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First off, many thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for providing me with an ARC, in exchange for this honest review.

Of her previous works, I've only read Kushner's OTHER Booker nominated novel, The Mars Room, and this is much different - but had some of the same qualities and 'issues' that I experienced with that one. On the plus side - the story is unusual and often thrilling and intellectually stimulating; and the author writes really great prose and injects some much-needed humor into some fairly dire situations. Although somewhat reminiscent of Birnam Wood, it is much more philosophical and contemplative, and - for good or ill - lacks that book's Tarantino-esque flashes of ultra-violence.

Most of the 'problems' I encountered are more an 'It's not you, it's me' situation - there are LOTS of characters and many of them are so briefly defined that I had trouble keeping them all str8; luckily, since I read it on the Kindle, I made excellent use of the search feature - I'd have been completely lost with a hardcopy.

But other than the protagonist 'Sadie Smith' (not her real name!) and the other major character of Bruno Lacombe - who we mainly come to know through his email messages to the commune that Sadie is infiltrating - and may or may NOT otherwise make an appearance in the book itself - most of the other characters are fairly one-dimensional; and even Sadie and Bruno are so enigmatic that they are hard to grasp (which is kinda the point ... I think!).

I also didn't really cotton to the book's structure either- which is rendered mainly in brief passages that jump around in time and topic, again making it difficult for me to follow and put pieces together (Hey, I'm old and my brain is slow!!). The clues as to what is actually transpiring are doled out in drips and drabs, and I am still not sure I quite 'got it' all.

Interspersed with these short passages are longer diatribes that deal with philosophical, anthropological, and astronomical topics - these were usually quite interesting and relevant, although sometimes they seemed to be shoehorned in just so we knew Kushner is a LOT brighter than us mere mortals.

Regardless, I think it made for an intriguing and thought-provoking read, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Kushner winds up on the shortlist once again. As it's the first of the Booker longlist for me to read, I am not quite sure of its chances of taking the prize, however. Should it win, I'd be tempted to reread it to see what I might have missed the first go-round.

PS: Oh, and BTW - Kushner entitles a chapter 'Lemon Incest' and in it talks about this infamous French song by that name - I had never heard it (or OF it) before this, so had to scope it out - it IS rather shocking - and tres bizarre!! . The title, although obvs. alluding to incest itself, is actually a pun on the French for lemon zest: 'un zeste de citron'.