Review - Inferno by Dan Brown

Title: Inferno
Author: Dan Brown

As I understand it, Dan Brown hit it big with The DaVinci Code.  I loved the movie, but I never read the novel.  He followed it up with Angels and Demons.  Again, I enjoyed the film, but never read the book.  My wife has read both of these, as well as The Lost Sign and Inferno -- all novels with Robert Langdon, a famed professor who studies art, history, symbols and the relationships among them.

She was reading Inferno on our recent trip, so when she finished reading, and I had finished reading Pope Joan, I decided to finally read a Dan Brown story before the story comes to the screen.

As suggested by the title, the key work of art involved in this Dan Brown story is Dante's Divine Comedy, the first third of which - Inferno - describes Dante's trip through Hell. Dante's literary work has inspired many other art pieces, and Botticelli's "Map of Hell" is chief among these for this story.

But it takes a while to get to any of this.  Why?  Because as the book opens, our hero is in a hospital with amnesia.  The last thing he remembers, he was in the United States.  Now, he's in Italy, and it's a couple days later.  Should I have put a spoiler here?  Nah, I don't think so.  It happens in the first pages of the book, and this fact drives most of the book.

So, from the first, Langdon is immersed in a mystery, and soon that mystery has life and death consequences.  Brown's style is to write very short chapters, most of which end in a revelation and/or a cliff-hanger.  It makes for a page-turner, and it's fun.  There are twists.  There are reversals.  There is a sense of urgency.  And, whether you intend to or not, you will learn something about the art and geography of Italy.

So, yeah, if you like mysteries, you should like this.  And, of course, if you like Dan Brown's prior books, I think you'll like it.

Are you sensing that I am not entirely in love with the book?  You're right.  Don't get me wrong -- I had fun, and I'm glad I read it.  But.

Some of the surprises in the book were extraordinary, but they were made possible only because of the author "cheating," in my opinion.  The story is told from inside the heads of several characters.  But many of the revelations are only possible because Brown restricts the information he provides from inside those minds.   If the story had been told in third person, and we only heard the carefully chosen words spoken among people who are trying to keep secrets, then I'm fine.  But to put me inside someone's head and have them hide obvious facts from me?  It gave me a surprise, but it made me say "no fair."

In a related criticism, the motivations of the characters seems to make sense at the time you're reading about them, but after some of the twists and turns, it's not clear that the characters have been acting consistently with their ultimate motivations.  And, as my good friend Mike Hacker says: "The audience/reader can accept almost anything if it's motivated." 

And yet, from a fun fiction point of view I would have been OK with all of the above, if the ending hadn't disappointed.  But it did.  I can't explain without spoiling things, but the ending fizzled for me.

On the positive side, the novel did at least try to address a very important world issue.  And so, when all is said and done, I enjoyed the experience of reading the book.

If you're looking for a classic, this is not it.  If you're looking for some fast-paced fun, which also makes you think, you will probably enjoy it.

Me?  I'm happy to hear that Sherry thinks this is the least of the four Dan Brown "Robert Langdon" books she has read.  It gives me hope that I will enjoy The Lost Sign.  Which, I think, is next on my reading list.