(Well, I see Mitchell is a star 'LibraryThing' author. But these notes are for me, not for authors -- and does anyone read these reviews, anyway?)

This is a forgettable, cobbled-together fantasy of contemporary Japan. Not 'Joycean,' as reviewers have said; and it's good to remember that 'futuristic beauty' (as on one of the cover endorsements) is easy. ( )

Number 9 Dream is a captivating and intelligent novel, well written - as one would expect from David Mitchell, and with some deep themes. The book is about a Japanese young man who is in search of the father who abandoned his family when he and his twin sister were born. He is also haunted by another significant event of his past.

Through the book, the search for his father gradually bears fruit, but ultimately it becomes clear that this knowledge was never important, as the protagonist - Eiji - comes of age through a series of enlightening experiences.

But this is no ordinary coming of age novel as much of the action takes place in Eiji's head. His dreams are as important to the narrative as the real events - and sometimes its a little tricky to separate what is real from what is imagined.

In the end, we see that the number 9 dream is that which starts after every ending. That is, when the other issues are resolved and Eiji comes out of the dream world and seems to wake up into this world, the 9th dream begins - the beginning of Eiji's real life. (Shades of the much shorter "Dandelion Wine" here!)

Parts of this novel were gripping, and the whole narrative sweeps you along. However it is not my favourite book for various reasons - most notably that this seems to be a rather self conscious attempt to write a Murakami novel by David Mitchell. The very title hints at this. #9 Dream is a song by John Lennon. Murakami, of course, achieved fame through his "Norwegian Wood". Indeed, the dialogue in this book compares #9 Dream with the song Norwegian wood.

Eiji is also found to be reading "Wind Up Bird Chronicle" as he contemplates his death - wondering what will become to the man stuck down the dry well.

And there are many other subtle references to Murakami. The structure of the book has trademark Murakami surrealism. We have love hotels and prostitutes and bad sex. We have the multiple threads and war time reminiscences. At times I thought I actually was reading Murakami.

Anyone who has seen my reviews will know I am not actually a big Murakami fan, because of his tendency to drop all the threads without resolution. Mitchell does not do that - except for the very deliberate new thread that is dropped at the end of chapter 8. But all the same, I think I would prefer to read David Mitchell for David Mitchell. I love his humour, his power of description, his ability to write in different voices, and his understanding of how to write a good story.

This book contained all of the above, but I hope his future works are less self consciously derivative. ( )

Borrowed from my mum, who was sure I'd like it even more than I enjoyed Ghostwritten. It has a similarly episodic structure, though here the episodes are more strongly linked. You're left wondering just how much of it is a (day) dream and how much reality. A little gruesome in places, and I'm not sure of the ending, but overall I thought it was excellent. ( )

To fully appreciate this book, I suggest that you first read Haruki Murakami, specifically Norwegian Wood. This book is very much a tribute to him. ( )

Wonderfully creative, brilliantly structured - extremely hard to put down, except in a few particularly dream-like passages that drag on a bit. Having said all this, The Cloud Atlas is better. ( )

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2008/0... ( )

Haven't read Cloud Atlas yet, but I have a feeling I will enjoy it when I get there. Mitchell's Japanese foray was an absolutely wonderful adventure in storytelling. The John Lennon reference drew me to the book, and I certainly don't regret it. ( )

Good. Well constructed. Engaging. Solid characters and a real sense of place. ( )

This is one of my favorite novels. It is a wild ride through contemporary (and imaginary) Japan.

brilliant book. the first page blew me away - just a description of sitting in a cafe in tokyo, but I've never felt such a strong sense of place. ( )

Amazon.com
David Mitchell's second novel, Number9Dream, tells the story of Eiji Miyake, a young man negotiating a hypermodern and dangerous Tokyo to meet for the first time his secretive and powerful father. Naïve and fresh from the Japanese countryside, Eiji encounters every obstacle imaginable in his quest, from his father's--and in-laws'--reluctance for the encounter to occur (Eiji is the bastard son) to fiery entanglements with yakuza (the Japanese mafia) to the overwhelming size and anonymity of Tokyo itself.
The novel is cartoonish in that Eiji has a vivid and violent imagination that fills the book with daydreams. When not chain-smoking, forlorn Eiji wanders the city following vague or cryptic leads that invariably dead-end or land him back among yakuza. Mitchell (author of the critically acclaimed Ghostwritten) has a smart, eclectic writing style that seems foreign, and the novel is well paced, but the yakuza encounters are too cinematic, complete with unusual torture and pyrotechnics. Moreover, in addition to Eiji's daydreams, the last half of the book contains excerpts from the diaries of his great uncle's World War II naval heroics and bizarre short stories that Eiji reads while hiding--the latter of which make for tedious reading.

From Amazon.com ( )

At times an overt homage to Murakami, at times it just seems like a copy job. Mitchell experiments with different storytelling techniques and devices in each chapter, but sticks mostly to a single narrator; though he introduces other points of view through diaries, excerpts of a fantasy/fairy tale story, etc. Some fairly gruesome (and memorable, for better or worse) violence marks the scenes with the Yakuza. ( )

I found Number9Dream rewarding and frustrating in equal measure. The book follows a naive, video-game obsessed country boy named Eiji Miyake on his quest to find his father in a hyper-modern Tokyo. Miyake makes his way through the low-wage world of video stores, pizza delivery shacks, and love motels. In the course of his search gets mixed up with bloodthirsty Yakuza gang, falls for a beautiful waitress who also happens to be a brilliant pianist, and is taken under the wing of a debauched young playboy who might be his brother. Mitchell also weaves new texts into the action. The search introduces the diary of a Japanese soldier in WW11 who is preparing for a suicide mission in a manned torpedo. There’s also a manuscript describing a post-apocalyptic world where Goatwriter ( a creature who may or may not be a goat, who’s maid may or may not be a hen, and who’s butler is definitely a caveman) battles with a witch and a talking rat to keep his stories of the internet. In case that wasn’t digressive enough, Miyake frequently pops into dream worlds where he gets high with John Lennon and wrestles crocodiles.

This sort of pop, over-the-top plotting can be annoying but Mitchell has the skill to pull it off. Unlike so many hipster picaresques, Number9Dream places the cool aside long enough to let the emotional worlds of his characters emerge -- as in the heartbreaking stories involving Miyake’s relationship with his twin sister. Whenever the book seems ready to ride off cliff Mitchell introduce some truly human moment that pulls the story back.

One of the key problems with the book is its similarities, both in theme and style, to the work of Haruki Murakami. Mitchell is examining a dreamlike Japan with the same cool eye that Muyrakami has, and at times the similarities are so close it feels like imitation. At one point in the book Miyake goes so far as to mention that he read half of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, but stopped at the part where the narrator got stuck in the well. It’s as if Mitchell is acknowledging that his characters are living in the same metaphysical loop Murakami’s do. It’s an odd moment, and it’s a little too precious to evoke a contemporary author whose work is mining the exact same vein.

If I’d come to the book fresh I’d probably have found those similarities damning, but I came to this book after reading Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell’s stunning recent novel, and that book was so good the memory of it helped me give Number9Dream the benefit of the doubt. I’m glad I did. Despite the overly dense action, and the similarities to Murakami, there are great moments in this book. The story of Miyake’s early years is beautifully told, and when we finally discover where his quest is leading, the resolution is unexpected and rewarding -- at least until he veers off again into dream world apocalypse. ( )