Book Review: The Lost Symbol
On Monday I finished Dan Brown’s latest, The Lost Symbol. It’s written in the same real-time, page-turning style as his other novels, and this time Robert Langdon’s adventure takes place in Washington DC. To save his friend/mentor/father-figure, Langdon must discover a long-lost Masonic secret buried in our nation’s capital.
It’s kind of like a less Nicholas-Cage-y version of the National Treasure movies. But that’s not to say it’s not a fun read, especially for history nerds like me. The book is extensively researched, which is cool because it makes it hard to tell where the facts stop and the fiction begins. That, and I haven’t read any fiction in a long time. I wish it had come out when I still lived near DC to check out some of the places they explore!
Brown also takes a couple self-aware shots at himself in the novel. First, protagonist and Harvard professor Langdon calls his publisher hurriedly seeking a phone number. The publisher is frustrated that Langdon has already missed his deadline and is off on another all-night wild goose chase, rather than at home writing. I believe this is Brown’s way of acknowledging the long delay between the blockbuster Da Vinci Code novel and this one.
Later, Brown uses the etymology of “sincere” (sin – without, cera – wax) as a plot twist. If that sounds familiar, a similar twist appeared in Brown’s Digital Fortress, which he doesn’t name, but has Langdon recall as a “mediocre thriller [he'd] read years ago.”
The Lost Symbol is a fun story, and I don’t want to ruin it for you, but it has a good message for skeptics too. Perhaps Dan Brown is seeking “atonement” for all the controversy stirred up with the Catholic church over The Da Vinci Code?
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September 30th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Wow you read that fast! I’m only at the beginning, but enjoying it so far. Thanks for not giving the story away!
October 8th, 2009 at 5:58 am
brown is not sincere in his use of sin-cere. it has nothing to do with wax or statutes. even wiki has the rght answer.