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A review by cpjlisinski
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The kind of book you describe as “provocative” and mean it as a compliment.
Beyond the thematic weight, what a tremendous act of writing — a misdirection, where you don’t see how the parallel plots fit until they clatter together dramatically.
She pulls off a trick I don’t know that I’ve seen before: an unreliable third-person narrator. Characters sometimes play out entire scenes that are, in fact, all imagined by someone else.
It makes me irrationally angry Catton published something this confident, this daring, as a master’s thesis at 23.
Beyond the thematic weight, what a tremendous act of writing — a misdirection, where you don’t see how the parallel plots fit until they clatter together dramatically.
She pulls off a trick I don’t know that I’ve seen before: an unreliable third-person narrator. Characters sometimes play out entire scenes that are, in fact, all imagined by someone else.
It makes me irrationally angry Catton published something this confident, this daring, as a master’s thesis at 23.