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Ghostwritten
COZY READS -GENERAL
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Ghostwritten by David Mitchell - BR Feb 2021
Just finished Holy Mountain.I loved this beautiful tale. It was calm and serene exactly like the Holy Mountain however yet again it ended with more questions than satisfaction in it.
There were a couple hints with the granddaughter and the lawyer which were loosely pointing towards Chapter 2.
Also, the stranger who walks away all of a sudden the other night on hearing the Mongolia story, seems like he's gonna make a comeback.
And lastly, did Sanctuary ring any bells ?
Three things have occurred repeatedly in every story so far1. Cool breath of air on (someone's) neck
2. The presence of Buddha
3. WTF was that in the end! :/
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Yes that reminded me of Tokyo. So this old lady in Holy Mountain is connected to that lady in Tokyo.
I wonder who will establish a connection with that cyborg guy in Okinawa!
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Let me try revisiting:
1. Okinawa - about that cyborg guy (Quasar) who wants to cure the world of evil - he is part of a bigger group supervised by "His Serendipity". He makes a phone call to "feed the dog" which is cryptic to get help from Serendipity.
2. Tokyo - Satoru works in a music shop, falls in love with a girl. He is the one who received that phone call. I don't recall anything else from Tokyo :(
"Four high school girls came in, but one of them was completely, completely different. She pulsed, invisibly, like a quasar. I know that sounds stupid, but she did."
3. Hong Kong - this guy Neal keeps talking to himself - has multiple compartments of himself - one married to Katy Forbes (which is also his password for that palindrome account), the one having an affair with his maid, the one in love with a ghost of an abstract girl who somehow has they eyes of Neal and body of the maid, the one who handles the account of that Russian guy..... Highly confused what all is happening here....
4. Holy Mountain - the best of the lot so far. This lady spends her whole life on this holy mountain. Themes related to communism, feudalism, socialism in China (which all went above my head... always does!) Her father sells her body to a cruel warlord for 2 vessels. The warlord abuses her, kicks her navel and spits on the bridge of her nose. This same kick and spit on the bridge of her nose the old lady experiences again in her life when she is very old. Somehow she is able to travel in future to pray for her father's soul. There are subtle hints that her grand-daughter is referenced in chapter Tokyo.
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And lastly, did Sanctuary ring any bells ?"
That was a brilliant stroke! The reader has full attention on the story of 3 animals... don't know what the story is, and still this guy behaves so strangely on hearing that this story has been passed down as a word of mouth from generations! For sure this guy should come back!!!
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1. Cool breath of air on (someone's) neck
2. The presence of Buddha
3. WTF was that in the end! :/"
except 3, did not observe the other 2 in all stories :(
realising my attention span is very weak and i'm missing all the important bits :(
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Havent read/heard/watched anything related to Mongols so far. So this will be my first.
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"In 1960, in the world’s largest ever man-made famine, 15 to 40 million people starved to death in China.
The government denied that its central planning had failed, and the catastrophe was kept secret by the Chinese government for 36 years. It wasn’t described in English to the outside world until 1996."
I felt traces of it in the Holy Mountain story.... strongly believe it is around 1960's timeline in China.
Oh so all these stories are based on some of the catastrophe's like The train gas bombing in Chapter 1 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660289/Chapter 3 probably had a money laundering scam highlighted!
Interesting!
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chapter 2 seems to be generic love story.... not sure any real life events are portrated there
Gorab wrote: "oh haan! you are right!chapter 2 seems to be generic love story.... not sure any real life events are portrated there"
Yeah right. So far, Holy Mountain has been the best :)
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Em Lost In Books wrote: "took a break, will resume today. Glad that you two are still reading it. :)"HaHa. Not DNF-ing in the hopes that something grand is about to come :P
Also, seeing our fellow bibliophile's ratings, I feel I should go on :P
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The whole landscape of the book has changed. I want to re-read the first four chapters now.
oh! Sounds good! I'll start with Mongolia soon
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5 brilliant stars for this story alone!!!
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Will read Mongolia today.
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5 brilliant stars for this story alone!!!"
High Praise..
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grrrrrrr!!!!
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Gorab wrote: "the Sanctuary did not ring any bells for me :( please enlighten."Oh, Quasar's guru had an organisation ( a party) which was called Sanctuary in Chapter 1
Gorab wrote: "Makrand wrote: "Three things have occurred repeatedly in every story so far1. Cool breath of air on (someone's) neck
2. The presence of Buddha
3. WTF was that in the end! :/"
except 3, did not ob..."
1. This was literally the first line of the first chapter :P
Gorab wrote: "Frankly speaking, I lost the context of whats happening.Let me try revisiting:
1. Okinawa - about that cyborg guy (Quasar) who wants to cure the world of evil - he is part of a bigger group superv..."
Awesome! Thanks Gorab for summarising all the above chapters.
So far every chapter has link with the previous chapter. Adding links below for better clarity.
Chapter 1 - Quasar and "His Serendipity" who are a part of The SANCTUARY
Chapter 2 - Satoru & his Girlfriend's love story.
Link 1 - Satoru gets a call from Quasar here who tell him that the Dog needs to be fed and Satoru doesn't understand context
Link 2 - Mr. Ikeda, Quasar's school teacher was somehow Satoru's football coach, How? Different cities :|
Chapter 3 - Neal and his Money laundering/maid affair
Link 1 - He watches Satoru playing the saxophone and admires the way his GF watches Satoru. No idea where he sees them, maybe on that ship? How did the two land on that ship?
Link 2-Neal can see the top of Holy Mountain in this story, referencing the next story.
Chapter 4 - Holy Mountain
Link 1 - There's a reference to old lady's daughter who whores around the town (The maid who sleeps for greed?)
Link 2 - There something about the granddaughter too (Possibly the girl who was the ghost and liked Neal)
Link 3- The oldlady, when reaches the summit, meets a priest/clergy who happens to run the Sanctuary (I think he's Quasar's boss)
Chapter 5 - Mongolia
Link 1 - The story of three animals who care of about the fate of the world....Links with Holy mountains stranger who runs all of a sudden when a mother is telling the same story.
Link 2 - (view spoiler)
I was struggling to read all through the week. Wanted to finish Mongolia and finally i managed to , yesterday and I loved it.So far the best Chapter. I loved the concept of NonCorpa. Splendid!
Initially, after reading the first few para's, although I was sort of unclear what's happening. Once he started revealed picture became clear and then I felt like re-reading it from the start ;)
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Holy Mountain and Mongolia were in perfect sync. I am somehow getting the vibes that in each story there is a NonCorpa. Neal from HK and old lady from holy mountain are confirmed cases since they keep talking to themselves. I suspect its presence even inside Quasar's head! Not sure about Tokyo.
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Here's what I am referencing to:
I tried to think, but I kept seeing pictures. I imagined my father – that man who I had imagined was my father – looking out through the rear window of a car. I thought of butterfly knives, and a time once three or four years ago when I was walking out of McDonald’s and a businessman slammed down onto the pavement from a ninth floor window of the same building. He lay three metres away from where I stood. His mouth was gaping open in astonishment. A dark stain was trickling from it, over the pavement, between the bits of broken teeth and glasses.
Gorab wrote: "ha ha ha... i had similar feelings after reading Mongolia. In fact I went back and re-read a few excerpts from Okinawa, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Holy Mountain.Holy Mountain and Mongolia were in perfe..."
Ooooooooh possible!
Gorab wrote: "also in Tokyo, there is a reference of a man committing suicide outside of a McDonalds. This could potentially link to some future story... or some other book... or something else yet to be publish..."Oh yes, Good that you posted, now i can recall this. Yeah, let's watch out for this guy.
Moving on to the next chapter :)
Mod
Concept was same, but what struck me was that he was being referred to as the 'Mongolian' by Jasper's psychiatrist.
Look what I found in Utopia Avenue:
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"I’m a mind without a body of my own. I’ve existed for five decades in this form. I may be from Mongolia. I transfer between human hosts by touch. When Formaggio shook your hand, I transferred to you. My Dutch is poor, as you heard, so … The voice had switched to English. Like I said, I don’t know much.
‘If you don’t know who you are, what are you?’
‘Spirit’, ‘ghost’, ‘ancestor’, ‘guardian angel’, ‘noncorpum’, ‘incorporeal’. I’m not prescriptive.
‘Why are you in my head?’
I found you in Formaggio’s memory, and hoped Knock Knock might offer clues to my own origins. I’ve been sifting.
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Gorab wrote: "You know what. I went back and checked a part of Utopia Avenue. The part where there is this person called 'Knock Knock' in Jasper de Zoet's head.Concept was same, but what struck me was that he ..."
Myyyy gooodness!!! This is the same guy!! David is gonna drive us insane by his easter egg references should we decide to read all his books :|
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All that random mish mash did make sense finally.
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While all other stories had WTF ending, this one is entirely WTF material except ending!
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I quite liked Petersburg. Needless to say characters were mad and the madness was infectious. Whoever got in touch with them, was soon be mad.
@Gorab - A character from Cloud Atlas appeared here in London. and now am thinking what was going on in Mitchell's mind when he wrote this book... creating this common universe for his characters, was this his goal from the very start?
Oh good progress both of you!!I am barely into Petersburg. Yeah it's BS at the start. The only idea I've got is that they're trying to get away by looting artifact's from the museum by means of a honeytrap. Wading ahead. Good to hear rave reviews from you guys!
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it can't be the Hawai sailor.
can't be yoona649 or Sonmi451 since they were underground.
must be Robert Forbisher... or his lover? forgot the name.... that guy who Louisa Ray meets in elevator.
wait, it could be Louisa Ray herself.... as she also appeared in Utopia Avenue!!
interconnecting characters from stories written across a decade!!! this guy is crazy! can't even believe this was his debut!!!!
For the love of God someone please tell me why does he end the stories the way he does!!!!I was enjoying Petersburg. So gripping, wow! Predictable yet entertaining but his last two lines...
why ???? None of this really happened? mahnnn!
The graph of the stories being awesome in on the rise ever since Holy Mountain.Actually, I liked the others too with just Hongkong being an exception
you've got to be kidding me! Guess who just made an appearance on the first page of London. LOL.(view spoiler)
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I took it as a figure of speech. Like when something incredible happens, people say - this can't be happeneing. this didn't happen.
Now that you bring it up, its a possibility that none of this really happened :D :D
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I just met Tim! whoa!
Reading it feels like magic pops!
Seriously what was he thinking while writing this.... this debut work!!!!
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"My forehead kissed the tarmac, soft as a sleeping daughter. I keeled over into foetal position. A lurching tide of voices sloshed the hull of my hearing. What the fuck is going on?
Now I understand what this insane fucking day has been about!
Hilarious!
I am fucking dying!
No doubt about it. Now it’s happening again it’s all coming back to me.
Thirty-one years old, and I am fucking dying!
Avril’s going to be so fucked off with me. And when D.C. hears, well, I think I can safely kiss my six-figure bonus goodbye. How will Katy take it? That’s the clincher. Dad?
Hilarious . . .
She comes through the wall of legs and torsos. She looks down at me, and she smiles. She has my eyes, and the maid’s body, in miniature. She gives me her hand, and we pick our way through the crowd of gawpers, the shocked, the titillated, and the gum-chewing. What can have happened to fascinate them so on such an afternoon?
Hand in hand we walk up the steps of the Big Bright Buddha, brighter and brighter, into a snowstorm of silent light."
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Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Weave World (other topics)Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (other topics)
Ready Player One (other topics)
Yes, i am loving the style which is different in each and every story.
This is so unique and beautiful.
So far this story is good, lots of ups and downs.