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Loading... The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010)by David Mitchell
 jmoncton | Jun 3, 2013 |  Magic. Violent, beautiful magic. (  ) arlongworth | May 22, 2013 | Mooi geschreven. Engels voor gevorderden. soms woordenboekje erbij (;-)) Maar als je daarna de details in de beschrijvingen begrijpt weet je waarom het goed geschreven is. ( ) Merlijn.Kauffman | May 22, 2013 | A page-turner (so to speak, as I listened to it on audio) a much more pleasant read than other David Mitchell novels which I personally have found extremely annoying in their precious conceits. This is a much more regular narrative, and fun, though implausible in parts. Here's an excerpt from the Guardian, which I agree with: "The main problem seems to be that Mitchell hasn't decided if he's writing a straight historical novel, a grandly themed fable or a cheerfully trashy romp. Or rather that he's decided to write all three, but without a structure robust and flexible enough to keep the different elements in balance. The basic premise – a colonial-type cultural encounter in one of the few non-European countries that fended off the colonial powers – is a good one. But much of the thematic-looking stuff, such as the repeated images of seclusion and enclosure, turns out to be little more than structural gaffer tape, and more substantive matters are handled simplistically. The European Enlightenment, for example, is served up in two flavours: good, associated with botany and sound midwifery practices, and bad, associated with predatory lending and guns. With one or two exceptions, the characters fall into goodies and baddies as well, and their doings – including the central love story – don't often rise above the needs of the plot. All the same, it's hard not to warm to the fluency and copiousness of Mitchell's yarn-spinning. Even – or especially – at his silliest, he keeps the pages turning, effortlessly throwing out each character's back story, setting up cliffhangers and moments of pathos, and, when it's necessary, summoning Abbot Enomoto to kill butterflies by telepathy. Mitchell has been under pressure for a while now to write something tastefully understated, even middle-of-the-road. Sensibly, and perhaps to his credit, he hasn't tried too hard to do so here." (  ) lxydis | May 11, 2013 | I liked it because it is different than most of what I read, it did not follow an expected trajectory (every time I thought I'd figured it out it took a different turn), there were many good descriptions, and there's a scene near the end that's described in rhyme (though no clear rhythm to said section). It's history I was totally ignorant of, but connects well enough to other books I've read that allowed me to see familiarity. Oh, and many of the characters are Dutch. Not a love story, mystery, or historical retelling, but had a bit of all of the above. ( ) LDVoorberg | Apr 7, 2013 |
 There are no easy answers or facile connections in “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.” In fact, it’s not an easy book, period. Its pacing can be challenging, and its idiosyncrasies are many. But it offers innumerable rewards for the patient reader and confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearlesswriters alive. For his many and enthusiastic admirers — critics, prize juries, readers — the fecundity of Mitchell’s imagination marks him as one of the most exciting literary writers of our age. Indeed, in 2007, he was the lone novelist on Time’ s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Through five novels, most impressively with his 2004 novel, Cloud Atlas, Mitchell has demonstrated flat-out ambition with respect to testing — sometimes past their breaking points — the conventions of storytelling structure, perspective, voice, language and range. The result, according to Mitchell’s rare detractors, is an oeuvre marked by imaginative wizardry and stylistic showmanship put on offer for their own sake. For most everyone else, however, Mitchell’s writing is notable because its wizardry and showmanship are in the service of compulsively readable stories and, at its best moments, are his means of revealing, in strange places and stranger still ways, nothing less than the universals of human experience. Though direct in its storytelling, Jacob de Zoet marks a return to full amplitude. That means occasionally over-long scenes and one or two rambling monologues. But it also guarantees fiction of exceptional intelligence, richness and vitality.  With “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet,” David Mitchell has traded in the experimental, puzzlelike pyrotechnics of “Ghostwritten” and “Number9Dream” for a fairly straight-ahead story line and a historical setting. He’s meticulously reconstructed the lost world of Edo-era Japan, and in doing so he’s created his most conventional but most emotionally engaging novel yet: it’s as if an acrobatic but show-offy performance artist, adept at mimicry, ventriloquism and cerebral literary gymnastics, had decided to do an old-fashioned play and, in the process, proved his chops as an actor. Now, however, with The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, he has moved on, jettisoned the cross-referencing, and severed the overt links to his previous books. It is interesting but unnecessary to know that the author has lived in Japan, is the father of half-Japanese children, and has set an earlier novel – number9dream (2001) – in the country. Equally, the fact that this new novel centres on a love story between a European man and a Japanese woman represents no more than the most elementary draw from autobiography. Beyond that, it is a self-standing historical novel, written in chronological order in the present tense, which conjures up a profoundly researched and fully realised world.
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1799, Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor. Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk, has a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city's powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken -- the consequences of which will extend beyond Jacob's worst imaginings.… (more)
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I really enjoyed this audiobook. The imagery is amazing - the combination of very descriptive prose with a strong narration made me feel like I had been transported to ancient Japan. On the surface this was an excellent historical novel with well-researched details and a pretty complex plot. But I have the feeling that I might have been missing something with this book. The author is David Mitchell and yet the story seemed like a very conventional epic novel. From reading the reviews my interpretation of this book seems to be pretty superficial and perhaps there is a much deeper message or theme to this novel. But, as far as historical fiction goes, this book was great. Maybe I'll give it another try to really figure out what I'm missing. (