David Mitchell poll

I had the best experience with the Chinese sections of Ghostwritten. BSG and Zoet probably next in that order.

Ghostwritten and Black Swan Green are both very good. I haven't read JdZ and the other two have good parts.

i think number9dream is really excellent but i read it as a teenager so maybe its not quite as artful and wise as it seemed

i really like all his books though even if cloud atlas is kinda crummy in parts

read the 1st 3 abt when they came out, like all enough, remember none enough to vote

recently read like 200 pgs of JdZ, it's fine & well written but really dense, not my thing

I enjoyed all of them, but number9dream is my clear favorite.

just got Jacob DeZoet, will read over the next couple weeks

i'm torn between Ghostwritten (the one i've re-read the most, and i'm not a big re-reader in general) and Jacob de Zoet, which i loved and is the one i most feel like reading again right now. Black Swan Green is easily the runner-up.

i love all of these in different ways. probably ghostwritten & JDZ tho

JDZ is my fave

It's either Ghostwritten or Cloud Atlas to me but my heart is going with Ghostwritten. Strangely, I'd put Black Swan Green in second place regardless of which of the aforementioned two I went for.

Ashamed to say Jacob de Zoet is the only one I've read (am reading), but it is a beautifully constructed book. I look forward to the poll telling me what to read next.

Alfred is correct re: Chinese sections of Ghostwritten, esp. the woman and the talking tree, wow.

Number9Dream is the one I was most uh 'moved' by, and has the best ending, but the Yakuza stuff put me off.

I like JDZ followed by Black Swan Green and I'm ashamed to say so but if Mitchell wrote a few more lazy reads like BSG I'd have some very happy train rides

OTM. Black Swan Green is brilliant but underrated just because it doesn't have the usual narrative fireworks. Got put off JDZ by the title - it sounds like a bitchy parody of a literary novel that you'd find in an actual literary novel - but I'm sure that's dumb of me.

He's such a gifted ventriloquist that I kind of want him to do a Chabon and knock off some fun genre excursions. I felt guilty about how much I loved the pastiche 70s thriller story in Cloud Atlas. Two of the strands in that novel were a real slog though - Ghostwritten sustains the multi-story idea much more satisfyingly.

ghostwritten > cloud atlas > black swan green > number9dream > jacob de zoet

Black Swan Green, but clearly I need to read Ghostwritten based on everyone's responses. BSG shouldn't be as great as it is. I mean it's a straight-up coming of age story ffs, but it took over my headspace much more thoroughly than JDZ or Cloud Atlas. In that sense it might be the lack of "narrative fireworks" that makes it so good.

Ghostwritten was the first one i read and is still probably my favorite, but i feel like i should vote for Jacob de Zoet because i think he's getting better and better as a writer. as if he were reading this thread and needed encouragement...i mean, i wouldn't want to give him the idea that it was all downhill after book #1.

ha ha. i like all of his books. i don't think he's going downhill. i do worry he's straining too much for respectability by writing a straight historical novel after an almost-straight coming-of-age novel, but he's still an amazing writer no matter what. i'd just like him to get weird again.

jacob de zoet is pretty weird

Number9dream is the only one I found obtuse and haven't finished.

No way is Jacob De Zoet a straight historical, I kind of read it as a cinematic pastiche actually. Of all his books it'd make the best film. Actually, Black Swan Green would be pretty good in the right director's hands.

Number9dream has the fucking Goatwriter section in the middle which is more annoying than any Yakuza subplot.

I kind of read it as a cinematic pastiche actually

yes, totally

i thought ghostwritten was pretty terrible -- not terribly written, but a bit lazily plotted. I enjoyed much of it until the 'reveal' toward the end which seemed like a straight PKD rip?
I don't know, should I make time for any of this guy's other books?

you thought it was "pretty terrible" but "enjoyed much of it"?

in much the way you can enjoy a plate of food until you discover a big ugly worm in it.

let me rephrase that i guess -- overall i thought the book failed. some of the individual vignettes were fine and i remember being engaged by them.

The last section is definitely the weakest part but I supposed I enjoyed the ride as a collection of short stories as much as anything.

The others are a lot more cohesive.

what's the "reveal" in gw?

the reveal that it's a sci-fi novel masquerading as realism?

spoiler

The cult leader who seems to be a fraud in the first chapter inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events that results in his apocalypse predictions coming true; comet strikes earth, scene.

looking at wiki i don't reven remember the 'noncorpum' bit but that's cuz i read this five years ago and i was probably drunk at the time.

i was gonna say, it was already past realism with all the noncorpum stuff. that said i had no idea what to expect when i first read GW and was pretty much overjoyed when skynet showed up.

maybe i should re-read it just to experience my disappointment all over again and properly articulate it, with examples.

second thought... nah.

ian i think you would enjoy his most recent two books.

really?
what makes you think that?
i mostly read quick n easy detective novels these days.

(not trying to be a dick, just curious -- i am open to ideas cuz i love to read, i read a lot, but i think a lot of ppl who read 'srs literature is srs' type stuff would think my tastes are pedestrian or perhaps, shudder, lowbrow.)

Dunno though, I don't really think of David Mitchell as 'srs literature is srs' writer, more a guy who likes playing around with genre fiction. Black Swan Green is a classic child-coming-to-terms-with-the-world narrative with some weird magical bits in the middle. Jacob De Zoet is just a great adventure story.

black swan green is quick & easy but also really evocative, i've recommended it to a few hs english teacher friends (and one buddy of mine always uses it in his college freshman writing class).

jacob de zoet is really fun without the big narrative tricks of ghostwritten or cloud atlas. i can't think of anyone else writing today whose books are as pleasurable to read, but i never get the sense that mitchell is pandering to the reader or sacrificing depth.

okay, maybe i will check out jacob de zoet -- i will surely be able to find a used copy soon enough.

Didn't really enjoy JdZ as much as I was hoping to - found it slightly toiling, tho there are good set pieces. I'm probably going to vote Black Swan Green, but enjoyed Cloud Atlas very much as well.

cmon man dont come on my board and insult one of my favorite books that you read while drunk

max,
lighten up.
and like better-constructed books.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

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.