Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
I just finished "Number9Dream," by David Mitchell. The title is a reference to a John Lennon song. In fact, the novel is awash in Lennon references, which I personally like due to the fact that I'm a Lennon Freak.
It was a very unorganized, but enjoyable novel. This was my first encounter with him, and I've just bought another one by him for my Kindle2.
If you like Murakami, then you MIGHT enjoy Mitchell. There are a lot of wonderful moments and some incredible writing but, as I said, the parts don't actually coalesce into one coherent whole. Having said that, though, I was so impressed by the writing - which has a very post-modern approach to the novel's construction - that I joyfully purchased another book by him.
There's a lot of dreaming by the character (true to the title of the book), and a lot of imagistic writing that is off-the-wall and enjoyable. This is NOT Murakami, but Mitchell shares some common motifs with Murakami.
Don
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Number9Dream is the one David Mitchell book I haven't read yet (it's sitting on my Sony waiting for me). I'm hoping the one you picked up to read next is
Cloud Atlas (or
Ghostwritten—both are excellent, but CA is a lot better) and not
Black Swan Green. BSG is decent, but it's definitely his most conventional book by far.
As far as post-modern novel structure goes, I'm in the middle of Iain Banks'
The Bridge right now, which definitely has a similar disjointed feel to it. We'll see how it comes together in the end. I remember reading that Banks considers this his most "literary" novel, and I can certainly see why from what I've read. There are enough interesting things going on that I may have to reread it again before too long.