Posts tagged David Mitchell

ACTUAL BOOK

Number 9 Dream was the last remaining David Mitchell book left for me to read, and unfortunately, I may have enjoyed this one the least of all of his novels.  I thought that this novel started slow and I had a really difficult time getting into the story.  I  will admit that once it got moving, the story kept me engaged and by the time I finished I was conflicted about how I’d review it.  Mitchell remains one of my favorite authors, but I’d rate this one in the same class with Ghostwritten; enjoyable, but not on the level of Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, or The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

ACTUAL BOOK

Not unlike one of my favorite books of all time, Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Ghostwritten is a loosely connected collection of nine stories.  Each of the stories is an independent tale with references and minor connections to at least one of the other stories in the book.  I tend to enjoy this device because it reads like your typical collection of short stories except that you get the occasional “a-ha” moment when you recognize a person or an event from an earlier story.  As with most short story collections, some of the individual narratives are better than others.  As a whole, the book flows well and you at least get the sense of an overarching theme, although I’m not sure that I’m smart enough to really understand what that theme was.  As with all of the other Mitchell books I’ve read, I very much enjoyed this novel, though not not as much as Cloud Atlas or The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.   

    AUDIOBOOK read by Jonathan Aris & Paula Wilcox

I’m as big of a fan of David Mitchell as one can be after reading two (now three) of his books.  Cloud Atlas is in contention for my favorite book of all time and I thoroughly enjoyed Black Swan Green.  Through the first 5 or 6 disks of Mitchell’s latest novel, I thought the spell had been broken.  I was wrong and by the time the story really got moving, I found myself thinking about the book on a regular basis and actively looking forward to getting back in the car to hear more.  

The main character of the story is a Dutch shipping clerk stationed in Japan at the turn of the 19th Century.  Trying to keep up with all of the Dutch and Japanese names is a challenge as Mitchell incorporates many characters in his tale.  The amount of required set up makes this a slow start and de Zoet is not immediately a likable character.  However, as soon as the narrative splits into multiple story lines, the pacing picks up as did my enjoyment.  

As with other Mitchell books, the story doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending, but that is part of what I like about his books.  The story wraps in a realistic manner and is complicated, much like real life.

The audiobook is well read and produced.  Aris does a wonderful job mixing accents for both the Dutch (read mostly with British accents) and the Japanese.  With the confusing and similar names, the various and consistent voice allow the listener to keep track of who is who.

Overall, I’d recommend this one.  Not as highly as Cloud Atlas or Black Swan Green, but still an enjoyable listen.