Before I Go to Sleep

Billed as a worldwide best-seller, Before I Go to Sleep had a lot to live up to. I was curious to understand why this book was so over-hyped and why it was considered to be worth developing as a film. The high concept amnesia plot element must have made it sufficiently commercial to warrant the attention of the film industry, but Memento it is not.

I was unable to suspend my disbelief at the plot flaws (of which there are many). It does rather insult the reader’s intelligence, especially those in the UK where the book is set. In other countries where you have to pay for healthcare, I suppose a former patient like Christine could get lost in the system, but in Britain we have the NHS. For a start, nobody leaving a secure unit would be discharged without an identity check on the caregiver: there would be a series of follow-ups and the patient’s GP would be integral to that care. Christine’s psychiatrist, Dr Nash displays a worrying lack of professionalism that at times made me want to give up on the book.

Christine is, of course, an unreliable narrator by the nature of her condition and we only see the other characters through her eyes. Someone that self-absorbed has no way to make light of her situation and although I felt sorry for her situation she didn’t really engage me as a character. I also found the amount of repetition tedious. Although billed as a psychological thriller, the middle section of the book lacked sufficient plot twists and turns and the only thrilling element kicked in at the end.

Not a bad effort for a first novel, but I’m still left scratching my head as to why this book gained so much attention. I received a free copy as part of the film tie-in promotion.

The Luminaries – It’s All in the Stars

The Luminaries – set in the era of the New Zealand gold rush is a great sprawling epic of a murder mystery, written by a dazzlingly talented, contemporary writer in the style of a Victorian novel.

I had a vested interest in finishing this book as Catton is writing about the history of the country I grew up in, a country that was settled by immigrants to a New World of which I (and the author) was one.

There is so much to admire in this hugely ambitious book, not least the complex structure. As the astrology is the key to understanding the overall circular structure, each of the twelve parts is prefaced by an astrological chart. At at the start of the book a character chart highlights the personality types in each sign of the zodiac. Then there is the interplay between the astrological chart with its twelve signs of the zodiac and the structure of the twelve parts themselves. Each one is half the length of the preceding one until the last chapter is barely more than a few paragraphs long.

The Luminaries is beautifully written and Catton has a sly sense of humour, particularly in her use of language that mimics the style of Wilkie Collins and Dickens. However, where Catton and Dickens do differ is in terms of characterisation. I was determined to finish this book, but by the time I’d read 75% of the book my favourite character had been killed off. And I realised that even by this late stage of the book I had very little emotional connection to the remaining characters. There were one or two I felt sorry for, but that’s different from actively wanting to find out what happens to them.

And then I had a moment of realisation as I thought about that circular structure. That must mean then that there wasn’t necessarily going to be a resolution. It turned out that I was right as I and many other readers were left with many unanswered questions. This, of course, may have been intentional. I’m afraid though that because I invested so much time reading this book, this unfinished business left me feeling rather let down. I did push on and finish it but didn’t feel at all moved by the end or indeed did I take away any deep or lasting themes.

Although I suspect this book, which has won a host of literary awards, will go on to be studied as an example of A Great New Zealand Novel, for me it was a four star rather than a five star read.