The Luminaries

It took me SO LONG to read this book. 1 1/2 months. Very unusual for me, even for an 800 page book.

The writing style captured me from the beginning, although it was sometimes (in the first few sections) a struggle to follow the rather complex plot with so many characters. I really appreciated all the authentic New Zealand (and especially Hokitika) references - wildlife, Maori language and culture, street names, etc. since I discovered and started reading this book in Hokitika itself. However, I think many clever astrological references were lost on me. Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. This would be a great one to take apart in an English Lit. class.

Set in gold rush era New Zealand, it reminded me more than a little of the series Deadwood despite being on the other side of the world. It's brilliantly written and is very deliberate and interesting in form - structured according to astrology and the chapters flipping upside down as the book progresses. The mystery was original and unpredictable, but kinda low key.

Stunning prose, in service of a so-so mystery. Catton can invest her characters with so much definition and life with just a few turns of phrase, which kept me going despite the central plot never quite getting out of third gear.

Loved this book

I could not comprehend the astrology references or the reason(s) why the chapters halved in length over the course of the book such that, by the end, the explanatory text at the beginning of the final chapters was longer than the chapters themselves, but I guess that's what college courses are for.

It's possible one needs to find astrology interesting in order to enjoy this book (I don't). With all the praise this book has received, I was very disappointed to find it to be such a slog. It's a complicated story with many characters, told in multiple flashbacks and from differing points of view, but it lacked the ability to draw me in such that I was inspired to keep track of all of them. Whereas in other novels of similar length and complexity, I find myself keeping notes or a character list to ensure I am following the action properly, I repeatedly found myself a little lost but just pushing through and assuming I'd figure it out -- I didn't care enough to backtrack. Ultimately I found this book very disappointing.

Well, a few months later, I have finally finished this one. I have to say, I enjoyed reading it. I mean the words, the sentences, it was just really good to read, just lovely language and all that.

But then, my rating is bumped down a few notches because at the end, I feel like I barely understand what happened in the book or have much understanding of the (vast) cast of characters. Some of that is probably deliberately unresolved and unexplained but lots of it I feel like I would have to go back and and reread parts of it four or five times to figure it out.

At the end of the day, I liked it but it doesn't seem like it is worth that much trouble to figure it all out, so I'll just have to live with the mysteries.

One of the main reasons I read is to be entertained. This book, after a somewhat difficult and convoluted beginning, is without a doubt, very entertaining. There are many complaints about this book, the whole astrological schtick, the show don't tell critique, the halved chapters etc... And I have to agree with them somewhat. But the fact remains this is a good story, filled with great characters, intrigue, betrayals, blackmail, GOLD!!! It will not fail to keep you wanting to find out the truth, to keep you reading and guessing. I quite liked it.

No wonder she won the Booker. How did she organise such complexity so well?

A long read, but one that gets more and more engrossing as it goes, creating a wonderfully rich story.