The Gateway to David Mitchell on The Reading Life
Black Swan Green is the forth novel by David Mitchhell I have recently read. My first was The Bone Clocks, then Slade house followed by his set in 18th century Japan The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I will I hope in April read his aclaimed Cloud Atlas.
Green Swan Black (to my surprise this is the name of the small English town in which this coming of age story is set. The plot begins around 1980, you can tell the period by the occurrence of the Falkland Island War. The central character is a very normal teenage boy. His father is the district manager for a big
grocery store chain. His mother is a house wife. He has an older sister with whom he has the usual conflicts. The family is close enough and well provided for. At first I was slow to get involved in the story, I might have abandoned the book if it was an ARC. I soon realized that Mitchell has found a way to make the day to day life of an English teenager as engrossing as a haunted house story and as fascinating in details as his novel set in 18th century Japan. We are in a pre internet no mobile phone which now does require historical knowledge to treat in a novel.
There are teenage cliques, social rankings of the Boys, rules their code of behaviour requires, the biggest fault would be ratting out another boy to a teacher. There are interesting characters, a crazy school bus driver, a scary resident with dobermans, gypsies, and my favourite, a mysterious older French woman who, when she learns he writes poetry, begins to try educate him about literature.
Things do happen in the family. Dad loses his job for cheating on his expense account, Mother gets a job selling fine art and does very well. His sister has a new boyfriend and goes to college. There is more.
I just loved this phone conversation the mother had with the daughter:
““You’re still coming home for Christmas, right?” “Day after tomorrow. Stian’s driving me down. His family owns this mansion in darkest Dorset.” “Stan?” “Stan?” “No, Stian. He’s Norwegian, Ph.D. in dolphin language? Didn’t I mention him in my last letter?” Julia knows exactly what she “mentions” in her letters. “Wow. So he speaks in dolphin with you?” “He programs computers that might, one day soon.” “What happened to Ewan?” “Ewan’s a dear, but he’s in Durham and I’m up here and … well, I knocked it on the head. In the long run, it’s for the best.” “Oh.” But Ewan had a Silver MG. “I liked Ewan.” “Cheer up. Stian’s got a Porsche.” “God, Julia. What sort? A GT?”
This is not that long a work, maybe 260 pages. I liked it a lot once I got into it.
DAVID MITCHELL is the award-winning and bestselling author of Slade House, The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, and Ghostwritten. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2007. With KA Yoshida, Mitchell translated from the Japanese the internationally bestselling memoir The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.
About the Author DAVID MITCHELL is the award-winning and bestselling author of Slade House, The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, and Ghostwritten. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2007. With KA Yoshida, Mitchell translated from the Japanese the internationally bestselling memoir The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children. -from the publisher
I found this one moved slowly at first, too. And I wonder if that's because it seems so ordinary, at first, when you come to it after some of his later works. I have a feeling that, had I read it when it was first published, before discovering his others, I wouldn't have faltered in the same way. As it is, I, too, really enjoyed it in the end. I wanted the characters to have things all work out for the best.
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