The Luminaries

This is a book review (of sorts).

I was really excited to read the Luminaries; I always try to read the winner of the Booker Prize and this one sounded really clever.  I like a play on words.  Luminaries are people who shed light on something and also a name for celestial bodies.  I was promised a well written historical murder mystery that used 12 men to shed light on the murder interwoven with astrology. I was promised it was spectacularly well written.  Every newspaper review gave it 5 stars.

I have been trying to read this book for weeks now.  I thought I was struggling because I didn't have enough time to sit down and really get into it but it's now the Easter Holidays and I've read 250 pages and I'm thinking that by now I should be loving it.  I looked at some reviews by real people on Goodreads and found that most people gave it 5 stars and said how brilliant and clever it was and the people who gave it less than 3 stars did so apologetically, claiming to be not worthy to read the book or clever enough to understand it.  I'm not going to apologise.  There is a touch of the Emperor's New Clothes about this book.

I don't care how beautiful the writing is, if the story goes round in circles and says nothing then it shouldn't have won any prizes.  The novel is long and boring and has a questionable timeline, with 12 boring men and a whore and is set in New Zealand at the times of the gold rush. It's impossible to care about the characters or the place. The astrological references aren't woven into the story but her left hanging as chapter subtitles such as, "True Node in Virgo: in which Que Long is interrupted thrice; Charlie Frost holds his ground; and Sook Yongsheng names a suspect, to everyone's surprise"

There are astrological diagrams suggesting that each man represents a different astrological sign, which would have been quite interesting if had been expanded into the actual story but it's all implied, suggesting again, that if you don't understand you must be stupid.   

I don't think the prose is particularly beautiful either.  I find I am irritated by connection being spelt as connexion and the fear of actually writing the word 'Darn'

I should have realised when the Guardian's review says, "It's not about stories at all. It's about what happens to us when we read novels - what we think we want from them and from novels of this size. In particular is it worthwhile to spend so much time with a story that in the end isn't invested in it's characters?"

I'm not a quitter.  (I'm on level 547 of Candy Crush for goodness sake) but if this story doesn't grip me soon.  I'm going to read something else and be really cross that I wasted so much of this holiday on it.

I wrote this two days ago and I finished the book......it didn't get any better.  I'm now reading something so much better and I feel happy again.