Cold Atlas by David Mitchell - 2004

Cold Atlas is the fifth novel by David Mitchell I have had the pleasure of reading.  For sure it is the most challenging, highest retarded of his works.  There are six story lines in Cold Atlas.  The reader's first challenge is to ascertain what these stories of six different people in widely diverse places and times have to do with  each other and how they work together. (Wikipedia has a good summary article.)

I am behind in my posting so this post is going to be very brief.

Please share your experience with David Mitchell with us.

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. davidmitchellbooks.com Facebook.com/ davidmitchellbooks Twitter: @david_mitchell

I hope to read Number9Dream in May.

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell -2006

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

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell -2010 - 482 pages

Gateway to David Mitchell on The Reading Life

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell -2010 - 482 pages 

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the third novel by David Mitchell I have had the extreme pleasure of reading.  The previous two works, first Bone Clocks and the Slade House are more or less fantasy genre works, drawing us into alternate worlds, playing with occult theories.  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is set in late 18th Century Japan, focusing on the interface of traders from The Dutch East India Company, based in Java, and Japanese with whom they do business.  Interpretors are very important and Mitchell marvelously shows us the struggle of each group to understand the other.  Of course the Japanese and the Dutch Merchants are striving to out do each other.

Jacob de Zoet, there are about fifty characters, is a clerk, he left his beloved finance back in the Netherlands, telling her he will return rich within six years.

Of course the Dutch men want female companionship, some take temporary wives, other turn to professionals.  Jacob falls in love and from this spins much of the plot.  

There is an abundance of fascinating detail.  The world depicted is as far from our reality as any fantasy world.  I learned a lot about Merchants in Japan, a very closed to outsiders society.

I highly recommend this book.  The account of what happened to the Japanese woman Jacob lived is transfixing once we fully understand, I wondered if things like that did happen in Japan during this period.  We see how each group views the other with deep distrust and at best half understandings.

I will next read his Black Green Swan then  Color Atlas

David Mitchell is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, Ghostwritten and The Bone Clocks. 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 co-translated from the Japanese the international bestselling memoir, The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children... From the author's websitd

Slade House by David Mitchell - 2015

My Post on The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

My first encounter with David Mitchell, in February of last year,  was with his marvelous novel Bone Clocks. I knew I wanted to read more by such a creative writer.  Luckily I recently found his Slade House, which has overlapping characters with Bone Clocks  and other of his novels but you can be read it with no knowledge of this book, on a flash sale as Kindle edition for $1.95.  I guess it can be considered in the tradition of haunted house horror stories.  It is really a fun and if you give in to it, a scary book.

Slade House appears only once every nine years.  It is inhabited by twins, a male and a female born in the 1880s.  In order to maintain their life sustaining energy, ever nine years they, often in different appearances, lure someone into the house and consume their soul.  Each of the six episodes in Slade House involves different victims from different walks of life each tricked into entering the house and becoming a victim.  As the authorities investigate the mysterious disappearances,  we learn more about the twins and the occult theories used by psychic experts, self proclaimed, to explain what is going on.  We get to know the twins more with each segment.

The ending is very powerful 

To me Slade House was very creative, a delightful escapist read.

David Mitchell is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, Ghostwritten and The Bone Clocks. 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 co-translated from the Japanese the international bestselling memoir, The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children...from Davidmitchellbooks.com

I have begun The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The opening chapter was incredible.

Mel u

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell - 2014

The Bone Clocks is the first work by David Mitchell I have had the great pleasure of reading. For sure I hope it will not be the last.  It is a super creative amazing set of six interrelated narratives all connected by Holly Sikes and two duelling sets of immortals.  We first meet Holly when, age 15, she runs away from home to get away from her domineering mother.  Holly hears voices sometimes. The year is 1984.She has a 25 year old boyfriend and her plan is to move in with him.  Upon arrival at his house, she finds him in bed with her best friend.  She takes off for parts unknown. She encounters a strange old woman who asks her for asylum.  Holly takes her for mad but she is an immoral.  Her younger brother disappeared from home right after she left.  This disappearance has a key part in the narrative. 

There are five more narrative lines, one set in Cambridge in 1991.  The third section is about the trials and tribulations of a one time literary superstar now struggling with debt and writer’s block.  The fourth section is about a war correspondent. The fifth section is a really fun pure fantasy world narrative about the two battling groups of immortals. Both use humans, the Bone Clocks, to live on.  One is reborn over and over and the outer drains souls.  The final section is set in Ireland in 2043.  Holly Sikes, who became a famous writer, is trying to survive in a dystopian world brought on by climate change and political upheavals.

There are nit picking reviews online.  Ok I concede it is not perfect but it was a lot of fun, the fantasy element was intriguing, the people real, and there are lots of exquisite sentences and concepts.  All the narratives are tied together and it was exciting to see what develops.

David Mitchell is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, Ghostwritten and The Bone Clocks. 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 co-translated from the Japanese the international bestselling memoir, The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children... from Davidmitchellbooks.com

I hope  to read Cloud Atlas this year.  

Mel u