Eleanor Catton is not just the youngest ever Booker winner (in this infantilised era, 28 is literary babydom) but her novel is also the longest, at 832 pages pipping the mighty Wolf Hall. Her conceit of making the characters conform to astrological rules and planetary movements is not just a bit of happy scaffolding but central to the novel’s plan: horoscope charts are interleaved between chapters and sections have headings such as “Moon in Taurus, Waxing” and “Saturn in Libra”. The sections get shorter and shorter as the book progresses; like the starry skies, it is to be a revolving narrative. All of these tricks seem designed more to dazzle than enlighten, and will no doubt keep English dons in work for decades.The book opens dramatically enough in January
21 November 2013, The Tablet
The Luminaries
All that glisters
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