The Last Symbol - Where ???

While writing this, I re-read my own piece written about two years back. I didn’t mention it here to highlight how much I like (d) Dan Brown’s novels, but to set the kind of expectation I had from his latest novel ‘The Last Symbol’. Neither am I going to do a review of the book, as that is the job of the scholarly nit-pickers.

But I must tell you, reading an eagerly waited novel, as watching a highly anticipated movie, is a tough job. More often, the exercise fails as has happened with me umpteenth times. The Last Symbol wasn’t such a damp squib, but it wasn’t a lighter of awe either. After the onslaught of so many historic thrillers in the aftermath of Da Vinci Code, you have to gauge in these terms: What different does this novel give to me? Does it tell different things or tell things differently? I couldn’t excite myself totally on either front.

Unlike other novels of his, it was a slow starter. Robert Langdon was grilled so badly by the CIA head that he hardly looked a hero. How often have we seen him running away from the authorities, as in Paris? The story did pick up though with the unraveling of the villain, Malakh’s story. How his translation happened was a different chapter from the all mystic stuff of the Masons going around in the novel. I also enjoyed the depiction of Washington DC in full glory, as I have visited DC very recently, and the images of White House, Capitol Hill, the Smithsonian Museums are still vivid in my mind. The story had a grand culmination on page 447 (sorry for the spoiler and don’t turn to that page if you haven’t read the novel fully). Somewhere I had read that, the secret that was voted the greatest in a movie was in ‘Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi’ when Darth Vader says to Luke ….. Hope you can fill in the rest. I had the same kind of great-secret-unfolding excitement while reading that page. Actually I am giving a clue (or symbol) here what that secret could be. Think!

Even after that 50 odd pages were there in the novel. I was riveted expecting some brilliant ending. But it slithered to a very odd and general ending. On hindsight, the ending looked a well-chosen and probably the only available one, but it lacked the drama it should have. All in all, a good read (7 out of 10 by me) and a must read. But be within the boundaries of your expectations. Dan Brown can’t dish out Da Vinci Code every now and then. Times are different now, and so are our likings.