The Lost Symbol

When my pre-ordered copy of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown arrived at our doorstep precisely on its release date of September 15th, I felt more than a little rush of excitement. Six and a half long years of waiting had finally come to an end! Interestingly (at least to me) I was among the first people in the world to read The Da Vinci Code in the early spring of 2003. At the time, my daughter Sunny was working at Barnes & Noble and was able to obtain a pre-release copy for employees. “This is going to be big dad,” she told me—and she was right. I devoured The Da Vinci Code in 2 or 3 sittings and then spent hours on the Internet researching the organizations and concepts introduced in the book. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40,000,000 copies worldwide and is the best selling paper back book of all time.

My initial excitement about The Lost Symbol however, was tempered by 2 things: First, I was thoroughly engrossed in a book called Cities of Gold by Douglas Preston and did not want to put it down. Second, I was reluctant to begin reading The Lost Symbol for fear that I would stay up all night like I did with the final Harry Potter and at my age, there is a high price to be paid for all-nighters!

Well, it took me a full week to read The Lost Symbol and it might have taken longer had I not wanted to get it over with and resume reading Cities of Gold.

One would expect that 6 years of research, writing and polishing would result in a tight, well written, and focused tome but instead, The Lost Symbol is a jumble of notions, theories and postulates, mixed with a little history and a lot of expose. Perhaps the greatest sin of the author (in my opinion) is that of driving a personal agenda packaged in the formula of a best selling novel. There is way too much preaching in this book!

In fairness, The Lost Symbol does contain several pieces of interesting U.S. history that I don’t remember learning in school and lots of fun facts. I highly recommend having Internet access nearby when you sit down to read. (Now I want to see the movie National Treasure again too!)

Additionally, I think The Lost Symbol will appeal to a lot of people because the suspense and intrigue is decent and the characters are surprisingly well developed. The plot line is really quite good, the symbology fascinating, and if not for all the peripheral baggage, the story would be highly entertaining. If Hollywood chooses to emphasize the action and adventure, The Lost Symbol should make for a very good movie. (There is also a smattering of material that will resonate with LDS readers, reminiscent of the apocrypha.)

Because of his previous books, Dan Brown has been widely criticized as being anti-God, and anti-religion. There are enough examples of this in The Lost Symbol to keep the debate alive and going. Yet there also seems to be an determined effort by Brown to reconcile science and religion and the prevailing theme of the book is that of discovering a higher power. Unfortunately, I found The Lost Symbol to be filled with so many contradictions about the nature of God, the afterlife, heaven, and mankind’s quest to unveil the mysteries that I came away wondering if Dan Brown might soon find himself confined to an institution?

In conclusion, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend The Lost Symbol but I can’t dismiss it either. Some will like it, some won’t. But most will probably want to talk about it and that might be the book’s principal redeeming value. I'd like to talk about it so here’s my e-mail address if you feel inclined to comment: mil1silver@comcast.net


Note: There was some early rumor that Dan Brown's follow up novel to The Da Vinci Code would target the Mormons in similar fashion to the anti-Catholic sentiment in his book Angels & Demons. The Lost Symbol contains 2 small jabs at the LDS Church, both of which are laughable.