Saturday, April 4, 2009

Da Vinci Code

One of my students who I am tutoring has been reading Vietnamese translated version of "The Da Vinci Code." For the last few lessons I've asked him to tell me what has been going on in the book as a way to practice the past tense. I "read" the book a few years ago (I listened to an audio tape of it while running at the gym) and remember it pretty well.

Yesterday I asked my student where he was in the book and he told me that he finished. I asked him if he was surprised at the ending and he said yes. I asked him to tell me what happened and he said that Robert -- the Tom Hanks character if you saw the movie -- had dreamt the whole thing and had just woken up in his hotel room. I stared at him blankly for a few seconds and said, "Really?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Really?" He said, "I swear."

Granted I know I only listened to the book -- and distractedly at that -- but that is 100% not the ending in the English version. I'm now wondering how many other translated books have completely fake endings...