This page represents only my own views, and not those of any university or other body. Posted Friday 13th February 2015 at 5.35pm The Luminaries I've just finished reading the Luminaries, a book by Eleanor Catton which won the Booker prize in 2013 (I got the book for Christmas in 2013, but it's 828 pages long so it took a while to get around to reading it). The first half was ok. The book never uses one word where 100 will do, but the story was intriguing enough to pique my interest. The second half was just disappointing. This review sums things up pretty well. Catton never shows, she tells, wagging on in the most officious way. She has a particularly dismaying habit of telling us what the characteristics of every personage are, before then making them conform to them, a sure-fire way of killing any curiosity. Return to blog Comments Write a new comment: Your name: Your comment: Home               |               Research               |               Teaching               |               Personal               |               Links