About three years ago a friend gave me a copy of a novel written by an English teacher living in Hiroshima. I had expected not to like it and was pleasantly surprised and wrote a book review, which became my first professional journalistic piece (i.e. I was paid for it), it was a book review (there would be a link to it if I knew how to transfer a text scan into a regular text file) of David Mitchell's impressive debut, Ghostwritten.
It wasn't until recently that I read his follow up, number9dream (2001), I?m not sure why I waited so long, since, I, myself, had pointed out that he had enormous talent and was looking forward to what he'd write next. I think the reviews of the novel?s content turned me off, however, I can't say exactly what it was. But now having read the acclaimed book, which was short listed for the Booker prize, I know exactly what it is that I don't like about it.
The previous novel was a collection of stories that interconnected to form a novel. One of those stories owed a heavy debt to Haruki Murakami, as does this novel. It is a sort to of mystery (a boy searching for his father), which is one of Murakami's favorite genres. It features a female character praised for an atypical beauty point, in Murakami's case it was the ears, here it is her neck. There are elements of fantasy and science fiction, however, I can't see how they move the story along or add to it. I find it something that I usually overlooked in Murakami's work, because of all the other great qualities his novels possess. Early in the novel, the main character Eiji has several sci-fi fantasy sequences that d little other than introduce some characters and make you wonder what kind of book you've gotten yourself into. Later, there is a sequence where Eiji is hiding out reading fantastical stories by the occupant of the safe house, which almost seems like filler, and to be honest I skimmed most of those stories. And instead of naming his novel after a Beatles song like Murakami, "Norwegian Wood", he has named it after a John Lennon song, "number9dream."
Furthermore, I had trouble getting around the English slang. I know he was making an approximation of how Japanese in meaning and tone would sound in English. And he has had success with an idea that I've had as well, which is to write a typical literary story, but set it in Japan in order to distinguish it from the hundreds of other literary novels. And to Mitchell?s credit, he has had a lot of success in doing so.
He seems to be dealing with some big issues like fate, the nature of evil, and man's role in society. But sometimes the story comes across like a manga (comic book) story, with every evil character being cartoonishly so over the top.
I know that Mitchell lives in Hiroshima, but must have spent extensive time in Tokyo, because he knows all the right stations and describes the city with an eye for detail. He chooses obscure areas in shita-machi (downtown) like Kita-Senju and Ueno station. That being said Mitchell is an impressive stylist. In professional terms this was a successful follow-up to his initial book. But in my eyes he is capable of more.
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