The Rule of Four

The Rule of Four (Dial Press; $24) by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason is a dizzyingly intelligent mystery that has a real life encoded 15th century rare text, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, at it’s core. The premise is simple – a brainy Princeton senior has spent much of his teen years researching the myseries held within a 15th century document – and he’s determined to solve the riddle in time to finish his senior thesis and graduate on time.

Four Princeton roommates Tom Sullivan, Paul Harris, Charlie Freeman and Gil Rankin have been working as an on-again, off-again team to solve the riddle of a manuscript. Tom, the narrator, is the son of a Renaissance scholar who spent his life studying the ancient manuscript and it is no coincidence that Paul, the senior who is basing his thesis (and graduation from Princeton) on solving the siren’s song of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, is at Princeton as Tom’s roommate. Tom and Paul have a tortured, tense but true friendship as they are both individually and mutually sucked into the haunting allure of the mysteries of the Renaissance.

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, recent graduates of the ivy-lined walls of Princeton, are incredibly facile first time writers. The Rule of Four is not a simple read – there is an immense amount of information packed into its tight 384 pages – but it is a compulsive one. There are so many false starts – or ends – to the big that you find yourself just needing to race ahead to the next conclusion and, as a result, submitting even more to the siren’s song. The Rule of Four is a siren’s song of a book. It’s maddening and frustrating and dense and erudite and so subtle in revealing itself. The very fine mystery found within the Renassaince based manuscript is helped along by a very modern-day mystery caused by intellectual greed and a sheer desire to be an intellectual superior that unfortunately leaves a wake of baseless and stupid violence and death.

The Rule of Four is one of the smartest and intellectual mysteries I’ve read in a long time. It was compulsively readable and totally engrossing. And … if you’re a Princeton graduate or know of one, this is a must read.

Comments

[Kim]

illegal use of apostrophe

it's = it + is