Black Swan Green (Hardcover) by David Mitchell - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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03/31/08

Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

Read in March, 2008

It seems like it would just make a simple, pleasant read. A boy's coming of age story. Of course they compare it to Catcher in the Rye - don't they compare every boy's coming of age story to Catcher in the Rye? Don't let your eyes glaze over. David Mitchell has written a complex, multi-layered story - and yes, it's also about a 13-year-old boy growing up in Britain in 1982, right in the middle of the Falklands War. Mitchell's writing is sharp and saturated with details and seductive literary ref...more It seems like it would just make a simple, pleasant read. A boy's coming of age story. Of course they compare it to Catcher in the Rye - don't they compare every boy's coming of age story to Catcher in the Rye? Don't let your eyes glaze over. David Mitchell has written a complex, multi-layered story - and yes, it's also about a 13-year-old boy growing up in Britain in 1982, right in the middle of the Falklands War. Mitchell's writing is sharp and saturated with details and seductive literary references. Each tension-filled scene is loaded with meaning on so many levels, making this a very satisfying read. The themes connect under the surface - adolescence, popularity, betrayal, divorce, war - bullies are, in fact, everywhere. We're surrounded.

Jason Taylor is a little bit geeky and incredibly likable. He's a protagonist who earns your trust right from the start. You ache when he's pushed into the mud during gym class. You cringe when teachers ask him to read aloud, knowing his stutter will mark him as a leper to his classmates. You cheer him when he outsmarts the bullies. But Jason is surprisingly, refreshingly diplomatic about his fate. Most of the time, he devises ways to get out of sticky situations. He learns how to make himself invisible: "Picked-on kids act invisible to reduce the chances of being noticed and picked on. Stammerers act invisible to reduce the chances of being made to say something we can't. Kids whose parents argue act invisible in case we trigger another skirmish. The Triple Invisible Boy, that's Jason Taylor."

Jason is a poet, and nobody knows it: he writes under the pseudonym Eliot Bolivar.( "If you show someone something you've written," he writes, "you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, 'When you're ready.'") But this book is also 'written' by Jason - and what a voice he has! More than story and character, more than meta-textual references and layers of interpretation, Black Swan Green must be read for the pure pleasure of language. Mitchell is a marvel of words, sensory details so rich they inspire a physiological response as you read. A sampling (and keep in mind that these are the observations of a 13-year-old boy):

"Beef gristle tastes like deep-sea phlegm."
"A sick bus growled past and made the air taste of pencils."
"The eggy daffodils on the wallpaper'd fossilized to slag-heap grey as the light faded."
"Lyme Regis was a casserole of tourists. Everywhere smelt of suntan oil, hamburgers, and burnt sugar."

This is what makes me love reading. This is what drives me from page to page, chapter to chapter. Anyone can write down an anecdote. Good writers use the tools of the craft to create believable characters and a detailed fictional world. But it's only the brilliant writers, like David Mitchell, who can turn a descriptive phrase into a transcendent experience - make you reexamine your own world through another consciousness, and surprise you by making you feel this world as you read it.(less)

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09/25/07

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

bookshelves: leetle-boys

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: little british boys

I remember describing this book to a coworker:

Me: "It's about this little stuttering English kid who lives out in some little village during the Thatcher era, and sort of like, his coming of age kind of experiences?"

Coworker: "Oh God, that sounds awful."

Me: "No! I mean, I know it sounds awful the way I just explained it, but the book's actually really, really great!"

Two days later....

Me: (privately, to self...more I remember describing this book to a coworker:

Me: "It's about this little stuttering English kid who lives out in some little village during the Thatcher era, and sort of like, his coming of age kind of experiences?"

Coworker: "Oh God, that sounds awful."

Me: "No! I mean, I know it sounds awful the way I just explained it, but the book's actually really, really great!"

Two days later....

Me: (privately, to self) "Oh, God, this is awful."

I don't know what happened! This book started out really amazing me, seeming superficially like one of those written-a-trillion-times quaint period piece preadolescent-boyhood novels, but somehow defied the genre and was just so wonderfully written and insided this kid's head and about a thousand times better than it had any right to be..... But then somehow, midway through, it tipped and twisted and turned into the most cliched, precious, tiresome crap I've read in awhile. Is that too harsh? Yeah. But it did suddenly get completely stupid, I'm pretty sure. It went from being this wonderfully phrased little shimmering gem with terrific dialogue, into... well, okay, spoiler alert: in the second half of this novel, the little boy meets an eccentric old lady who teaches him to believe in himself, copes with his parents' divorce, learns to overcome prejudice by befriending gypsies, stands up to bullies, gets his first kiss, and learns a few lessons about love and loss. Happily, our little hero Jason neatly resolves at least one of Erik Erikson's developmental stages and gains mastery over his environment, moving several strides closer to manhood in the great game of Life! If this sounds good to you, be my guest and pick up a copy of _Black Swan Green_. If you can't find this book, that's okay, because there are countless others which are very similar, many of them written for a young audience.

Okay, I'm a big jerk, and it really wasn't so terrible... But if you're interested in the coming-of-age experiences of little British boys in crappy towns during the Falklands war, I suggest you go see the movie _This is England_, which has not just a much fresher take, but also a better soundtrack.(less)

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03/28/08

Miina rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: my husband and anyone with a young teen

I think I am developing a serious author crush on David Mitchell. I am a 31 year old married woman and yet David (we're on a first name basis now because I've read two of his books, see) creates the 13 year old character of Jason Taylor in such a manner that Jason becomes EveryKid to me. I feel his adolescent pain, fictional construct though it may be, because I felt that kind of pain when I was a pre-teen. Once again, David brilliantly captures the spirit of his protagonist and the time through...more I think I am developing a serious author crush on David Mitchell. I am a 31 year old married woman and yet David (we're on a first name basis now because I've read two of his books, see) creates the 13 year old character of Jason Taylor in such a manner that Jason becomes EveryKid to me. I feel his adolescent pain, fictional construct though it may be, because I felt that kind of pain when I was a pre-teen. Once again, David brilliantly captures the spirit of his protagonist and the time through the excellent use of the vernacular. It's believable, it's real and it ain't The Queen's English, thank goodness.
This novel won me over when it wham bam tied into the Frobisher story of "Cloud Atlas". It was a literary Easter Egg. At the time I read it, I had forgotten that the Frobisher vignette was possibly a "fictional construct" within the world of "Cloud Atlas" but since that novel was a fictional construct anyway, I guess I don't care too much that the Frobisher story was a fictional construct within a fictional construct thus rendering the possibility that *gasp!* Black Swan Green is a fictional construct, too. Tant pis! I don't know about the rest of you Mitchell fans, but I'm thinking he's creating his own fictionally constructed literary oeuvre to an ulterior end.
Anyhow, back to Frobisher. I absolutely loved it when the old bat Crommelynck said of Frobisher's untimely self-inflicted demise, "Robert was obsessed of recurrence eternal. Recurrence is the heart of his music. We live exactly the same life, Robert believed, and die exactly the same death again, again, again, to the same demisemequaver. To eternity." Bloody brilliant because it's so TRUE in this case, isn't it? Robert Frobisher WILL live the same life and die the same death again and again and again because David Mitchell wrote it and we read it. Frobisher will never die by anything other than a shotgun blast.
In that same vein, Jason Taylor's parents will always get divorced. By picking up the story of a young boy and remembering (constructing!) his life through vignettes with themes important to most teenagers, I wonder if David Mitchell was trying to remind us that there are common life lessons that must be learned by everybody; social lessons that each generation must identify and conquer; and global issues that lead the inevitable demise of global empires. Basically, Mitchell is saying, history repeats itself because each person/generation/empire ignores, can't comprehend or deliberately forgets the lessons learnt by those who came before them.
It seems themes of recurrence, and thus time, endings and beginnings, are a popular playground for David. I, for one, have permamnent dibs on the merry-go-round.(less)

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11/23/07

Matthew rated it:

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Growing up is tough going anywhere, and the town of Black Swan Green is no different. David Mitchell's novel follows Jason Taylor, a thirteen-year-old in 1982, as he navigates around a world filled with bullies, awkward love, confusing politics, and a family on the verge of disintegration. Each chapter is a different month in his life, so the novel reads episodically, but Mitchell's great strength is making each scene resonate with humor and pathos. He makes the ordinary seem epic and perfectly ...more

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06/19/07

Patrick rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

Read in June, 2006

There's some interview from right when this came out where he says something like, "It's the best thing I've written, I'm confident of that." I don't know if that's just selfblurbing marketing nonsense or what, but I was totally buying it with this book. I thought I was done with the first person "unhappy, partially wised-up nine-year-old"* until I started reading this, and I was willing to totally make out with it, even given all of the Big Realizations the Character Comes T...more There's some interview from right when this came out where he says something like, "It's the best thing I've written, I'm confident of that." I don't know if that's just selfblurbing marketing nonsense or what, but I was totally buying it with this book. I thought I was done with the first person "unhappy, partially wised-up nine-year-old"* until I started reading this, and I was willing to totally make out with it, even given all of the Big Realizations the Character Comes To Discover About What It Means to Be a Human and that stuff, but Eva Crommelynck showing up finally wrecked it for me.

I loved Cloud Atlas, just like everyone else on Earth, but all the pyrotechnics have caused it to fade a little in my mind as Really Good While You're Reading It But Ultimately Hamstrung By Its Gimmicks (it was frustrating to me to get involved with a narrative only to have it marginalized by the subsequent narrative, e.g.) (and I know that's part of the point), so I thought this really was a breakthrough for him: all the brilliance was actually serving the story, not just there out in the open for you to admire it. So when I read Black Swan Green, I was impressed that he had put all of that in the background: if you wanted to focus on the structural tics, you could, but it was actually there in support of a story that he was telling without for once drawing attention to his own cleverness.
But then when Eva Crommelynck showed up, it placed the book in the same universe as the Frobisher story from CA (which was maybe my favorite, but ultimately just one of several other nested and subjugated stories that were revealed to be fictional constructs by their subsequent narratives. If that makes any sense) and that makes me throw up my hands: I think Mitchell is definitely smarter and more British than I am, and for once all the brilliance seemed to be serving the narrative, but with that reference, it all came crashing down for me: look! It's all a construct! Please pay attention to the man behind the curtain!

I hope it was fun for him to put that in there. I hope he got a kick out of that. I hope he really enjoyed himself with that one.***

*(Updike Safran-Foer Takedown stizz)**
** (thirteen, whatever)
*** (just realized I should have used Jason's attempts to overcome his stutter as a metaphor for Mitchell's attempts to not fall back on his own cleverness, but I guess I'm not that clever. AND THEN A SWAN SHOWED UP, TYING EVERYTHING TOGETHER POINTLESSLY THE END.)(less)

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06/16/07

Sarah rated it:

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bookshelves: released

Read in November, 2007

Black Swan Green takes place over the course of a year: from January 1982 to January 1983. There is one chapter for each month. Until the last chapter, the other twelve chapters read more like short stories than chapters in a novel. The plotting is subtle, often focusing on the mundane joys of life than on the big picture events.

The narrator of the book is thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor. He is like Adrian Mole but more likeable and probably smarter. His narration is told in the past ...more

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05/15/07

Emma rated it:

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bookshelves: emmasreads

Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: Mand who also grew up in Worcs in the 1980s

It may not be quite the epic and intellectual Cloud Atlas, but infinitely more enjoyable and unputdownable. Whereas Cloud Atlas had enjoyable episodes interspersed by (shall we say) more experimental writing, this more human novel deals with the rich tapestry of everyday life. Its details of the mundane are anything but - they are touching, gentle and they make you genuinely care about the characters.
The novel is written from the perspective of Jason the protagonist - but it is more like...more

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07/10/07

Montambo rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

bookshelves: audiobooks-are-reading-too

Read in August, 2007

I liked it. That's what three stars means. I liked it.

I liked the writing. I read that it is semi-autobiographical, and it seems like the kind of book that I'd like to write about myself--just remembering what it was like to be 13. Remembering all the ins and outs of it. Thirteen wasn't so bad for me as it was for Jason Taylor. I love talking like a brit while I listen to a book narrated with a British accent. I feel right posh.

I agree with Marie that some things w...more

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05/17/08

Karen rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

Read in September, 2007

This book is nowhere near as ambitious as Cloud Atlas but definitely seems more finished. It's a year in the life of Jason Taylor, a thirteen-year-old boy growing up in the small English town of Black Swan Green, in a family that's on the verge of breaking apart. In the hands of another author this story might have become a self-indulgent, thinly veiled autobiography, but David Mitchell knows what he's doing. Jason is an intelligent and interesting person (and not annoyingly precocious, which i...more

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07/02/07

AJ Griffin rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

recommends it for: sentimental softies; nostalgia-lovers, people who enjoy "that British charm"

My mom sends me a lot of books, many of which kind of suck. Every now and then though, she hits the jackpot (e.g., it seems like she was kind of ahead of the wagon on that whole "harry potter" thing).

Anyhow, this would fall into the "occasional awesomeness" category. I'm not sure if it's impressing or disconcerting, but the author is really fucking good at capturing the essence of being a 13-year-old boy.

Anyway, to summarize, let us quote the great G...more

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07/02/07

Maggie rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

Read in August, 2007

I've heard this called a British Catcher in the Rye, and although the protagonist isn't nearly as depressed or angst-ridden, the comparison is apt. It's a beautiful, poignant character sketch of a fictional boy who I wished were real so I could be his friend. I loved it.

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06/10/08

Patrick rated it:

(review of isbn 0340822791)

bookshelves: books-read-in-2008

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Patrick by: Steve
recommends it for: Fans of 'Freaks and Geeks'

You never know what you're going to get when you read a 'coming of age' book. When you get right down to it, they're often very indulgent and narcissistic exercises in creative non-fiction masquerading as the experience of the typical (or atypical, as they'd want you to believe) teenager or young adult. Other times they can be very true to life and touching, if not altogether inspiring.

'Black Swan Green' sort of splits the difference between these two results. It's not a bad bo...more
You never know what you're going to get when you read a 'coming of age' book. When you get right down to it, they're often very indulgent and narcissistic exercises in creative non-fiction masquerading as the experience of the typical (or atypical, as they'd want you to believe) teenager or young adult. Other times they can be very true to life and touching, if not altogether inspiring.

'Black Swan Green' sort of splits the difference between these two results. It's not a bad book, but it's not the great one it strives to be either. David Mitchell treats his protagonist, Jason Taylor, a painfully sensitive and shy young British boy with a stuttering problem, as a medium for spouting off all the lessons he learned from his own sensitive and shy young childhood. While Taylor's experiences feel mostly real, the book gets bogged down in describing the culture of being a boy on the cusp of the cusp of manhood.

The reader is meant to understand that Taylor is a precocious young boy who strives to be nothing more than completely average, going to great lengths to hide his intelligence and insight at every turn. However, either he is the most self-aware child in the history of literature, or Mitchell goes way overboard in trying to make his less-than-subtle point about the horrors of young adulthood. I lean towards the latter. Mitchell puts words in his young protagonist's mouth that, while maybe he understands on a very basic, almost instinctual level, would never be able to eloquently express. For example, in a scene where one of the local bullies offers Jason a cigarette, Jason accepts even though he doesn't smoke, while his inner monologue explains that " A middle-ranking kid like me shouldn't refuse an invitation from an older kid like Grant Burch." Maybe not, and it's entirely likely that Jason understands this on an intrinsic level, but there is not a 13 year old alive who would offer up that explanation off the cuff.

Mitchell continues to provide Jason with clever insights throughout the book, such as ' Hate smells like burnt fireworks' right before two bullies fight one another, or 'The sequence of doors we passed made me think of all the rooms of my past and my future. The hospital ward I was born in, classrooms, tents, churches, offices, hotels, museums, nursing homes, the room I'll die in. (Has it been built yet?) Cars're rooms. So are woods. Skies're ceilings. Distance're walls. Wombs're rooms made of mothers. Graves're rooms made of soil.' Really? Come on. Lovely sentiments, certainly, but unfit to be coming out the mind of a 13 year old. It betrays the realism of the character and makes you very, very aware that you're reading a book written by a man pushing 40 trying to remember what it was like to be 13.

That said, the book is not without merit. While it could afford to be about 100 pages shorter (there are entire chapters, most notably the entire bit with 'Madame Crommelynck', that could be excised without hindering the story in the least, in my opinion. I dreaded picking up the book for long stretches, mostly because I'd be entrenched in chapters full of explicitly stated pretentious introspection that was far beyond what a 13 year old can muster), there are also stretches where the book really evoked the awkwardness and pain of growing up, and that was where it was most effective. This was especially true as the book wound down and we were given more of Jason's school life, and the tortures he faced on most days. It could be difficult to read, and reminded me of just how awful middle school really was, but it also felt real in a way that much of the rest of the book did not. When Mitchell focuses on this part of Jason's life, the book can truly be considered a success.

Mitchell is a talented writer, and he so deftly handles some situations (such as Jason's home life, which he can tell is going astray, but he isn't quite sure just how far until it happens) that it actually makes you angry that he is so explicit in dealing with the thoughts and emotions of others. In the end, he's left with a decent book that drags painfully in stretches and gives too little credit to the reader, but is overall a good effort at recreating the small traumas and triumphs of the end of childhood.(less)

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05/19/08

Kevin rated it:

(review of isbn 0812974018)

Read in April, 2008

Although a few minor elements seemed somewhat hokey or unnecessary, as a whole, Black Swan Green is, in my opinion, a great piece of contemporary fiction. I really enjoyed Mitchell's characterization and use of episodic and unresolved short stories that combine to evoke a very strong empathy in the reader. This book is definitely a coming-of-age novel, and almost every scenario is stereotypically within that category, ie: first cigarette, first kiss, being bullied, dealing with parents, dealing ...more

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03/30/08

Kama rated it:

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I can't even tell you how much I adored this book. Part of it was the anticipation of reading another David Mitchell book, part of it was the fact that Mr. Mitchell and I (and his protagonist) are of an age, and part of it is Mitchell's sheer brilliance as a writer.

This book has a very simple premise -- it is a year (1982) in the life of 13-year-old Jason Taylor, a sensitive yet quite ordinary boy who lives in the back of beyond, Worcestershire. Each chapter of the book is a month in...more

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01/22/08

Brian rated it:

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Read in December, 2007

I read this book a month ago but it hasn't yet fallen into that oblivion in my mind so I'll write about it.

Before this one, I read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas which is totally, totally awesome! I mean, like, really awesome. And from that book, I already had David Mitchell pegged as one of The Good Guys In My Book. One of those Guys who can write really, really well and has an enourmous and empathetic world vision. Other Good Guys In My Book include Thomas Pynchon and William T. ...more I read this book a month ago but it hasn't yet fallen into that oblivion in my mind so I'll write about it.

Before this one, I read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas which is totally, totally awesome! I mean, like, really awesome. And from that book, I already had David Mitchell pegged as one of The Good Guys In My Book. One of those Guys who can write really, really well and has an enourmous and empathetic world vision. Other Good Guys In My Book include Thomas Pynchon and William T. Vollmann, as points of reference, you know "The Voices of America"... Salinger, Dostoevsky might be other Good Guys, but less so. I also look at lots of pictures of authors, and have heard friends talk about lots of authors, and imagine them to be Good Guys, too, but I've never read them, so the list is actually pretty short. Actually, fuck those last two, JD and Fyodor: you're either in or you're out. But David Mitchell = Good Guy In My Book.

...

Black Swan Green is a coming-of-age story, featuring the author at age 13 (or whatever age), under a different name, with presumably a few made-up traits and some fake events thrown in here and there, laid out in chronological order (sure, a cheap literary device [often employed to create "a story"] Mitchell blatantly ripped off from many other authors but somehow Mitchell makes good use of it.) It's all told in first person and the chap is pretty precocious, as bloody-well expected. I'll admit he was more precocious than I was at that age, but then I wasn't particularly precocious, so who knows. What's really precocious about him is his writing! He writes exactly like a really smart adult! As if a brilliant writer possessed this young boys limbs and fingers and wrote these words through this little guy!

The story is a coming-of-age story, not unlike other coming-of-age stories.

David Mitchell is one of the GGIMB, but it is largely due to Cloud Atlas. I was both really relieved that he would write a nice, less outrageously mind-blowing book like this, that shows lots of different strengths and emotions and lets him write about sweet, small things, but also a little, a very little, disappointed that it lacked the scope of Cloud Atlas. By the time I'd finished reading it, I fully realized that that wasn't the point of the book thought, and I really liked it.

Now I'm thinking this book isn't as fresh in my mind as I thought.(less)

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09/30/07

Octo rated it:

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bookshelves: dunread

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: one and all

Ok, so this is more of a precedence review than anything else. If I never give 5 stars then 4 stars becomes 5 stars, right? And where does that leave 4 stars? I dunno. You can't be assigning ratings you can't define, can you? This all isn't helping...

Ugg... Anyway.

No, this book is not perfect. But, hey, neither is Joe Mamma, ok!?!

English kid growing up in 80s Thatcher-England in a small village somewhere north and west of London. Kid has problems, as...more

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08/18/07

Tilky added it (review of isbn 0340822805)

Read in October, 2006

recommends it for: Jodes, Beth, Jen, Yvette

I LOVED THIS BOOK!! talk about remembering what it's like to be a teenager--David Mitchell captures this brilliantly. His book before this one, Cloud Atlas, is half read by Dino and I and one of these days i'll get back to it--also a serious page turner (cloud atlas is).

Black Swan Green is funny, honest, so enjoyable to get into the mind of Jason Taylor growing up in a small town in England in the 1980's--i mean, he gets his first kiss while Duran Duran's Planet Earth is playing at t...more

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06/23/07

Trevor rated it:

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Read in October, 2007

Mitchell's books are always unique. Even this one, seemingly a simple coming of age story, is astonishing in its insight and in its technique.
This story is about a 13 year old boy in a small town in England. It begins in January and runs through the year to the next January. Each month is a chapter that, in a way, stands on its own, so you get thirteen vignettes. However, they are all tied together with some overarching themes.
Interestingly, each chapter is about s...more Mitchell's books are always unique. Even this one, seemingly a simple coming of age story, is astonishing in its insight and in its technique.
This story is about a 13 year old boy in a small town in England. It begins in January and runs through the year to the next January. Each month is a chapter that, in a way, stands on its own, so you get thirteen vignettes. However, they are all tied together with some overarching themes.
Interestingly, each chapter is about something important in the life of a child: popularity, friends, bullying, music, etc. However, Mitchell entwines these vignettes with the overarching themes of family, divorce, growing up.
The book is brilliant for several reasons. First, each story stands on its own and tells about some incredibly impactful even in the narrator's life. In the next story, that event is seemingly dropped. However, it has not dropped from the conscious of the narrator. Readers can tell that these events continue to affect the narrator, even though he is not necessarily acknowledging them. In this way, Mitchell plays with the theme of time, beginnings, and endings--themes he played with brilliantly in Cloud Atlas.
Another brilliant facet to this little book is the astounding voice of the narrator. It is pitch perfect thirteen year-old boy. However, at the same time it is poetic and contains wordplay worthy of Nabokov. Mitchell is a genius with voice (once again, as shown in Cloud Atlas) and this book shows how much control he has over language. This narrator is a boy who on the surface is more concerned about boy-things than about his parents' "slow motion divorce in four seasons." But we see him struggling to bring his feelings to the surface at the same time he is struggling to keep them contained and hidden.
Why didn't I give this book five stars? To me Mitchell's masterwork, so far, is Cloud Atlas. This book is brilliant, but it does not have the same scope or philosophical depth. That Mitchell can still integrate so much depth, however, makes me totter on giving it five stars.(less)

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05/10/07

Kelly rated it:

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Read in June, 2008

I wanted to like this book more. The writing is beautiful and the characters seem interesting. But I just found myself a little bored out of my gourd.

This book is a year in the life of Jason Taylor, a young British boy trapped between being a child and being a teen. He's bullied because he stammers. He writes poetry, but is afraid that others will find out because it's "gay" to enjoy reading or writing. His older sister is moving out of the house and his parents marriage is...more

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12/01/08

Lisa rated it:

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Read in December, 2008

I'm finding that most of my favorite writers are British. This is the second book I finished by David Mitchell -- the first being _Cloud Atlas_. I loved Cloud Atlas. It is one of my favorite books ever -- an amazing piece of literature. But I can say that I loved Black Swan Green even more, even though Cloud Atlas was a more original piece of literature. While Cloud Atlas was more cerebral, Black Swan Green just grips your heart.

It is the story of a 13-year-old boy Jason Taylor in the yea...more

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