The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton
Award: Booker Winner 2013
Nomination: Dublin Longlist 2015, Women's Prize Longlist 2014
Date Read: October 10, 2019
I am currently also reading Cloud Atlas and the first chapter is eerily similar to The Luminaries. Set in the New Zealand gold rush, each character is uniquely drafted based upon a sign of the Zodiac or heavenly bodies in the solar system. This practically translates to a cast of characters that are not only interdependent but interrelated as a sorted story begins to unfold, centering on the death of one Crosbie Wells.
While I embarrassingly feel this novel just went on and on, I can't help but marvel at how Catton told such an intricate story with such depth of character. My wonder, however, started to dwindle around page 600. With all the trappings of a great mystery - tainted opium, secret letters, long-lost siblings, adultery, murder, gold with unknown origins, a half-burned bequest - I felt this novel dragged on longer than necessary. More importantly, I never connected to any of these characters, therefore, never fully cared what happened to any of them. The pay-off, in the end, just didn't seem worth it.
Of course, all of this is easy for me to criticize from my armchair. Could I create this world out of thin air like Catton did? Hell no. The main thrust of this novel for which Catton has been overly praised is her modeling each character on a sign of the Zodiac, yet this could never have been pointed out to me and I would have been none the wiser. Perhaps it was more fun for her as a mental exercise, yet the practical application for the reader was opaque at best.
Date Read: October 10, 2019
I am currently also reading Cloud Atlas and the first chapter is eerily similar to The Luminaries. Set in the New Zealand gold rush, each character is uniquely drafted based upon a sign of the Zodiac or heavenly bodies in the solar system. This practically translates to a cast of characters that are not only interdependent but interrelated as a sorted story begins to unfold, centering on the death of one Crosbie Wells.
While I embarrassingly feel this novel just went on and on, I can't help but marvel at how Catton told such an intricate story with such depth of character. My wonder, however, started to dwindle around page 600. With all the trappings of a great mystery - tainted opium, secret letters, long-lost siblings, adultery, murder, gold with unknown origins, a half-burned bequest - I felt this novel dragged on longer than necessary. More importantly, I never connected to any of these characters, therefore, never fully cared what happened to any of them. The pay-off, in the end, just didn't seem worth it.
Of course, all of this is easy for me to criticize from my armchair. Could I create this world out of thin air like Catton did? Hell no. The main thrust of this novel for which Catton has been overly praised is her modeling each character on a sign of the Zodiac, yet this could never have been pointed out to me and I would have been none the wiser. Perhaps it was more fun for her as a mental exercise, yet the practical application for the reader was opaque at best.
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