Difficult beginning to The Luminaries - but the jury's still out

I'm sure people have strongly held opinions about Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries and I'm sure I will, too, as usual, but I'm not sure what they are or will be because honestly after one night's reading, about 60 pages, which gets us through no more than 1.5 chapters, I'm completely puzzled by this tome. First of all, it comes with solid creds, notably a 2013 Booker Man. Second, it's long and it's ambitious - weighing in at 800+ pp., a true literary heavyweight, ouch, maybe I'll have to opt for the ibook version eventually - my wrists may not hold (it) up. And it sounds like a truly cool novel - in some ways a historical piece, in this case about the 1860s New Zealand gold rush, a story about a time and culture most of us know little about - always good to read about new cultures and experiences - and reminiscent of great period westerns like Lonesome Dove - but with a solid mystery mixed in and some mysticism - in fact the first info you'll encounter in the book is Catton's musings about zodiacal signs. In other words, it's a contemporary rarity - a gargantuan novel that holds nothing back that's abundant, and not wallowing in self-observation and trivia. Also, it feels very much, at least at first, like the Victorian novel of its setting - recalling maybe Possession, or from another era John Barth's 18th-century pastiche, the Sot Weed Factor. The language itself - word choice, cadence, attention to topical as well as interior detail, feels more 19th century than 21st. And yet - it is a contemporary novel - and begins with the familiar "stranger comes to town" motif, as Moody arrives in a gold rush town and wanders into a men's club, typical of its day in England but far more rustic, and is met with suspicion, even hostility. Catton really takes her time w/ this first scene, examining Moody's personality and giving plenty of description of the setting and the other characters - I admire her pacing, another rarity in contemporary fiction - and yet, I was wondering if the story is going to slowly - an 800 pager that could have been managed in 300. Then, oddly, one of the characters starts pumping Moody for info; Moody repeatedly declines to speak of his past but then - improbably, an authorial trick - gives in; the men come to accept him, as he tells of his difficult passage with a captain who, as it happens, they're all investigating. Then we launch into the 2nd chapter in which we are so overwhelmed with absurd plot detail that, a, I cannot comprehend a single bit of the story and, b, I think may be intended as a parody of the Victorian novel - maybe I'm not supposed to understand any of this stuff about dead half-brothers and estranged fathers and drunken harlots found by the roadside and so forth. If it's meant to be a comedy, it better be truly funny and had better make the payoff for my slogging thru chapter 2 worth my while as a reader. The verdict? Jury's out.