The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton

3/5 stars

I have to say that Cattons use of language is par excellence. The imagery, the descriptions, the characterization was all splendid and I doff my hat to her for the tenacity of the story and the meticulous research. However I did tend to get a little lost every now and then, not being well versed with Maori life, or the gold rush. The plot was beautiful, but a little too complex for me. But I guess that was the whole point of the novel - creating myriad strings and then tying them together. Personally I would have liked the novel to be shorter, crisper and the story to have been a little less convoluted. Overall, an entertaining read. Just a word of warning : keep a dictionary ready at hand guys, because as I mentioned, Catton's language and word usage is just simply brilliant and I personally had to consult with my dictionary several times :) Happy reading!