emma_hughes_ 's review for:

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

4.0

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this was awful in that it wasn’t at all pleasant, but it was definitely A Good Book™. the characters are well-written, if annoyingly self-aware, and the plot starts slow but quickly becomes relentless. it made me think of Dostoyevsky with the long social commentary monologues the characters would sometimes embark on (which, again like Dostoyevsky, readers in 200 years will need some serious context clues to understand). interestingly, secular writers (who in this day & age tend to claim humans are fundamentally good) often expose the evil in even the best-intentioned human hearts through books like these. while there are plenty of political explorations, this book is fundamentally about humans - our motives, our foibles, our pride and our struggles; how we interact with those who mistreat us, get in our way, or simply don’t take us seriously. I can’t say I would want to read it again, but I am glad I read it.