A gift!

So you know how David Mitchell’s first few books were all told from multiple (and in some cases MANY) points of view, alternating by chapter, sometimes showing you different viewpoints of the same event, sometimes unconnected? And then he came out with Black Swan Green, from just one viewpoint, which is honestly such a tour de force book, it’s breathtaking? (You can search for it on this page to read my brief thoughts at the time.)

So I started this book, and it kept going from chapter to chapter in Jacob’s viewpoint and, while obviously well written, there was a point at which I thought “You know, I’m really not sure I can make it through an entire book in Jacob’s voice, I just don’t know that I can…” And suddenly: it wasn’t his voice anymore!! Much fewer viewpoints than some of his early books, each viewpoint is in a much longer stretch of the novel, and the interlockings are very clear. And the voices he chooses are so the right ones, and I’m always amazed how he can write both women and men and make them sound right (and he’s also, in this case, writing Dutch AND Japanese and some Brits as well).

The beginning dragged for me a bit, and I did have to make a chart of the characters early on (so many Japanese names to keep track of!) but oh! oh, the ending! The ending really won me over. It’ll never be my favorite of his books. But it was SO worth reading.