2nd Attempt at Analysis: The Rule of Four

First of all, I just have to add my own personal opinion on the book. From the summary it sounds like a high paced mystery/thriller novel. And from the way they mention murders and broken up families, it seems as if there is a secret organization that goes around destroying the lives of anyone who works with this book. However, that is not the case. The "destroying" comes from dedicating too much time and pride into solving a book/mystery. It's the suffering that comes from obsessing over one thing, which possibly is one of the themes of the book.

Like I mentioned before, though there is a murder in the novel, the focus of the book is on the past and on solving the riddles. In some sense, this book is more "realistic" than other ones like the DaVinci code or Angels and Demons. It is set in a college campus and most of the stress and craze in the plot has to do with relationships, plagerism, obsessions, and friendships. The "danger" level is kept at a minimum in comparison to other books.

Ok. Danger = Second plot of the story. The first plot of the story is the solving of the puzzles and mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

Danger: The only bits of danger in this book are the initial murder, then the bursting of the steam pipe, the burning of "I forgot the name of the eating house" and the murder of another professor at the end of the book. Oh, and the initial murder centuries ago - that was a very "brown-ish" start.

I have to be critical here. The murders/thriller aspects of the book are quite a bit disconnected from the general plot at times. This books shifts a lot from present to past, to way long gone past, but the focus is on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.

Ok.. so I forgot the real initial murder. It wasn't of a grad student, but of a messenger that openned and read mail he wasn't supposed to. This took place in the 1500's/before. They were killed for exposing the secret, making it seem like there was a secret organization that would execute people in the future for going too deep into the story/secret. But, that, is completely false. There is no secret organization. In fact, the author of the book, though guarded and secretative, wants the secret to be found out eventually. Though it brings with it the appeal of history, it is a book set in teh present and not past.

The second murder in the story seems like it could possibly be following that of teh initial one and it does add and create a "mystery"/"thriller"/scary atmosphere, however it doesn't completely work nor does it add as much to the plot and story because there is no clear reason for the murder. It is clear that there is no secret organization. In fact the only destruction it causes is from obsession over it. Even more limiting, the "book that has shattered careers, friendships and families", has only shattered families and etc. within "Tom Sullivan", the main characters family and friends. What I mean is this book only covers the life of Tom Sullivan and his college friends and his dad and his friends. That's a pretty limited scope for being a book that has "shattered" so much. It's mainly Tom that has suffered the most.

After that second murder within, what the first 50 pages of the book, there is relativiely no danger until the end of the book. Yes, one of the characters gets burned and that's horrific, but that was purely by accident. It seemed more distracting to the plot then anything else, because it was almost random. I think it's kind of random because at this point of the book, the focus is more on solving the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, then it is on thier present situation...

It's not until the end of the book does the idea of "mortal danger" starts. We find another murder, and find the murderer and then there is a fire which threaten's their lives. This makes everything more climatic- but that's about it.

The real climax of the book has already passed at this point, that's why. The climax was solving that final missing puzzle - The Rule of Four. I'll address that in a later post. That's it for this for now.