Girls,You Have GOT To Read "The Luminaries!!!!!!!!!"

                                         This is only the second book of 2014 I have read, and I can honestly say, with assurance, it is one of the best.  Had I read it in 2013, it would have made it on to my Ten Best List, and had not Marisha Pessl's "Night Film" appeared last year, I might have named this Book Of The Year.

                                            That is how good "The Luminaries" is. At 834 pages, it is about the same length as last year's other literary blockbuster, Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch," but let me tell you--and some will be shocked!!!!--"The Luminaries has that book beat, by leaps and bounds.  Hell, it is no contest.  As I said earlier,"The Goldfinch's" story does not justify its length, and the whole section with the father and his cheap wife in Las Vegas could easily have been scrapped.  But I would not change, or alter a single word or punctuation mark of "The Luminaries;" you need it all.

                                               What is it about prostitutes?  Do you realize, girls, where literature would be, were it not for them??????  "The Luminaries" which is the closest thing in contemporary terms to a nineteenth century novel that I have read, starts with one, Anna Wetherall, found along a road, having attempted suicide.  Also found is the body of a reclusive hermit--Crosbie Wells--albeit, at home.

                                                   Then Walter Moody walks into the Crown Hotel, where community members are having a meeting about these recent happenings. And from there, the reader is off and running, because the novel is written at such a breakneck pace, the eyes keep racing to absorb every ounce of  plot, where nothing turns out to be what it seems.  I raced through "The Luminaries" like it was nobody's business; the shortest (or maybe fastest moving) 800 plus page novel I have read recently, and I came away fully satisfied.  Having never heard of Eleanor Catton before, I am going to keep an eye on her--not only for her next effort, but the one before this, "The Rehearsal."

                                                      I am telling you, while all the book critics were gushing over "The Goldfinch," they would have done better to attend to this massive blockbuster than Tartt's rambling.  Some critics did pick up on this novel's genius, but not nearly enough.  So, I am telling you, here and now to read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                       Especially for those who read very few books a year, but hence may be more selective, so those books one reads must satisfy!  Believe me, darlings, "The Luminaries" satisfies!!!!!!!!

                                                           Just perfect to curl up with, on these cold, Winter nights!  Like Wilkie Collins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!