false <![CDATA[Number9dream]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179938412m/975186.jpg 6820 10 David Mitchell's second novel, <I>Number9Dream</I>, tells the story of Eiji Miyake, a young man negotiating a hypermodern and dangerous Tokyo to meet for the first time his secretive and powerful father. Naïve and fresh from the Japanese countryside, Eiji encounters every obstacle imaginable in his quest, from his father's--and in-laws'--reluctance for the encounter to occur (Eiji is the bastard son) to fiery entanglements with <I>yakuza</I> (the Japanese mafia) to the overwhelming size and anonymity of Tokyo itself. <p> The novel is cartoonish in that Eiji has a vivid and violent imagination that fills the book with daydreams. When not chain-smoking, forlorn Eiji wanders the city following vague or cryptic leads that invariably dead-end or land him back among yakuza. Mitchell (author of the critically acclaimed <I>Ghostwritten</I>) has a smart, eclectic writing style that seems foreign, and the novel is well paced, but the yakuza encounters are too cinematic, complete with unusual torture and pyrotechnics. Moreover, in addition to Eiji's daydreams, the last half of the book contains excerpts from the diaries of his great uncle's World War II naval heroics and bizarre short stories that Eiji reads while hiding--the latter of which make for tedious reading. <p> <I>Number9Dream</I> is crafted from too many disparate components; it does not seem to be a full expression, but an overly crowded one. Readers will sympathize with Eiji and his search, but in the end will wonder what effect, if any, all the extraneous forces had on him. The book provides many fun moments, but ultimately it doesn't really add up to the sum of its parts. <I>--Michael Ferch</I> 1439 11 2 2001 Number 9 Dream total:1415|5:367|4:621|3:344|2:63|1:20| 1415 5497 1950 164 4 4 false false Sun Aug 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 11:48:43 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 21:36:50 -0700 2008
This is a coming of age tale set in Japan. A boy sets off to Tokyo to find the father he has never known. It contains all the Mitchell elements, but just not quite at the same level of his later novels. I ...more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jan 21 21:05:58 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 21:48:07 -0800 2008
I have always been one to look for meaning in everything I do. Call me an idealist or a fool, I NEED to know that there is more, so much more. David Mitchell's ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Jan 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Oct 26 19:12:34 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 03 11:30:55 -0800 2009 cloud atlas--and still a 5 star novel.

this book demonstrates one of the things i love most about mitchell--his ability to write in a number of different voices convincingly within the same novel (hardboiled/cyberpunk/actiony, the weird and whimsic...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 24 19:52:52 -0700 2007 Sat Feb 09 12:17:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Wed Jan 07 07:40:09 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 07:44:11 -0800 2009 1 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 29 15:12:19 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 16 16:58:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Thu Jul 12 17:22:28 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 17:29:43 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu May 17 19:42:11 -0700 2007 Sun Feb 03 21:50:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 07:20:30 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 22:36:59 -0700 2009
I liked it a lot more than his magnum opus, Cloud Atlas, which was more gimmicky and less emotionally involving. Perhaps I'm also biased for anything Japanese.

David Mitchell's prose in this work manages to be elegant and humorous as well as Protean in crafting ...more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Mar 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 11:07:05 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 10:57:18 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 10:05:23 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 12 07:48:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false true Sun Jan 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 27 12:11:43 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 11 18:19:55 -0800 2009 1 poof! Solopsist Doctor, has only one l."

[Dr.:] Polonski frowns and changes the angle of his notebook.
...more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 13:41:25 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 20:36:22 -0700 2009 Ghostwritten first, I would give you 5 golden goodreads stars. But what is a relatively administered star-rating system compared to the joy I experience while reading you? Faults and all.

I can't completely understand everything you reveal with...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 17:38:58 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 12:45:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 18:18:43 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 15:31:24 -0700 2009 The comparisons to Murakami are not without basis. The writing is similar, similarly direct. But Mitchell's voice is alm...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Sep 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 21:57:18 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 22:00:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 17:21:04 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 21:26:57 -0700 2009
This had moments that ma...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 16:59:37 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 10:27:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 14:48:55 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 09:25:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 08:18:47 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 10:41:11 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=975186