The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

 

Book Review The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

We begin with a quote from the book. “The high ground can be defended only if we are actually on it.” The problem for this book is determining where the high ground is: in a Russian insane asylum, in the twisted mind of a rogue CIA operative, in the equally twisted mind of a Jewish “golem”, or in the modern research on the nature of Symbology, Noetics, and Cosmic Consciousness.  If this already seems crazy, I suggest you leave Mr. Brown’s latest novel unread. If you still want to take the plunge, welcome to the historic city of Prague, under whose sacred ground lies a darker realm called Threshold, which will, when activated, control the world. The Prague background works well, especially if you’ve been there, and the thriller portions are engaging, but this is still not much of a novel.

Enter Robert Langdon, professor of Symbology, who travels to Prague to hear a lecture by   Noeticist scholar Katharine Solomon.  Langdon has a thing for Ms. Solomon, but unfortunately, after a rousing sleepover on the night before the lecture, Solomon disappears along with the manuscript of her most recent breakthrough book about the nature of human consciousness.

From here on, Brown keeps you on pins and needles as Langdon engages in a frenzied murder filled chase through and under the streets of Prague to find her. Complications multiply and it gets harder and harder to determine who the good guys are. As Langdon notes, “Quis custodiet Ipsos custodes.” Who will guard the guards?

All this running around is punctuated occasionally by philosophic ruminations about ancient mysticisms and the nature of cosmic consciousness. You are peppered with multi-syllabic words and fears of what might be hidden in the dark recesses of American and foreign intelligence operations. I finally cried ‘ENOUGH’ when every new underground door required a different secret code for access.

If you are really searching for inner wisdom and how the brain works, I would recommend David Brooks’ latest essay on that topic in The New York Times. Mr. Brown tries very hard to put  depth into his work, but I’m afraid he only succeeds in making the whole enterprise more ridiculous.  

I give it a 3 out of 5.

Book Review: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

 

This gets my vote for "sleeper of the year" just past. It seems to have  grown to a lovable best seller month by month over time.  

An old man named Theo (no last name provided) turns up in a bucolic, picture-perfect southern river town named Golden. He goes to a local coffee shop called “The Chalice.” Think about that for starters. On the walls of the shop are pencil portraits of customers drawn by a local artist and a notice that they are for sale. Since sales of the pictures seem moribund, Theo decides to buy the pictures one at a time, search out the sitters, and then arrange a meeting with them on a bench by a fountain in a local park, where he gives them the portrait and chats with them about their lives. It is a clever structural gambit that gives the entire novel a beautiful narrative push. Right from the beginning, the past becomes something that the main character is artfully hiding.  

Theo last lived in New York City and the fountain in the book reminds him of the Bethesda Fountain in New York’s Central Park. It had particular resonance for me because it reminded me of the symbolic importance of cleansing waters in a major play of the 1990’s titled Angels in America. Both feature an angel with spreading wings looking over those seated or walking by. Take note—What do angels do?

The giving of the gift of each portrait becomes a blessing, a small act of kindness with no strings attached that begins to reveal the life and inner soul of each recipient.  They are a varied lot. Among them are Mr. Whitaker, the custodian with a crippled daughter, Basil the street musician, Simone the cello student, and most moving of all, a woman on the spectrum who sleeps under bridges or at the local mission and carries all her possessions with her on an old bicycle.    

Some of the sitter’s stories are happy, some lightly touched with humor, some full of yearning, and some carry a full measure of sorrow and pain. Each little bio adds to the texture of the town of Golden. And each new revelation from one of the town’s residents brings with it a reminder of Theo’s mysterious concealment of his own history. It is literally what keeps you reading. Why did this man begin this unusual project, and what was he hiding from those he befriended as well as from the reader?  What was the cross Theo was carrying?  

Theo loves the natural world and especially birds. At one point, he describes a sunset that reveals a cloud of thousands of starlings and red wings each flying “with synchronized precision, a dancing funnel, undulating in perfect union.”  This spectacle he recalls has a name. It is called a “murmuration.” The same word was used just last week in David Brooks’ NYT essay on the strange way the brain works. This swirling image of the complicated yet unifying nature of life was a new word for me and it neatly encapsulates the whole book right up to its shocking and violent conclusion.  It leaves a reminder to Theo that beauty and goodness can exist right alongside his own and others’ grief. A carried cross can be lightened by the long view that the town of Golden, in spite of the presence of evil, can still have a “prevailing goodness.”  

A definite 5 and I don’t give “A’s” out lightly.

 

 

Book Review Baker Street Jurors by Michael Robertson

 

Michael Robertson’s 2016 novel, The Baker Street Jurors, is a bit silly at times, but it has a clever premise and enough character development and wry humor to make a quick and pleasant read. A solicitor who, now happens to work at the world famous London address of 221 B Baker Street, finds himself on a murder case jury. The group is barely empaneled before some of its members begin having accidents. As the pool grows smaller, the judge and jury take a trip to the island home of the defendant, and the accidents begin to turn even more deadly. The twists now would surely have confounded even the Holmesian aphorism of “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, must be the truth, however improbable.” Some of the goings on do stretch credibility, but it’s all in good fun when Sherlock has a hand in it. There are few more titles listed on the slip cover and I think I will check for their availability at our local library.

I give it a good 4 out of 5