jenkepesh 's review for:

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

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This was such an interesting book for the first 3/4 or so. It devolved into a messy thriller in the last part, but before that, the setup raises a zillion interesting points. In this book, a change-the-world collective, several years into its existence, has the opportunity to significantly scale up but with the help of someone whose greenwashed corporate PR doesn't stand up well to scrutiny. The Elon Musk-ish benefactor gets to be one of the multiple perspectives of the tale; the independent journalist trying to understand him is doing so for personal as well as idealistic reasons; the collective using the most PC practices in each meeting end up being unable to agree on the simplest of principals while espousing the same beliefs. It raises so many interesting points, and if you like thrillers, the ending won't completely ruin the experience for you.