The Luminaries

I didn't love this novel. I liked it well enough and can see why it got the attention of the Man Booker committee: it's ambitious, it's novel, it is put together in a very conscious, artistic way. But the stellar architecture struck me as unnecessary. I am not sure the constraints dictated by Catton's chosen structure enhanced the book, either in purely artistic terms or in terms of my reading pleasure. And the speed of the ending, the way the chapters veritably run up into one another, after such a very very slow opening to the novel, leaves the reader feeling. . . . a bit adrift.
As far as a sense for the NZ goldrush, though, and the era and place–that was truly remarkable.