The luminaries

By Eleanor Catton

SOME THOUGHTS AFTER FINISHING « THE LUMINARIES »

Christine Leroy 

I have just finished reading Eleanor Catton’s “The Luminaries”.  It has taken me more than a month to get through the book, which is some 800 pages long.  I must say that it was not the easiest task.  The novel has no main characters as such, being a sort of compilation of the stories of about a dozen people whose lives converge at certain points in the narrative.  We see the same event as told from the point of view of each one of this group of people, whose paths cross during the gold rush in New Zealand in the middle of the 19^th century.

I found the plot to be very confusing at times, and I must admit I just about abandoned the book at the halfway point, but then somehow the action speeded up until the final, still confusing to me, resolution of the story.  There was also an element of astrology that was used to head up each chapter which escaped me entirely. 

Having first read a long series of comments from various reviewers that were quoted in my Kindle edition, I find I do not share their very favorable comments.  Certainly it was interesting to learn something about the gold rush in New Zealand, of which I knew nothing.  I also liked Catton’s style, which reflected the way people probably spoke at the time.  The racism toward Chinese and Maori people was also well presented.  However, I did not feel any empathy with any of the characters even though their character and psychology were described in great detail. Maybe this was because each section of the book was written from the point of view of a different person and there is no protagonist as such.  In my view, this didn’t allow me to feel sympathy towards any of them, as one might if there were more time to “spend” with the character.

I am surprised that this book received the Booker Prize.