snoakes7001 's review for:

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

4.0

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Where do you start with this one? The central theme of the story is the aftermath of a relationship between a 31 year old teacher and a 15 year old schoolgirl. We learn about this in a second hand way, via a saxophone teacher and her pupils who attend the same school and one of whom is the sister of the girl involved. The first year of the local drama school is putting on a play and decide to take this local news story as their theme and this makes up the second strand and over time these two strands start to converge. But right from the very first page the saxophone teachers voice is too arch, too knowing - as indeed are some of her pupils. Eventually you realise there is a play within a play and you're never sure who's real and who's playing a part. I enjoyed the first three quarters or so of it, but by the end the ambiguity just overwhelmed me. I'm glad I read The Luminaries first because this might have put me off a little.