Category Archives: Clever Use Of Words

Book Review, Clever Use Of Words, Fiction, Funny at times

Cloud Atlas (2004)

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“Cloud Atlas” is David Mitchell’s third novel. See Ghostwritten (1999) and Black Swan Green (2006). Much like “Ghostwritten” this fiction novel consists of several independent streams each of which has some connection with at least one other stream. Somewhat unusual is that one stream (chapter) (such as a conspiracy story about corruption and poor design relating to a nuclear reactor) ends suddenly in the middle of a sentence only to pick up several chapters later. Mitchell is a clever and somewhat trendy wordsmith. Scattered throughout are fun phrases such as “prostitute Barbie” and “Andrew Void-Webber”. In general he seems to be very pessimistic and cynical about human beings although he allows some happy endings.

I must admit that there was one (independent) chapter in the middle of the book that I did not have the energy to read. It is written in a heavy and strangely spelled dialect that seems to originate somewhere in the far south of the United States. I could be wrong. But I really enjoyed the rest of the novel. Don’t be put off by the first and last chapters (which are also the first and second parts of a story about missionaries taking advantage of natives) which are written in a somewhat older, archaic style.

“Ghostwritten” and “Cloud Atlas” have similar constructions. I never finished “number9dream” which did not appeal to me. “Black Swan Green” is more traditional in construction and is about a bullied young boy. Eventually I will get around to reading “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet”.

Autobiographical, Book Review, Bullying, Clever Use Of Words, Revenge, Sexual Episodes, Violent, Vulgar

Black Swan Green (2006)

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We already reviewed David Mitchell’s first novel Ghostwritten (1999) in which we list his novels in order of date written.

After reading “Black Swan Green” I should probably re-read “Catcher in the Rye”. In Mitchell’s version, Jason Taylor is a 13 year old student living in Worcestershire, England. For a well-written review see the Wikipedia review. If there is a theme that stands out, it is Jason’s struggle to fit in with the crowd, made very difficult by the fact that he stutters and that he is bullied mercilessly. It doesn’t help that his parents don’t get along.

Book Review, Clever Use Of Words, Manic, Novel, ShortStories

Ghostwritten (1999)

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Currently (2010) David Mitchell is the “it” author. There have been many articles about him, especially one in the New York Times Sunday magazine section. He is said to have re-defined the novel. You can read about him in the Wikipedia article.

Mitchell’s novels are as follows:

  • Ghostwritten (1999)
  • number9dream (2001)
  • Cloud Atlas (2004)
  • Black Swan Green (2006)
  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010)

If you like T.C. Boyle (especially his short stories), you will also enjoy David Mitchell.

Let me tempt you with “Ghostwritten”, his first novel. Each chapter is a somewhat self-contained short story, but not really. The chapters eventually wrap around to where they started. But the fun “trick” is that each chapter after the first contains within some sly reference back to the previous chapter. If you did not read that previous chapter carefully then you might just miss the reference in the succeeding chapter. I’ll give you a hint for chapter one, namely, “telephone call”.

To tempt you a bit more I’ll describe chapter one. All chapters are written in the first person as I recall. In chapter one the speaker is the Japanese cult fanatic who personally released the sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. In the entire chapter while he is fleeing the scene and hiding in some remote guest house he is ruminating about his cult under the leadership of someone always referred to as “His Serendipity”. He interprets each and every event in the unwavering context of someone so completely brain-washed that he is deceived about everything.

Mitchell has a clever and often witty way with words. I do worry that his choice of words may be trendy enough that his book might some day be outdated.

Some chapters are manic (think Thom Jones), but not all. There is a somewhat poignant chapter in which a brilliant woman scientist tries to retire to her beloved small Irish (Celtic) island in order to escape being forceably employed by the CIA. This chapter relates to a following chapter about a nighttime radio talk show in an astoundingly clever way.