Sixthirtyone

Issue date: 1/20/10 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: randomhouselibrary.com

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a cultural phenomenon. In 1998, Brown published his first novel, called The Digital Fortress. Including sales for his first and next two books, he sold fewer than 10,000 copies. Then he hit gold. Da Vinci Code has become one of the best selling books of all time in the mere 6 years since its release. Since then, both Da Vinci Code and his third novel, also starring Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon, have been turned into blockbuster movies. How in the world could he possibly hope to top that feat? His answer: The Lost Symbol. The moment that this much anticipated sequel hit the shelves, everyone knew that it had a lot to live up to. Now, nearly five months later, the book has been out long enough to provide an objective view.

I initially refused to read The Lost Symbol. I was more than slightly offended by the effect that Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code had on the public at large, and this was enough to steer me away from reading another potential attack on Christianity. Upon reading the inside cover one day at Borders, however, I saw that the book seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with religion. The synopsis inside the cover talked about Washington D.C. and the Masonic Order. Intrigued, I purchased the book.

What I discovered in The Lost Symbol (TLS) was something very like The Da Vinci Code, but without its originality and thrill. If you've read The Da Vinci Code, then you know that it is nothing short of a thrill ride. Within the first few chapters, the author has you completely hooked, and it's all you can do to stop yourself from reading the entire novel in one sitting. TLS drops the ball here. The first third of the book is exposition. There is no way to truly understand the peril and motivation that the characters feel throughout the book without these chapters. So while they are completely necessary once the ride begins, they cause the first chunk of the book to drag by incredibly slowly.

This is mostly due to one of my main complaints about the book. There is a literary device that is absolutely essential to the thriller franchise, and it literally forces the reader to continue reading long after they might have put the book down. This device is the cliffhanger. A cliffhanger is usually an exciting event that happens at the very end of a chapter. The event leaves the reader with a question that isn't answered right away. Here are some examples of the mundane and poorly constructed cliffhangers Dan Brown employs: "He was standing in the longest hallway he had ever seen," and "Then, like an oncoming truck, it hit her." The purpose of a cliffhanger is not for you to realize it is a cliffhanger, but instead to compel you to turn the page, not laugh at the author's lack of subtlety.

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