He had me, until the ending

Book Review of “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown

My brother really enjoys the Die Hard movies. I don’t bring this up because I think it’s his greatest quality. Quite to the contrary, I think it calls into question a lot about his taste. But it’s hard to blame the guy for falling prey to action-packed movies with lots of thing blowing up and a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. He’s not watching the films for something to ponder later. he’s watching them for the immediate gratification of watching Bruce Willis save the world. It’s the same reason I reach for a Dan Brown book.

As with his past novels, in “The Lost Symbol” places Robert Langdon in a matter of national, even international, importance. At the risk of his own life and those of many around him, he must rely on his knowledge of symbology to save the day. And spoiler alert: he does. And it’s great. (It’s even better if you are home hungover and have time to read about 400 pages in one day.)

I think Brown books are like doughnuts for me. At the mere sight of them I start to salivate and it takes all of my willpower not to just shove one in my mouth. And when I cave and scarf it down, I love the taste but 30 second later I am unsatisfied and guilty. Brown is consistently writing books that entertain me. I cannot put the books down and end up leaving dents in whatever chair / couch / bed I park myself on for hours on end. And almost always he has me until there very end when I close the book and wonder where my time went and acknowledge that the time spent was not worth it.

“The Lost Symbol” is particularly interesting to me. It focuses on Freemasons and all of the lore surrounding them. I am used to hearing conspiracies that make the group in question something to be suspicious of. Brown treats the Masons with nothing but respect and in his words, they became intriguing and admirable. I loved the inclusive nature of their organization as it pertained to religion and was impressed that, to the extent that Brown’s details are accurate, they can reach such a fine balance between religious and social.

And then the end. I won’t include a spoiler alert, but will say that everything I had been working up to and the impression I had of the Masons was for not. And I, the reader, was left unsatisfied and wondering where so many hours had gone.