"The Lost Symbol"

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Closing the cover on "The Lost Symbol" was a little like getting off a circus ride.You're out of breath, a bit dazed and confused, and though it was fun, you're sort of glad it's over. Like the ride, it's a can't-stop-once-you've-started thing and the speed alone keeps you stuck to your seat.

The pace is FAST and when every chapter leaves you hanging, you frantically turn the pages because you have to know what happens next. I know that sells books, but I prefer wanting to turn the page because the words I've been reading are a sheer delight and I want more of them. But...that's a different kind of book. This book is pure escapism, good for getting out of your own life for a while and into somebody else's. If you're looking for one you can't put down, you've found it.

The story's set in Washington DC, with lots of description of the government buildings. I've never had much of an interest in visiting there, but the Library of Congress was so beautifully described that I would like to see it. The city itself didn't captivate me, but some of the old architecture sounds interesting.

The book is full of mysteries. There were times when it seemed to me the answers to those mysteries were being deliberately withheld just to lengthen the book, and as it progressed I confess I did grow somewhat irritated when the characters repeatedly almost told their secrets, but then didn't. Mystery may not be my genre.

What I liked best about The Lost Symbol is the math. It too can be mysterious, but it doesn't toy with you. The numbers are clear and honest once you figure them out. Throughout the story he makes use of magic squares, where all the rows, columns, and diagonals, and sometimes even the 4 corners, add up to the same number. I love them; the way the numbers fit so perfectly as to be almost poetic. I enjoy a magic square like I do a well-crafted sentence or a great metaphor.

There are lots of secret codes in the book as well and that was fun. One of the simpler codes is actually diagrammed in the book and I'm going to teach my granddaughters how to use it. It will up my cool factor considerably, which is a good thing because they are getting to the age when I'm about to become just another outdated, boring adult.

I was fascinated with what I learned about Freemasonry in this novel. I've never really understood much about it, but in certain circles I've sensed that the organization wasn't always admired. It gets a little confusing at times but I'm fairly sure that by the end of the book the author wants the reader not only to approve of the Masons, but also to view them as credible spiritual guides. The Christian church is dismissed as being misguided in it's belief in the Bible as the Word of God as well as it's belief in Jesus' virgin birth and resurrection. The book accepts that He was divine, but only in the way that we are all divine and therefore all gods. I'm seeing this same kind of spirituality in many of the books I'm reading lately, which I find sad but understandable in today's world where we all want power and other good things but a God with expectations of us in return. This book suggests strongly that the Freemasons are the people with the spiritual inside information, the ones who know the real truth about the truth.

The Lost Symbol also introduced me to Noetics, a word new to me but I've found through some internet research that it is a valid science. There is an actual Institute of Noetic Sciences studying all aspects of consciousness including the effects of thought on matter. Noetics is a "new science based on old wisdom". It says your thoughts can create your reality, that positive thoughts will give you a better reality than negative thoughts. We've always suspected that, but it's becoming a measurable reality and not just a platitude. Exciting stuff. 

One aspect of the book I didn't enjoy at all were the very detailed torture scenes. I don't know that they added anything at all to the story other than to stretch it out some. I sometimes read just for entertainment and I don't find torture entertaining; I get more than enough of horror stories in the daily news.

Something missing here is character development. This being a "thriller", the action is more important than the characters. I get that, but I can't help it, I want fully fleshed-out characters. Many here are one-dimensional and predictable and I don't really like any of them. I'm sure the author would say he didn't write it so I could make friends; the flaw is in my expectation.

Overall, an ok read. I learned some things, escaped my own life for a while and had some fun on the ride. But it did feel at times less like escapism and more like being trapped in a racing car because the desperate need to know how it turned out was so powerful that I could not leave it. That made it somewhat of a relief to finish and finally be out of it, but others may love it for just that reason.