What: The list of living authors whose books I will always read is a very short one, but David Mitchell makes the cut. He's an impressively versatile writer, and he excels in multi-perspective, layered narratives, such as his intricate puzzle-box of a novel, Cloud Atlas. With Black Swan Green, his fourth book, Mitchell simplifies everything, as if to prove that he's not all about fancy footwork and narrative sleight-of-hand.
The stripped-down, straightforward novel tells the story of Jason Taylor, a thirteen-year-old boy in an English village in 1982. No flashbacks; no complex matryoshka-doll structure; no sweeping, multi-national settings; no tricks. Without the overarching structural flourishes, Mitchell's equal dexterity on a sentence level gets center stage.
Comparable to: I'd compare it to other coming-of-age stories, but, really, I haven't come across another book that succeeds in making a thirteen-year-old boy so human and likable.
Representative quote: "I cleaned my teeth without mercy. Mum and Dad can be as ratty or sarcastic or angry as they want to be, but if I ever show a flicker of being pissed off then they act like I've murdered babies . . . Kids can never complain about unfairness 'cause everyone knows kids always complain about that."
You might not like it if: You want all of David Mitchell's books to be like Cloud Atlas.
How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.
Comparable to: I'd compare it to other coming-of-age stories, but, really, I haven't come across another book that succeeds in making a thirteen-year-old boy so human and likable.
Representative quote: "I cleaned my teeth without mercy. Mum and Dad can be as ratty or sarcastic or angry as they want to be, but if I ever show a flicker of being pissed off then they act like I've murdered babies . . . Kids can never complain about unfairness 'cause everyone knows kids always complain about that."
You might not like it if: You want all of David Mitchell's books to be like Cloud Atlas.
How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.
Connections to previous Wreckage: David Mitchell's first novel was Ghostwritten (Rec. #180) and his third novel was Cloud Atlas (Rec. #140).
[Originally posted 1/12/11.]
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