Photo: Dan Courtier
Written by Dan Brown
Even author Dan Brown himself can’t top his famous novel, The Da Vinci Code. How can you possibly come up with something better than a novel that claims to prove that Jesus Christ had children and the latest of his blood line is alive and well in France?
So you can’t actually expect Brown’s latest novel, Inferno, to be as exciting as Da Vinci. Once you accept that reality, you’ll appreciate Inferno for what it is—a clever thriller that uses clues from ancient art, architecture and poetry to prevent a modern-day global catastrophe.
With worldwide overpopulation threatening to destroy everything, would you kill off half the world’s population in order to save our species? That’s the main question of Inferno, told in a relentless race against the clock, with a cast of characters who face death at every decision, and a super-spectacular climax that Hollywood must be drooling to put on the big screen.
Along the way, Dante fanatics and WHO, the World Health Organization, battle for the future of the planet, while a Mickey Mouse watch, a broken amulet, a baptismal font, the Black Death, the Seven Sins, and an upside down head of Medusa take their place in the speeding plot.
“Would you kill off half the world’s population in order to save our species?”
Our hero is Indiana Jones in a tweed jacket, Robert Langdon, PhD, a Harvard professor of art—who also happens to be a professor of symbology, which isn’t even a word, but Brown uses it as a substitute for iconography and makes symbology a highly honored academic study.
Dr. Langdon finds himself waking up in a hospital room in Florence, Italy. It seems someone put a bullet in his head, causing severe short-term amnesia. A convenient plot device, since it keeps him on edge for much of the novel. A mysterious genius medical doctor, who also happens to be a brilliant linguist as well as a terrific actress, Sienna Brooks, is taking care of him.
Suddenly an assassin charges into the room and shoots dead the other physician and Sienna grabs Langdon’s jacket and flees with him on the back of a motorcycle through the streets of Florence. They end up at her spare apartment where Langdon calls the American consulate, only to learn he’s triggered assassination attempts on himself.
What’s going on? How did he end up in Florence? Why are people, including his own government, trying to kill him? What’s the truth about the mathematics in the overpopulation issue? Who is the older silver-haired woman who haunts Landgon’s muddled memories? And why is the beautiful Dr. Brooks completely bald under her blonde wig?
All will be revealed in time, with one deception after another, plenty of dangerous derring-do, and most interesting, lots of hard won clues from The Divine Comedy and the fascinating art and architecture that surrounded his life and legacy. From Florence to Venice and on to Istanbul and the fabulous Hagia Sophia church/mosque/.museum, Langdon and Brooks try to find the horrible plague virus that a Swiss billionaire scientist has let loose upon the world.
Don’t try to figure out the logic of this story. There isn’t any. Nor is there any good writing. Inferno is just as prosaically written as The Da Vinci Code. Who cares? You’re not reading Dan Brown for literary style, you’re reading him for a pulse-thumping story and you get that. If you read the book on audio as I did, you also get a compelling narrator who’s facile with the mellifluous Italian excerpts.
If you want a thriller with literary style, then go to Oslo writer Jo Nesbro (The Snowman) or anything written by Americans Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island) and Harlan Coben (Tell No One). Or try Helene Wecker’s fantastical debut novel, The Golem and the Jinnie.
There are several tangential benefits of Inferno. It serves as an accessible introduction to poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and does indeed inspire you to seek out The Divine Comedy. The novel also inspires closer looks at the art and architecture of Florence, Venice, and Instanbul, especially the incredible underground areas of the famous Hagia Sophia.
Recommendation
If I had more time to spend on this novel, I would have done research before I’d read it. Definitely learned more about Dante and his time and Renaissance art, as well as the architecture of the three cities.
Brown does a yeoman’s job in describing the various architectural structures, but having visual images of them would have added immensely to my enjoyment of the book. The internet is full of visual accompaniments to the book, I discovered later, so enjoy searching.
Inferno, written by Dan Brown, narrated by Paul Michael. Random House Audio (2013), 17 hours, 14 CDs.
