Recommended Reading
David Mitchell: Black Swan Green
Jason Taylor is thirteen years old, it's the Eighties, and he lives in a small village in Worcestershire in central England. He also has a stammer, which makes life terrifying for him in ways that life can only be in the savage world of thirteen year olds. He has an older sister, who calls him The Thing and treats him with disdainful affection. The Falklands war is on, and some of the young men from the village are fighting and dying there. He also writes poetry (under a pseudonymn - god forbid any of his classmates found out!)
David Mitchell has admitted that this novel is at least partly autobiographical, and it is acutely observed, bringing not just the place and time clearly to our minds but the terror of being thirteen and trying to fit in. The acute embarrasment of being seen at the cinema with your mother; your mother telling you to wear a wooly hat on a cold day (wooly hats are "gay" he says); your father and your uncle getting drunk and trying to outdo one another's stories; finding your sisters tampons in her dresser drawer... Mitchell's prose is a dream: never overdone, "getting" the voices without lapsing into slang, stylish without being "literary."
Cloud Atlas was one of my favourite books from the last couple of years - a masterpiece. This is not on the same scale, but that doesn't mean it's not of the same quality. It's different, but equally worthwhile. I was sorry he didn't make the Booker short list, even though the bookies gave him 5-1 odds. Well, he's young and I'm sure has a great future ahead of him.
Jason Taylor is thirteen years old, it's the Eighties, and he lives in a small village in Worcestershire in central England. He also has a stammer, which makes life terrifying for him in ways that life can only be in the savage world of thirteen year olds. He has an older sister, who calls him The Thing and treats him with disdainful affection. The Falklands war is on, and some of the young men from the village are fighting and dying there. He also writes poetry (under a pseudonymn - god forbid any of his classmates found out!)
David Mitchell has admitted that this novel is at least partly autobiographical, and it is acutely observed, bringing not just the place and time clearly to our minds but the terror of being thirteen and trying to fit in. The acute embarrasment of being seen at the cinema with your mother; your mother telling you to wear a wooly hat on a cold day (wooly hats are "gay" he says); your father and your uncle getting drunk and trying to outdo one another's stories; finding your sisters tampons in her dresser drawer... Mitchell's prose is a dream: never overdone, "getting" the voices without lapsing into slang, stylish without being "literary."
Cloud Atlas was one of my favourite books from the last couple of years - a masterpiece. This is not on the same scale, but that doesn't mean it's not of the same quality. It's different, but equally worthwhile. I was sorry he didn't make the Booker short list, even though the bookies gave him 5-1 odds. Well, he's young and I'm sure has a great future ahead of him.