David Mitchell poll

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He hasn't topped Ghostwritten (though I haven't read Thousand Autumns...).

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too bad about Black Swan Green, but it seems like it was almost everyone's #2. otherwise i feel good about this.

reading De Zoet now and while I enjoy it I um miss the narrative tricks tbh

they might not be back for a while

Mitchell's sixth novel, as yet untitled, will be about a young girl growing up in an Irish family

It compensates with a strong narrative and a perfect simulation of 18th century and 19th century bureaucratic prose.

also ninjas

sort of

Mitchell's sixth novel, as yet untitled, will be about a young girl growing up in an Irish family

in that Paris Review interview he talked about a book that switches between 1980 and 2040, but i guess that was awhile ago.

think the thing about Mitchell that some people miss (although it's usually people who haven't read him) is the sense of play in his work. The reason he messes around with the multiple storylines etc is simply because it's fun. The guy is basically a bit of a geek. Hell, his books even have a comic book style shared universe

the shared universe angle seems like it could get a bit restricting ("oop better put in a comet birthmark reference here!")

but then other writers (Moorcock lol) have done amazingly well with it so maybe not

this guy is insanely good at pastiche, seems to really be his forte

think there's only one pretty obscure reference in Jacob De Zoet

i thought i read somewhere that the next two books were going to be semi-sequels to JDZ that expanded the story and took it back in a sci-fi direction

i do remember hearing that ages ago but this seems to be the most up to date info. I'm excited to read him writing about Ireland tho

finished De Zoet. pretty good - altho the deus ex machina bit with Penhaligon was irritating, among other minor narrative missteps.