September 4, 2000
Nine disparate but interconnected tales (and a short coda) in Mitchell's impressive debut examine 21st-century notions of community, coincidence, causality, catastrophe and fate. Each episode in this mammoth sociocultural tapestry is related in the first person, and set in a different international locale. The gripping first story introduces Keisuke Tanaka, aka Quasar, a fanatical Japanese doomsday cultist who's on the lam in Okinawa after completing a successful gas attack in a Tokyo subway. The links between Quasar and the novel's next narrator, Satoru Sonada, a teenage jazz aficionado, are tenuous at first. Both are denizens of Tokyo; both tend toward nearly monomaniacal obsessiveness; both went to the same school (albeit at different times) and shared a common teacher, the crass Mr. Ikeda. As the plot progresses, however, the connections between narrators become more complex, richly imaginative and thematically suggestive. Key symbols and metaphors repeat, mutating provocatively in new contexts. Innocuous descriptions accrue a subtle but probing irony through repetition; images of wild birds taking flight, luminous night skies and even bloody head wounds implicate and involve Mitchell's characters in an exquisitely choreographed dance of coincidence, connection and fluid, intuitive meanings. Other performers include a corrupt but (literally) haunted Hong Kong lawyer; an unnamed, time-battered Chinese tea-shop proprietress; a nomadic, disembodied intelligence on a voyage of self-discovery through Mongolia; a seductive and wily Russian art thief; a London-based musician, ghostwriter and ne'er-do-well; a brilliant but imperiled Irish physicist; and a loud-mouthed late-night radio-show host who unwittingly brushes with a global cyber-catastrophe. Already a sensation on its publication in England, Mitchell's wildly variegated story can be abstruse and elusive in its larger themes, but the gorgeous prose and vibrant, original construction make this an accomplishment not to be missed. 5-city author tour.
September 1, 2014
Mitchell's 2008 debut novel masterfully weaves together the stories of a dozen people who share their experiences in fascinating stream-of-consciousness monologs. Mitchell's varied, vividly drawn characters, who range from a Japanese death-cult member to an elderly female Chinese tea shop owner, sweep listeners through continents and centuries. The stories and characters connect in clever and surprising ways, and the result is a sprawling but engaging commentary on the human condition. While it is difficult to connect with some characters (a few are just plain repulsive), Mitchell's elegant prose is always a delight and superbly performed here by narrator William Rycroft. VERDICT Recommend this title to those who enjoyed Mitchell's multi-award-winning novel Cloud Atlas, as these two books are structurally similar. ["This contemplative pleasure of a book is recommended for all public libraries," read the review of the Random hc, LJ 8/00.]--Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib.
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