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.