On my way back from West Virginia, a friend persuaded me that I need to read the Da Vinci Code. (I suppose that I had been a little put off by its runaway popularity, although I was amused by the gravity with which theologians had started issuing books refuting its "errors." Lighten up, people, it's a novel.) A friend has also just sent me a copy of Tahar Ben Jelloun's Le dernier ami.