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A review by matthewcpeck
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
4.0
'The Luminaries' has a cover, title, heft, and Man Booker badge that make it look cerebral. But Eleanor Catton's book is an accessible, rollicking fun read. The plot is insanely complex: a string of mysterious events in Hokitika, New Zealand during that country's 1860s gold rush, involving a teeming cast of prostitutes and criminals and bankers and Chinese people and their increasingly tangled attempts to solve those mysteries.
Catton has produced a wild blend: a mystery novel; a mammoth 19th-century stylistic homage like 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'; an intriguing exploration of a rarely-documented place and time; a metaphysical/supernatural fable; and a formal experiment. As for that final category, 'The Luminaries' is divided by sections heralded by zodiacal charts, and these are further divided by chapters with esoteric/occult titles ('Moon in Aries', 'The Greater Malefic', etc.). I'll admit that I'm altogether too (willfully) ignorant of the horoscope to fully grasp whatever Catton was doing here, but I marveled at the innovative structure and timeline. The book begins with a section that's a 362-page book in itself, then continues with sections and chapters that become gradually shorter and shorter until they're impressionistic - and the little Victorian-style 'In Which So-and-so does this' chapter headings become, hilariously, longer than the actual chapters.
I didn't flat-out love that first section of the book, which seems to consist almost entirely of drawing-room conversations between men drinking brandy and smoking cigars. But the plot really kicks into high gear around the halfway point, and somehow Catton ties every loose end together, in a jaw-dropping use of storytelling mechanics and logical character behavior that reminded me, oddly, of 'Breaking Bad'.
If you can get through that initial section, 'The Luminaries' is pretty fantastic. I read the hardcover, but I would recommend an e-book version, if possible - avoid the 2.6 lb weight while taking advantage of the ability to search the book to keep track of characters and places.
Catton has produced a wild blend: a mystery novel; a mammoth 19th-century stylistic homage like 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'; an intriguing exploration of a rarely-documented place and time; a metaphysical/supernatural fable; and a formal experiment. As for that final category, 'The Luminaries' is divided by sections heralded by zodiacal charts, and these are further divided by chapters with esoteric/occult titles ('Moon in Aries', 'The Greater Malefic', etc.). I'll admit that I'm altogether too (willfully) ignorant of the horoscope to fully grasp whatever Catton was doing here, but I marveled at the innovative structure and timeline. The book begins with a section that's a 362-page book in itself, then continues with sections and chapters that become gradually shorter and shorter until they're impressionistic - and the little Victorian-style 'In Which So-and-so does this' chapter headings become, hilariously, longer than the actual chapters.
I didn't flat-out love that first section of the book, which seems to consist almost entirely of drawing-room conversations between men drinking brandy and smoking cigars. But the plot really kicks into high gear around the halfway point, and somehow Catton ties every loose end together, in a jaw-dropping use of storytelling mechanics and logical character behavior that reminded me, oddly, of 'Breaking Bad'.
If you can get through that initial section, 'The Luminaries' is pretty fantastic. I read the hardcover, but I would recommend an e-book version, if possible - avoid the 2.6 lb weight while taking advantage of the ability to search the book to keep track of characters and places.