bluestarfish 's review for:

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

5.0

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A fascinating read. The book follows roughly two storylines one dealing with the aftermath of a sex scandal at a school and one with the drama institute students appropriating the story for their end of year performance. The scenes are not quite chronological and the story slips in and out of characters who are sometimes themselves acting that it was sometimes a bit confusing but pretty much always interesting. And it's not just the narrative darting around time but also tone and style, and sometimes all on the same page. The sax teacher is almost like a Greek chorus, an intermediary between the storylines and the audience at time, but not all the time. Such a different type of book, it is great to find something different every now and then (especially when it works).