Adult triplets Sebastian, Matilda and Clara are leading very different lives in different parts of the world. But when they get a call from their mother with the news that one child was accidentally switched at birth it makes each of them fearfully wonder who is the odd one out. The story isn't so much about finding the answer to this as it's more concerned with the meaning of familial bonds and potential hidden patterns which govern our existence. A diabolical game or an elaborate conspiracy might be at play. Or it might just be that life is messy and we're desperately looking for a grand design to make sense of it all. While each sibling is grappling with their own problems they gradually reconnect with each other. Hijinks and absurdities ensue. The novel is advertised as a joyful family saga but it comes across more like an unsuccessful mashup of a “Mamma Mia!” type comic family mystery and a philosophical investigation into the structure of reality.
Many of the central characters have conditions which make them experience the world in a way very different from most people. Matilda has manic episodes, Sebastian's patient/lover Laura increasingly only sees the world in two dimensions and scientist Jennifer Travis doesn't believe she has a soul. It's somewhat interesting reading about how these circumstances alter their perception about life and there were elements of many characters' stories I found engaging. But the way they all come together felt forced and unbelievable. I was eager to read about Clara's experiences travelling to Easter Island, but her connection to the characters she meets there was so unconvincing. Jordan, the inadvertent leader of a group of environmental pessimists, and adrift actress Elif both inexplicably latch onto Clara even though she's completely uncharismatic. Sebastian's affair with a married woman and Matilda's struggle with mothering her step daughter were more compelling. But as the novel steadily ushers the siblings back together for the zany conclusion any emotional involvement I had with their individual stories dwindled.
The central concern of this book is about the desire to make sense of life. Some characters and the mysterious scientific institute Sebastian works for follow a Cartesian method whereby they think the whole of life can be understood by looking at its individual parts and how they fit together. Jennifer Travis postulates that “the brain... it's logical, structured... it's an equation... That's what a human is. A puzzle with a limited number of pieces. They fit together with no need for a sticky soul to glue them together... There's a system in the madness... A system so magnificent it blinds us.” However, most of us instinctually understand that life is much more complex than this with innumerable mysteries inherent to its nature. So, unsurprisingly, she eventually “learned to live with being merely a big – admittedly rather complicated – equation swathed in biodegradable wrapping paper. But if you can experience love, Jennifer thought, feeling her heart rate quicken, you are experiencing something that really is completely and utterly illogical, that can't be explained as anything less rational than the wingbeats of the soul.” Though this is very elegantly put, it's a sentimental and uninspired revelation which takes too long to arrive at in a story which enjoys humorously meandering through its characters' experiences. So, while I didn't have a bad time reading this overlong novel, I ultimately grew impatient and found the ending dully simplistic.
