Book Thoughts: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Cotton

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

1. Subject/Plot: The story is set in New Zealand centered around a "guerilla gardening group" - the group, calling themselves Birnam Wood, is a collective who seeks to plant and grow food on other's land and public land, usually without permission. Their mission has been muddling along when its founder, Mira Bunting, encounters billionaire Robert Lemoine who makes an offer to fund Birnam Wood. The tension between the group's values and the capitalism of Lemoine, coupled with the questionable legality of their actions (as well as Lemoine's) makes for a compelling story. The story focuses on Bunting, Lemoine, other Birnam Wood members of significance Shelley Noakes and Tony Gallo, and property owners and newly knighted Sir Owen Darvish and his wife Jill.

2. Writing: I read Catton's "The Luminaries" several years ago and really liked it, and her writing her reminds of her writing there. She conveys so much with the characters and their dialogues - it feels both natural and illuminating to understanding the story. These characters, because of how Catton writes, become three-dimensional, and allows the reader to like or dislike them, to feel as you have enough of a relationship with them to render an opinion on their likability. Just really good.

3. Pace: Often a book the delves into a character backgrounds to some extent, let alone 5 or 6 such as this book, makes the book a slower pace to read (which is fine, for what it is). This book manages to do those examinations while maintaining a compulsive readability to its story.

4. Final Thought: I really enjoyed reading this - its the type of book I often describe as being the type that reminds you why you love reading so much. It transported me, I constantly wanted to pick it up and keep on reading. So, so good.

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