Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton

This novel of ideas doesn’t work for me. A billionaire capitalist vs. environmental activists. The billionaire is the bad guy, though he nearly convinces the activists of his good intentions. No one in this novel is particularly admirable—everyone has a weakness, or several weaknesses, or worse.  The action seems to move towards some sort of crisis but then simply falls apart, as if the writer knew she had to bring things to a close but didn’t know how. The end is laughably bad.

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