to be a fencing mathematician) bothered me a lot. ( )

The Gaudi Key is the run-of-the-mill conspiracy theory story with the twist. Architecture is the founding stone of this thriller. If only the authors had cut down on the architecture bit, it would've been a great story. ( )