INFERNO: Seek and ye shall find

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in time of moral crisis." - Dante Alighieri 

Yesterday I finally finished reading Dan Brown's latest book, Inferno.

In Inferno, Dan Brown took us to another 24 hours journey (more or less) with the Harvard Professor and symbologist Robert Langdon. 

Robert Langdon faces a crisis. He woke up in a hospital room, completely unaware of what had happened in the last couple days. He was taken aback by the fact that he is in Florence, Italy, where he apparently had been shot in the head, and is now being chased by seemingly a professional assassin. In his Harris tweed's secret pocket he found a small tube with biohazard symbol on it, and he has no idea what and how it got there. He didn't even know he had a secret pocket on his Harris tweed! Bewildered, disoriented, and dazed, he ran away with a young female doctor, Sienna Brooks. Together they embark on a journey that will change the face of the world forever.

What I like about Inferno, and about all Dan Brown's books, is how precise, clear, and detailed his explanations about arts and history are. I know nothing about Dante's The Divine Comedy, but at the end of the book I have a quite realistic picture of what it is about. I never visit Florence or Venice or Istanbul, but by reading Inferno, I feel like I know now the places and the secrets behind those 3 cities. In a way, it's fair to be said that Inferno is a  better version of Lonely Planet. 

What's more, Dan Brown always finds a way to trick our mind. Just when we think we know what actually happened, bang! We're wrong. Inferno is a book full of twists and turns, even until the last chapter. You can guess all you want, but you're not likely to get it right. It's once again a novel full of conspiracies and extreme thoughts, which are very real. Or at least it feels real. And I believe the issue that's brought up in Inferno is real. I read it in National Geographic magazine. 

To put it in a nutshell, Dan Brown has once again created a beautiful masterpiece. Once you started reading it, you don't wanna put it down. At times I had to put it down because I needed some sleep. Nonetheless, Inferno is stuck in my head. I know it will, for quite some time until I pick up a new book to read. 

ps: I'm putting Silver Linings Playbook on hold just to read Inferno. That's how dedicated I am to Dan Brown's writings. I really really respect his knowledge and writing styles. A narratives so enthrilling that enables us to really be drown in the story. I hope I can be as good as him someday. Or maybe close enough to good, if as good is not possible.