Amanda Svensson

Well, this was a first, I've never read anything set on Easter Island before!

A System so Magnificent it is Blinding is a chunkster of a novel by Swedish author Amanda Svensson. It's a family saga of sorts, tracing the lives of triplets Sebastian, Clara and Matilda Isaksson as they come to terms with The Family Secret, revealed to them by their mother in the wake of their father's disappearance. The novel begins with a sparkling introduction to Sebastian, who is a somewhat stolid young man show more working in a research institute in London — where he (like everyone else) has no idea about what they are actually researching. Sebastian's defining characteristic is Not Getting Involved, so he ignores all the communications he receives from his mother and his siblings, and fends off attention from females including Jennifer Travis who might, or might not, fancy him. It's hard to tell, especially because this first part of the novel is often so amusing. He does eventually succumb to one of his research subjects, but I shall say no more about that...

The next part takes a much darker tone. It brings us to Clara, a journalist who's just lost her job and under the misapprehension that a story about Easter Island might launch her freelance career, has travelled there.

Here I must insert the baggage that I brought to this part of the story. My knowledge of Easter Island is confined to a mental image of its monumental statues called moai, and — from my reading of Jared Diamond's bestseller Collapse (2005) — my understanding of the environmental lesson that derives from their existence. The moai, created by the inhabitants of Easter Island during the 13th–16th centuries, were included by Diamond as an example of a society which willfully chose to ignore the signs of impending doom and went on destroying their environment in order to build their statues so that eventually they destroyed their society altogether. Diamond's theory is contested, but that hasn't altered my mental image of Easter Island — I imagine it as a bleak landscape dotted about with a lot of statues.

Easter Island statues (Wikipedia)

If Svensson's story is to be believed, the bleak landscape part is correct, but now Easter Island is a tourist destination, with campsites, hotels good and bad, and some beautiful beaches. It's the setting for Svensson's characters to pursue their part in the intricacies of the plot, which gets messier by the page. Nevertheless, for me, Svensson's light-hearted humour was not enough to dispel the sense of existential doom that troubles us all. The planet is in a terrible state, and Easter Island is a portent of what might lie ahead. Tourism there, with all the carbon emissions that such tourism entails (unless it's offset, which is what I do when I fly), is a reminder that people like the character Clara who purport to care, won't forego making unnecessary flights around the planet. (She flies there twice in the course of the novel.) I read Collapse all those years ago so that I would be an informed citizen, much good it did me. I found myself reading this part of Svensson's novel feeling as her characters do: depressed and hopeless.

Ok, off my soapbox...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/09/06/a-system-so-magnificent-it-is-blinding-by-am... show less

This is an unusual novel about new and interesting subjects, which is good. I enjoy reading something different. Triplets, now grown up and living in different parts of the world share the story. Sebastian is a neuroscientist working in a mysterious institution in London. He meets the beautiful Laura who can only see in two dimensions and works with a fellow scientist, Travis. He also cares for the Very Moral Monkey, a wonderful character. Clara travels to Easter Island and back and there show more again and back (despite apparently having no money!) She joins a cult/not cult and meets a famous actor. Matilda has synesthesia and is struggling with so much summer blue at a Scandinavian lakeside lodge. Their mother throws a curve ball at the three of them and a muddle ensues. The novel is enjoyable and funny and quirky but, for me, way too long at 527 pages and I wanted it to be tighter but I am sure the rambling nature is a metaphor for the way a brain works, or something. show less

Mycket trevlig och snabb läsning. Handlingen är koncis och flytande men djupet som boken verkar sträva efter saknas det fortfarande lite av.

Beskrivningarna känns klyschiga men det känns samtidigt som hon är medveten om det, så jag undrar varför hon accepterar dem. Storyn är tunn, den innehåller ingenting. För Dolly som ska vara käckt elakt känner man ingenting för. Jag kan inte låta bli att tro att hon blev utgiven för att hennes far jobbar inom förlagsbranchen.