The Lost Symbol

by Dan Brown

-Robert Langdon Series, Book 3-

(New York: Doubleday, 2009)

Hardcover, 509 Pages, Fiction

ISBN: 9780385504225, US$29.95

ABCD Rating: CHECK OUT

What is lost … will be found.

From the Cover: In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world’s most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling—a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths … all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale. As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object—artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation … one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom. When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon—a prominent Mason and philanthropist—is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations—all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth. As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown’s novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown’s fans have been waiting for … his most thrilling novel yet.

My Review: I’m not sure exactly why I picked this book up … after all the hoopla surrounding The Da Vinci Code I was kind of turned off of Dan Brown as an author. Add to that the fact that his writing while intricate is by no means complex—the two should not be confused. I think that Brown is an author who aspires to write something great and profound, but cannot climb out of the one-dimensional world in which his novels are set.

That said, I did enjoy the story … though only up to a point. Sometime around the middle of the book I guessed the identity of Brown’s villain and the location of the titular Lost Symbol, so the rest of the reading experience became, get to the end and let me confirm what I already know … and I ended up being right. I say this not to brag at my detective prowess, but to say that since The Da Vinci Code, I have found Brown to be very predictable in his writing. Brown is, I fear, a one-trick pony. His books are virtually interchangeable: secret (though “misunderstood”) society, race—with beautiful woman in tow—through a major world city with numerous symbolic landmarks, menacing and very distinct villain, earth-shattering secret, incredible scientific discovery: enter Robert Langdon, a tweedier version of Brown crossed with Indiana Jones, the only man who can solve the problem.

I think that this is what I found most tedious about The Lost Symbol, the fact that Brown had—basically—recreated The Da Vinci Code in America. He was ticking off the boxes of the Brown-Langdon formula every step of the way, and that made the book, as I said, (1) tedious and (2) predictable. This is not to say that the story isn’t good … it is, Brown is can write a good thriller, my only problem is that the thriller follows a very predictable path in Brown’s hands, and that is what makes The Lost Symbol nothing more than a warmed-over and Americanized version of The Da Vinci Code. Also, as sinister as the tattooed villain Mal’akh is, I could not help but think that it was a borrowed sinister. Just as The Lost Symbol is a warmed-over version of The Da Vinci Code, the tattooed Mal’akh seemed to be a warmed-over (and, by comparison, tepid) version of Thomas Harris’ villain Francis Dolarhyde from Red Dragon.

My other major beef with Brown is his claim to veracity. At the outset of the book Brown makes a claim that all locations and rites described in the book are accurate. However, Brown made the same claim at the outset of The Da Vinci Code, that all art and locations were depicted as accurate and true … but we all know how that turned out (most of Brown’s claims, especially about art and gospel history, were apocryphal at best and outright conspiracy theory at worst—that from an art history professor from BYU and a professor of ancient religion from University of Utah). So, I guess my advice is take all claims of veracity and accuracy with a grain of salt. For example, there are only two ways—according to Brown’s own claims in the book—that he could “accurately” portray Masonic rituals: (1) if he were a Mason himself and violating his oaths of secrecy or (2) he is drawing his accounts of Masonic rites from disaffected members. Now, neither of these two routes to “accuracy” are palatable because the first removes all credibility Brown has, and as for the second as someone who holds dear and sacred religious rites and practices that have been misrepresented and perverted by disaffected members, I can speak from personal experience that their representations of such rites and practices are not at all accurate, and I can’t imagine why disaffected Masons would be any different. You are disaffected for a reason, and in order to portray yourself in the best light, you paint the Other (in this case the Masons) in the worst possible light. So, you’ll pardon me if I read Brown’s book as a complete and absolute work of fiction all claims by the Author to the contrary.

One last thing … there are some who may say that I am over-analyzing the book and why can’t I just read a book and enjoy it? Well, I analyze it because I can’t help not analyzing it (it is such a part of my being now, that I can’t not do it), but this does not preclude enjoyment. I did enjoy the book; it is, as I have said, a good story and a good thriller. It is, however, not haute littérature (a title some tried to ascribe to The Da Vinci Code) it is, plain and simple, a beach book … nothing more. It is not a book that reveals hidden truths. It is a fiction thriller, fiction being the operative word. This fact, that the book is—for what it is—okay, is why I’ve given it a CHECK OUT rating instead of a DITCH rating; check it out from your local library, read, enjoy, then return it and move on to the next book. I wouldn’t shell out the $29.95 cover price, at the very least wait until you can get it in paperback at your local used bookstore if you absolutely must have it on your shelves. Otherwise, consult your local library for The Lost Symbol. But if you’d rather forego the whole thing, then get yourself a copy of Angels & Demons (the first Langdon novel), and see what Brown could do to a thriller before he turned it into a money-making formula.