This title of this blog post raises an interesting question doesn’t it? What happens when a bad billionaire and a guerrilla gardening collective becomes entangled? You end up in New Zealand. You find yourself planting food in public, hidden, abandoned, and unused spaces. This is both for your own consumption and to sell organically and locally. Doing so, you aim not to promote waste. You should be prepared to be inundated by Bernie Bro politics and anti-capitalism to the extreme. You will encounter interlocking directorates among the nouveau riche. These individuals are also known as the billionaire-class-robber-barons. They are chafing elbows with fallen aristocracy. This aristocracy struggles to sustain their estates. You will spy on billionaires who are absconding with historic fallen estates. These estates are held by family members adjacent to the monarchy, way down at the end of the chain. You will mix in with a group of people striving to break through challenges. They come from the internet baby generation, also known as GenZ. They are overwhelmed with information. Their ethics are thin. They grew up with more comforts than 75% of the rest of the world. You’ll face nondisclosure agreements. You’ll experience acid trips and cultish-ness. A little bit of empty sex will come your way. It could be revenge or stress relief. However, it will never be acts of love. Oh and I forgot—you’ll be accused of manslaughter and a coverup. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton is all this and still about 100 pages too long.

Why did I read Birnam Wood? It was set in New Zealand. I haven’t been there. I’m curious to see how a story rolls out there. I also read it because I’m not a fan of the behavior of billionaires. They become a trope unto themselves. A new brand of American psychos if you will. I was curious about a gorilla gardening collective. I also wondered how and why it would intersect with a billionaire pretending to be a bunker builder or end-of-the-world-prepper. You’ll be shocked by the raw truth. The billionaire is really mining the national park. The estate sits upon this new source of rare earth minerals. While I’m not a royal watcher I was curious to see what happen when an aristocrat’s money dries up. Other reasons for reading this book include Eleanor Catton winning the Booker. This is an international literary award. She received it for her previous work titled, “The Luminaries“. Finally, let’s not forget the title, “Birnam Wood.” This title has great literary significance. It is especially relevant if one is a Shakespeare fan. I am not a fan. The title refers to an interesting discovery. Birnam Wood was similar to a Trojan horse. It tried to fall a great castle and Lord. The strategy was successful. The soldiers harvested trees and growth from the forest named Birnam Wood. They camouflaged themselves in order to invade. They aimed to befall a great castle. The lord of the castle would not surrender until Birnam Wood overtook the castle.

So what makes Birnam Wood read worthy? At the sentence level, Catton writes very long, beautiful contemplative sentences. She offers great perspective from various characters points of view for her readers. However, the book, divided into three very long parts, loses the plot. This is not a great tactic for creating tension. It fails to sustain a reader’s interest. Regardless, the inner workings I discovered regarding surveillance methods and tactics blew my mind. The book also reveals the privileges technology especially affords to very wealthy people. I was amazed by why and what an evil billionaire create exclusive access to and how they can remain invisible while doing so. The question is why do they need to surveil people? What is lacking in their character that enables them to go to great lengths to manipulate and spy on others? Catton does an excellent job answering this. Greed is the motivation for all the misdoings. Pure greed drives the advance in surveillance techniques.

On the note of character, she doesn’t go too deep on the billionaire and the Lordship in. Terms of personal histories. Catton provides more personal history on the three main protagonists. She shows readers how family origin explains their choices. These origins also clarify the obstacles that prevent them from launching in life. However, if I ever wanted to hide in the bush, I would have a great tactics after reading this book. I wanted to learn a bit about gardening and sustainability. I learned a few things from this book.

The ending felt like it went up in a flare. If you prefer a tidy ending, you will not find one in Birnam Wood. This book changed how I look at wild fires and forest fires. Someone setting them might be sending out an SOS. They might want to bring attention to what’s there, and burning is the only way. I will also wonder if ever a drone is spying on me… I’m thankful that I’m entirely uninteresting and so drone spying is unlikely in my future. I won’t be followed by them for any reason in my future.

I definitely can see Birnam Wood being adapted for some kind of Netflix or Hulu situation. I liked the calling-out of billionaires. The way of rebelling positively in the name of our Earth was nonviolent. Birnam Wood remains worth your time whether it’s all the way in New Zealand. It is also worth it on the United States soil. 3 1/2 pens 🖊️🖊️🖊️. Enjoy!