Black Swan GreenDavid Mitchell
Being 13 sucks. Being a stutterer sucks. Being a pariah sucks even more. Such is the plight of Jason Taylor, the narrator of Mitchell's latest, Black Swan Green. From Taylor's perspective, Mitchell explores the world of adolescent hierarchies. Sounds a bit like Prep, right? Yeah, a little, with two major differences: Black Swan Green is actually good, and David Mitchell can actually write. Oooh, burn. Yeah, I said it.
Black Swan Green is different from Mitchell's other works I've read (namely, Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas) that featured shifting perspectives and multiple narrators. I was worried that the move to a single narrator would cause Mitchell to lose some of his appeal. Thankfully, it didn't. I'm glad to see he's not a one-trick pony. Instead, Mitchell appears to be at the top of his game, and I'm happy to proclaim him my favorite contemporary author. Just look at him. He's absolutely adorable. Too adorable to be straight, but we can hope, no?
Each chapter is a short story spanning a year in the life of Jason, a boy whose parents' marriage is disintegrating, whose school life is awful, and whose "Hangman" is constantly tripping him up with words he can and cannot say. Jason finds an outlet in his poetry. My only complaint with the book is that we don't get to read his poetry for ourselves. Usually I hate when authors write poetry for their characters (ugh, like in Possession), but I think it would have been acceptable here.
Illumination Factor: Jason Taylor is such an awesome kid. We could all learn a lesson from him. That doesn't mean the book is preachy. Thankfully, not at all.
In a nutshell: Another success for David Mitchell. If you haven't read anything by him, this is as good a place to start as any. I can't wait for his next work.
Bibliolatry Scale: 5 out of 6 stars
1 comment:
I've had my eye on this one for awhile now, but have yet to pick it up and actually purchase a copy. After reading your review, I think maybe I will.
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