The Lost Symbol Review

I love the library. One, because I'm too poor to afford to buy the latest best seller and two, because the return due date pressures me to finish reading the damn book regardless of how much it's putting me to sleep.

At my sister-in-law's reccommendation, I recently finished "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. I liked it better than "The DaVinci Code" but I still believe "Angels And Demons" was Brown's best work.

"The Lost Symbol" had its page-turning moments but if it weren't for the library's deadline it probably would have taken me another three months to finish reading it. Sometimes, the story got too caught up in surprises and mysteries that at times I felt like the lost symbol.

The character that kept me going was the Japanese CIA woman. Every time she spoke, I pictured Edna Mode, the super suit designer from The Incredibles. Two feet tall, big glasses and a bob cut was how I pictured Inouye Sato - I just couldn't take her seriously and perhaps that was the goal. The other thing is, Inouye is a last name but...whatever.

And then Peter Solomon's character, I kept envisioning Philip Seymour Hoffman. If you're listening, Mr. Ron Howard - it's just a suggestion. Because Tom Hanks ruined it for me as far as the Robert Langdon character goes. I can no longer read the books without picturing the Bosom Buddy and it's just awful. Just awful. Don't get me wrong - I love Tom Hanks. He was brilliant as the Captain saving a retarded Matt Damon but as a genius symbologist saving mankind...not so much.

Overall, the story and the writing were excellent - full of suspense as only Dan Brown can deliver. If they do make a movie out of this, all I want to see is the giant squid (read the book). I was expecting more of an enrichment when it came to the nerve of the story: the incredible power our mind is capable of commanding. But Mr. Brown didn't reveal anything that hadn't already been written by Crowley or Jung or Castaneda for that matter.

In a nutshell, "The Lost Symbol" is a good workout for your mind - a.k.a. the image of God.