'The world unmakes stuff faster than people can make it.'Month by month our lives spiral forth into the future, with each moment shaping who we are and who we will become. It is no wonder that the pivotal years of adolescence, the stage of development classified by Erik Erikson as the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, is fertile land for novels (if the nutrients of such land has been dried up from overuse of such topics is up for debate). Mitchell’s Black Swan Green examines this tumultuous period of development, drawing from his own experiences at times, to track the to-and-fro of the formation of an identity caught in the gale storm winds of external pressures from society, politics and family drama. While this may seem like something we have all read before, Mitchell manages to deliver it through one of his unique, multi-faceted methods and posing this novel as the metafictional chapter of his oeuvre. The structure of this book is rather exciting, with each chapter functioning nearly as a stand-alone short story, ordered chronologically throughout one year of Jason Taylor’s life. Starting and ending in January, we watch the progression of Taylor’s identity during the trying stage when social cliques are formed (when one year everyone of the same gender in a class attends their peers birthday and the next year that person who invited you to their birthday won’t even acknowledge you), and less-than-ideal physical or social traits make outliers of many youths. The pressures to fit in and the aggression of those who already do cause Jason’s confidence to falter, demonstrating how easily we let outside forces shape what we are inside. Some of these forces are negative, yet there are many examples of positive reinforcement in the novel. What works best about the structure is that each individual chapter has Jason’s personal path juxtaposed with that of a larger social theme. The family fallout, written with such scathing accuracy to demonstrate a failing marriage and shallow bickering that ensues, is detailed alongside the Falklands conflict, both being summed up beautifully by the sister in her explanation of a Pyrrhic victory during a family dinner. Another prime example is the juxtaposition of Jason’s outsider status with his peers and the hatred towards the gypsy camp that moves just outside of town.Each one of Mitchell’s previous novels has a major point where he lifts up the hood and allows the reader to examine the engine driving his narrative. Cloud Atlas has the multiple allusions to it’s own structure, such as Frobisher explaining his sextet in a similar fashion as one would explain the novel, and number9dream had the wonderful ‘Goatwritter tales’ that explored Mitchell’s literary goals. In Black Swan Green we have his meeting with Madame Crommelynck's ¹ and her lessons on beauty and on being an artist. ‘If you are not truthful to the world about who and what you are, your art will stink of falseness,’ she instructs Jason. In effect, this novel is his truthful account of his life, exposing all his flaws, fears, failures and embarrassing moments in the name of truth and art. There is even a brief moment where the reader witnesses the creation of a rough draft for a previous chapter. The metafiction does not cease there, however, as this novel contains much of Mitchell’s own life, particularly his overcoming of his stammer. Ironically though, could it be seen as Mitchell still hiding behind false pretenses and using Jason as his mouthpiece, thus missing the point of Madame Crommelynck’s teachings? That, dear reader, is for you to decide.If each of his novels has a metafictionally-revealing section, this novel serves as the metafictional novel to his oeuvre. As much of BSG focuses on the dangers and consequences of people operating with a closed, or selfish mind, Mitchell shows how much of the hardships in our lives could be alleviated if people just took the time to understand each other, to shoulder the burden of taking the right path instead of the easy path that burns a lot of good people in the process. He shows how those with power, such as the city council, or the nation with the stronger army, or even just the popular kids at school, will always use such power to ensure those beneath them stay there. ‘I want to bloody kick this moronic bloody world in the bloody teeth over and over till it bloody understands that not hurting people is ten bloody thousand times more bloody important than being right.’This line from Jason echoes a message that permeates through all of Mitchell’s novels. In Cloud Atlas, the abuse of power is present is a primary theme in each of the novels stories, as well as in Ghostwritten to a lesser extent. Even Number9dream toys with the ideas of power and the struggle for it. It is as if Mitchell took the events from his own upbringing and inflated the lessons he learned to the larger scope of society and the overall human condition. It could even be argued that Mitchell’s own coming-of-age story was skewed and spun with larger literary themes into Number9dream, which further excuses him of his repeat visits to the bildungsroman theme. There are several common complaints about this novel, and each one admittedly valid, yet I felt this novel still accomplished the goals set out for it and not by overlooking these shortcomings, but by trying to further understand them. Mitchell often preempts his criticisms and addresses them within the novel. Cloud Atlas, in particular, has Mitchell ridiculing critics in general through his slimy Miles Finch character, and addresses those who would see the book as nothing but mere gimmick. While Jason Taylor is fleshed out wonderfully with a whole repitoir of English jargon and juvenile slang, the narrative is often delivered through lush descriptions, complex metaphors and an insight into his situations that come across as overly mature for a boy of 13. To assuage such criticisms, Jason is written to have a precocious sense of literature and poetry. While it never comes right out and says it, his talents are hinted at being prodigious, or just so enough to reach the attention of Madame Crommelynck who is said to have a sharp eye for extreme talent (she did see the genius behind the insanity in Frobisher in CA). The reader can choose to accept this argument or not, however, Mitchell does not stop there in his attempts at believability. Much of the lush description teeters into the territory of over-writing, something that a young, unfocused writer often clings to. It isn’t until the end of the novel that the supposed self-written tale of Jason Taylor is executed in crisper, well-executed prose to demonstrate that Taylor is beginning to finally come into his own as the purveyor of truthfulness that he has been taught to be mark of the true artist. Once again, the novel does rely on the acceptance of these techniques and this does not satisfy everyone. Then again, I may just be an apologist since I really do appreciate Mitchell hope for his success.Mitchell’s novel fall into a strange zone of literature that is both beneficial and problematic for him as an author. His novels are an interesting amalgamation of easily digestible plots, literary theory, fireworks and fantastic writing. This blend, which I have come to refer to as Literary Pulp, is most apparent in Cloud Atlas, and a further investigation into the terms implications can be found here ². Mitchell positions himself as a sort of literary gateway drug, pulling younger readers, or readers with more of an inclination towards plot-driven novels, into the wide wonderful wilderness of literature. Perhaps this is why I forgive some of his more ‘gimmicky’ techniques. The ‘mind-blowing’ big twists, ideas, structure or overall-appearances-of-texts type of gimmicks are something that really grabs many people, particularly those referenced a moment ago. Chuck Palahniuk reached fame in a similar fashion through attempting for the ‘mind blow’ and other gimmicks, and while he was an author that lead me into bigger, better authors such as Don DeLillo and Pynchon, he never had enough literary flavor of his own to keep my eye on him for very long. Mitchell comes across more like the overly excited professor that just wants you to love books as much as he does and is willing to sacrifice some of his literary merit with the higher brow to draw in a crowd of readers who would otherwise stay away from the higher brow literature. In Cloud Atlas, for example, someone who loved the Somni story is more or less instructed to seek out books like Brave New World while the Adam Ewing story borrows the style of Herman Melville to turn heads his way. Even in this book, Mitchell references many great writers such as T.S. Elliot or Chekov, references Madame Bovary (which he did in n9d as well) and offers a massive listening list of a wide variety of great musicians. This book would fits in nicely on a shelf for those who like higher literature, or would be just as at peace next to a book like The Perks of Being a Wallflower ³, however being an excellent gateway for someone of the latter category to continue a pursuit of literature. Mitchell’s Literary Pulp method is a great way of reaching out, but it does garner a great deal of negative criticism for doing just that. As someone who hopes to go on into teaching, I find Mitchell to be a useful example of how to get people excited about books. Now that he has achieved recognition, he was able to move away from the more gimmicky methods to write something more subdued such as BSG and Thousand Autumns. I think there is a bright horizon for Mitchell if he continues to grow and push forward.Although I read this book just over six months ago, it has not left my mind and recently I have spent a great deal of time fighting back the bleakness of the factory by over-analyzing this novel. Spending a year with Jason Taylor really endears the reader towards David Mitchell, as they quickly realize much of the stories are based on his own life. However, I would not recommend it as a first Mitchell read, seeing as it is a sort of commentary on the previous novels. Even if you disliked his earlier works, I would still recommend giving this novel a try, as it is a strong departure from his usual style. As the novel comes to a close, the reader sees life as a continuing spiral instead of something made of many beginnings and endings. It ends on the minor key, that angsty note that demands one final chord for completion and resolution, but Mitchell leaves the readers mind to fill that note in. We are left feeling things could get better, but to resolve everything would be to cheapen the story and to cheapen the actual course life takes. This is not a perfect novel, and has many aspects that leave a bad taste in the mouth of many well-read individuals (please browse GR, there are many with better tastes and insight than I that found a lukewarm reception in this book), yet I feel that Mitchell does an excellent job of covering his tracks. Simply put, and in the words of Jason Taylor, this book is ‘ace in the face!’.4.5/5¹ Readers of Cloud Atlas will remember her as Eva, the love interest of Robert Frobisher. Fans of CA are treated to an alternative perspective on Frobisher’s behavior and genius. Other characters that make a cameo in BSG are Neal Brose, of Ghostwritten, and Gwendolyn Bendincks, who stayed at the old folks home in CA.² Please forgive my shameful self-promotion, but it would be far too time/space consuming to revisit the argument in proper detail here. The ideas of Literary Pulp are also prominent in the Goatwritter section of n9d as well. ³ I in fact recommended this book to my sister after she finished that novel, citing many similarities between the two. Both deal with a coming-of-age, musical tastes, and overcoming personal hardships, yet BSG is accomplished without the melodramatic angst and emotion that teenagers seem to thrive on. This book is also similar to Murakami w/r/t the constant allusions to songs, the great Murakami being a major influence on Mitchell (what? This review and the footnotes have been a blatant rip-off of DFW? Surely you Jest)‘A Pyrrhic victory is one where you win, but the cost of winning is so high that it would’ve been better if you’d never bothered with the war in the first place. Useful word, isn’t it? So, Jace. Looks like we’re doing the dishes again.’
I think it was the summer between eighth and ninth grades that I had an absolutely hellish summer camp experience.* For whatever reason I got branded as the person to pick on and just about everything that I did was turned into a series of 'jokes' at my expense. I haven't thought of this experience in quite sometime, it's sort of one of those things that I just don't dwell on, but it was one of those times that seriously fucked me up. Some of the taunting that Jason Taylor goes through in this book kind of reminded me of this particular time. The early 80's English world that the book takes place in is slightly different from my own experience though, maybe it's the British class thing, but the kids in this book fall into particular positions and there is little mobility out of being an insider or outsider. My own particular experience was that the people tormenting were people I considered friends who turned particularly nasty, and they would swing back to being friends and back to tormentors again. Thinking about many of my experiences growing up, I realize that a lot of kids I knew, especially neighborhood kids, my relationships with many of them were hazy blurs of being friendly, being at war, being friendly again, and maybe even being bullied by them. And I wonder why I've had no desire to ever seek out friends after I moved away from New Jersey.I had some mixed feelings doing into this book. Besides Cloud Atlas, none of David Mitchell's books have ever called to me. I mean, when I see or saw them for the first time and read what they are about I don't feel any desire to read them. But, I've enjoyed the two Mitchell books I've read. Lots of goodreads people I know just love him and they are generally people whose opinions I respect (or at least I like their opinions because their opinions line up with my opinions on many book related areas, and it's only natural to think that people who agree with you are smarter than the other philistines who don't agree with you about these sorts of things, right?). I had bought this from the Salvation Army a couple of years back and it's been sitting on my shelf, and it happened to be sitting on the bookshelf that was next in my sort of sporadic, 'pick a book from the next bookshelf / pile of books' so that I can read books I bought at various times, instead of just reading the books I've recently bought and ignoring the hundreds of old-unread books, and because Cloud Atlas was just released as a Major Motion Picture I thought I'd read some Mitchell and when I write a review I'd probably get some extra attention because Mitchell is kind of hot right now. So that is why I read the book. And I figured a coming of age story in his hands might be interesting. It was, but it was also nothing that I hadn't read before. The story is a year in the life of a kid growing up in the early 1980's. It's the year of the Falkland's conflict (war?), something I know very little that doesn't come from Crass lyrics and images ("How does it feel?"). It's the rise of Thatcher, and of continuing economic troubles in the UK. Actually all of this sounds like like a Crass album. Except that those things are all going on in the background, and it's about the more general thing of growing up, getting picked on by your peers, about trying to figure out how to do what is right / staying true to yourself and still fitting in with the cool kids (or at least not getting beat up by them). I probably liked the book more than my three star rating would make it seem. I think part of the problem was that I was expecting a more interesting narrative, or structure to the story from Mitchell. This was a fairly straight-forward coming of age story. Maybe there isn't a lot that can be done with this particular genre, but this book didn't feel like it really stood out from other movies and novels I've consumed. I think that my lowish star rating is also how I feel the book stands up to the other books of Mitchell's I've read, and as a kind of reaction to the gushing praise that is splashed all over the front and back cover of this book. This was one of the top ten books of the year by the New York Times? Really? Was it a slow year in literature? The last couple of chapters in the book didn't help save the book for me, either. I was already feeling like the book was nothing spectacular when this happened. I'll save spoiling anything, but things started to feel a little unrealistic for the way things had been going in the book. I'd probably recommend reading something by John Green if you want to read about precious slightly loser-ish teen boys navigating their adolescence. But there really isn't anything wrong with this book, it just never really did much for me though. *Summer camp experiences for my own edification1984 - One week away. Almost sent home for learning how the simple joy of making a blow torch using matches and aerosol bug spray. Forced to do some push-ups as punishment and got screamed at a lot by some jock asshole counselor. 1985 - I'm fairly certain I figured out how not to go to summer camp this year. 1986 - Went to the hellish summer camp for one week. Learned what a gang-bang was through an immature song my tent-mate sung constantly. Almost died rappelling and contracted food poisoning from eating raw chicken. Also spent most of the week in the pouring rain. Built character, I guess. 1987 - Went to the nice summer camp. Woke up every morning at around 5 AM to take field notes for a merit badge, discovered a beaver dam and watched a beaver swim around every morning. An enjoyable experience. Learned that I don't like boats at all and I have no skill in using them except for capsizing them. I also learned that playing a game where two teams fight each other in the water for control over a greased watermelon is stupid. I'm also inept at blowing up my clothes in the water. 1988 - Back to the hellish summer camp. I'm fairly certain that these two weeks are responsible for a host of my 'problems' of dealing with other people as a normal person. Swam a mile. Crashed a motor boat. Went on one of the worst trips ever. I guess this built character. 1989 - Last year of summer camp. Back to the nice camp. Almost stepped on a rattlesnake.
What do You think about Black Swan Green (2007)?
I have failed to understand why this novel is sometimes disregarded even by Mitchell’s admirers. Because Mitchell accustomed us with his earlier works to something more bizarre and flamboyant ? Because Black Swan Green is so … ordinary ?Adolescence is a real torture , especially for sensitive , smart but morbidly lacking of self-confidence one . And so Jason is . Thirteen-year-old from some jerkwater town , struggling with own deficiencies and fears . In some respects Jason has really rough times : he’s stammering and at all costs attempts to hide it before schoolmates , besides , horror of horrors ! he's writing poems , what is considered as ... Well , Writing poems is . . . what creeps and poofters do . It’s so easy to become an object of mockery.In his home there is no better , bad relationships with older sister and hanging over head parents' divorce. And all this in Thatcher's England , times of recession , with the ongoing absurd Falklands war in the background.This traditional story captivates by its simplicity. Nuanced , amusing and compassionate at the same time . Accurate and irresistibly funny description of adults : sarcastic mother, intelligently mischievous sister, snobbish uncle, ironic cousin Hugo . The tragicomic deliberations on whom stutterer can become , as for sure not a lawyer , maybe a lighthouse keeper ? Soliciting for recognition in the peer group , dread of rejection and to be an object of ridicule and bullying described with tact and humour .Thirteen , wonderfully unhappy age. Neither child nor teenager. Black Swan Green then is a poignant , bitter-sweet farewell to childhood.
—Agnieszka
Of Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, I'd thought, David Mitchell can craft some amazing prose, but it's overall a bit emotionally lacking. I felt like I was observing a masterpiece unfold from a distance in a grand museum (I prefer a gallery feel myself). I have not read Cloud Atlas, but one of my friends had noted that she found it "gimmicky," while another of my Goodreads friends wrote in her review that it "left me cold cold cold."For me, Black Swan Green was different: the characters are front and center. It's deftly written, of course, but also intimate and (gulp) vulnerable (maybe Mitchell should write in first person more). When people don't like Murakami because he's too weird, too fixated on strange props like cats, I suggest that they try Norwegian Wood - it's more conventional in terms of plot (it has a more obvious resolution than the typical Murakami) and relatively low on the weirdness scale but a great story (and one of my favorites, by the way). Those of you who have read other Mitchells, I'd be curious to know whether Black Swan Green could be seen as Mitchell's Norwegian Wood?
—Shirley
There is little narrative drive, but Mitchell is pretty much my age and this is heavily autobiographical, so I enjoyed being transported to a fairly accurate version of a world I remember. I could imagine knowing someone like Jason, maybe even being him some of the time. The narration by a stuttering 13 year old boy is slightly reminiscent of Mark Haddon's Curious Incident, but not as convincing or interesting. It mentions specific 70s brands and products too deliberately - as if he's trying to make it understandable far in the future, not at all how such a boy would have described things at the time. Also, it makes it read rather like Nigel Slater's Toast and Andrew Collins' opposite of misery-lit, Where Did it All go Right? autobiogs, which at least had a more valid reason for so doing - and he does credit the latter. Overall, disappointing - even if not comparing it with his brilliant "Ghostwritten" and "Cloud Atlas". Uses his trick of inserting characters from other books: * Madame Crommelynck is the composer's daughter from Cloud Atlas* Neal Brose is a an entrepreneurial bully who becomes a major character in Ghostwritten * Number 9 Dream is a Beatles song that plays at a disco as well as being the title of another Mitchell book Number 9 Dream* The dodgy older cousin, Hugo Lamb, is a major character in The Bone Clocks
—Cecily
