It is a marketing misjustice of sorts (or perhaps not in terms of sales) to compare "The Rule of Four" to Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" and Donna Tartt's "Secret History". Those readers expecting Brown's page-turning assured puzzle solving hero, easily reducing age-old mysteries encrypted within easily recognizable masterpieces to child's play while single-handedly fending off adversaries trained to disseminate the likes of the Terminator, will most definitely be disappointed in scholarly Tom, his adjunct Paul, political Gil and duty-bound Charley. Similarly, the "four" Princeton tradition entrenched students depicted within the pages of "the Rule of Four" have little in common with the elite Latin scholars experimenting with authority and the Dionysian mysteries gone wrong in Tartt's "Secret History". Granted, a whiff of a historical conspiracy locked within the scholar-stumping word games of an obscure Renaissance text and murder committed on an elite university campus does call to mind these two novels, but that is where the similarity ends. The Rule of Four is in a genre all its own and should be explored for its own merit. Its themes of friendship, father/son expectations and loyalties and the formation of guiltless self-identity are far more essential to the novel than thrill-a-minute murders tempered with mainstream pleasing conspiracy theories and climatic Indiana Jones genre revelations. The novel's epiphany is a private one rather than one that will shake world beliefs.
Tom stands alone in the shadow cast by his late father, a scholar whose obsession with hidden 500 year old messages supposedly buried within the text of the Hypnerotomachia, may or may not have cost him his life and reputation. His friend and roommate, Paul, sponsored by two of Tom's father's colleagues(2 of an earlier group of four), thinks he has discovered the key to the book's cipher and enlists Tom's aid in the Herculean task that ironically becomes as important to Tom as it once was to his father. As Tom fights his losing battle, succumbing to the power of the unsolved mystery, he simultaneously attempts to escape its grasp while still validating his father's life and discovering his own.
As the book yields its secrets, old rivalries and jealousies surface and complex relationships form between all those whom the Hypnerotomachia has touched. The reader will not be surprised when murder taints the lives of these undergraduates in their last months of senior year. Suspicions rise proportionately to the lengths friends and lovers, apprentices and mentors go to safeguard their own private agendas with regard to the treasures, real and imagined, awarded by the book.
A pristine snow-swept campus struggling to move forward into spring's time of renewal, provides an apt backdrop suggesting the angst of the characters as they move from the stage of college life into the real world. Caldwell and Thomason do a fine job of depicting the sheltered Princetonian world replete with tony traditions that students embrace rather than revolt against. Main character Tom, waxes philosophical in pretty metaphors that capture his confusion and fatalism, while Paul, the novel's rudder, steers strongly and firmly with never flailing beliefs that eventually carry through to all four of the roommates as they leave the safety of academic life. The Rule of Four, the coded directions supplied by the book to uncover its earthly treasure, acts as a larger metaphor that ironically points out that in the long run, your final destination is not all that far away from your original point.
If you are looking for a few days respite on a snow-covered campus awash with centuries old conundrums and want to meet some dedicated young men and women looking for glimpses of themselves in the past to shed new light on the future, give this book a shot. Not a beach read, by any means, it will satisfy your puzzle-solving needs, but don't look for page after page of "Wow, I should have thought of that" satisfactions. There are only 4 big riddles uncovered by Paul and Tom in the Hypnerotaomachia--only one of which I could vaguely guess at. The heart of the novel is one of self definition---the past and present meld together for hope in the future.
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Dull, Drab and AwfulThis was a good idea for a book, but it was very poorly written. The effect of this unfortunate combination is a boring book not worth the trouble of reading. I wish that I would have done what others reviews did and stopped after 50 pages.There are insipid chase scenes devoid of suspense; feigned scholarly discussions that are lacking insight or purpose and a pointless central mystery plot with no hint of cleverness. The characters are shallow, dull, uninteresting, boring, lifeless and just plain drab and awful. While in some professions these attributes might be considered an asset; in a modern mystery novel they are in fact a real detriment. None of the principal players are at all interesting. The four main characters are not at all likeable and I couldn't sympathize with any of them on any level. Count yourself as lucky if you have none of these manikins for friends.The historic references to the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" are the only bright spots in this pathetic waste of a book. The reader will have to force himself through a sluggish plot with boring characters and a slow pace to learn a little about this renaissance love story. There is a modern translation of the original book in question. I wish that I would have read the modern English translation of the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" (see: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream) and never heard of "The Rule of Four".I have the feeling that "The Rule of Four" is for an early adolescent audience while the serious books are left for the grown-ups.On the positive side, the cover of the book is a very pretty shade of red.
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Uday Prabhu
fascinating and gripping narrative
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on June 13, 2023
