Goodreads | Patrick's review

Patrick's review

Black Swan Green: A Novel
by David Mitchell

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14316.Black_Swan_Green_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Black Swan Green: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1166586589m/14316.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14316.Black_Swan_Green_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Black Swan Green: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4565.David_Mitchell">David Mitchell</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2117815?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars 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.)
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/137408?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Patrick's review
rating:

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 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

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it) flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Patrick's books »