One more David Mitchell book has been read, this one, maybe even his greatest.
When i began reading David’s books it was simply because of the furore generated by the film, Cloud Atlas. With all the expense, $102 million budget, it seemed worth it to me to give the book a read before watching the film. After all, no one paid $102 million to see this film be made without having read the book first.
So i read the book, and was so impressed by David’s writing that i went back to the beginning and read all of his books in order.
What i loved about some of his early books, like Cloud Atlas, were his subtle interconnections between seemingly unrelated short stories to create a whole story throughout. But as one moves along his list of books in their published order, one gets the feeling that he’s doing this with the books themselves. Each book does have subtle interconnections to his other books, and one is left wondering, after finishing his 6th book, is there a bigger story underlying all of his books that is yet to be revealed? Maybe, maybe not, it certainly wouldn’t detract any if there wasn’t but one can’t wait for his future books to see.
Back to The Bone Clocks, our story begins in Gravesend, Kent, with our protagonist, a teenager, Holly Sykes, who hears voices in her head and sees imaginary people. The story then flies off into the supernatural world of other beings and whizzes around the world with all kinds of odd and strange things going on, some natural, some supernatural, but all of which keep leading us back to Holly. It’s certainly quite a journey that Holly goes on and it’s one worth tagging along with her through this book.
And while we’re happily whizzing around the world, our writer also throws his usual little critiques at our contemporary world and life randomly into the mix, and David does have an exceptional talent in this area which always adds a little food for thought and makes reading his books a joy, IMHO.
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014, but didn’t get shortlisted — shame on them! But it does show just how good a writer David is when he’s had three of his six books longlisted, and two of those shortlisted. That’s quite a tally, and not to mention the other awards his books have received along the way.
I still haven’t got around to reading more of David’s books. I keep putting it off until my memory of the first 6 fades away then i’ll re-read them and totally binge on all the new ones as well, and see what this back story tells in them.
