Ghostwritten in David Mitchell Appreciation

Dec 20, 2011 s.penkevich [mental health hiatus] rated it really liked it

Shelves: mind-and-genre-bending

’The human world is made of stories, not people. The people the stories use to tell themselves are not to be blamed.’
David Mitchell’s ambitious debut, Ghostwritten, is a world of stories that migrates across the globe like a cloud across the sky, shifting and refiguring between various narrator voices and style. These voices send out ripples into the fabric of reality, which start off small but compound to forever reshape the course of humanity as the reader delves deeper into the novel, placin ...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviews-5-stars, read-2012, reviews, mitchell

Starstruck Lover

David Mitchell is a five star author and this, his first novel, is a five star achievement. I think.

I’ve been lucky to read most of his novels in chronological order as they’ve been released. Joining Goodreads has presented an opportunity to re-read and review them.

I still adhere to the rating, even if it emerges that I have a few question marks about some of his stylistic choices.

What this reveals is that a highly competent author, even with his first novel, doesn’t have to writ ...more

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May 30, 2008 Cecily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, miscellaneous-fiction, mitchell-uber-book

This predates the more famous “Cloud Atlas” (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...) by about four years; it has similarities of theme (connectedness, migrating spirits), structure (linked narratives, in contrasting styles), and even characters, but in a less contrived format. The subtitle is “A novel in nine parts”, and although some of the earlier ones could be read as standalone short stories, that would be missing the point, particularly with the later sections. Much as I love Cloud Atlas, ...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Steve rated it really liked it

With Ghostwritten you catch glimpses and sometimes even longer scenes of the feature-length greatness that’s to come in Cloud Atlas. This was Mitchell’s publishing debut. As may be true of many first works, he could barely contain all that he wanted to say. It was chock full of people, places and ideas. He gave himself nine very different vehicles for addressing the question of why things happen as they do. The settings of the nine stories span Asia, Europe, and the US. Good, bad, young, old, Ea With Ghostwritten you catch glimpses and sometimes even longer scenes of the feature-length greatness that’s to come in Cloud Atlas. This was Mitchell’s publishing debut. As may be true of many first works, he could barely contain all that he wanted to say. It was chock full of people, places and ideas. He gave himself nine very different vehicles for addressing the question of why things happen as they do. The settings of the nine stories span Asia, Europe, and the US. Good, bad, young, old, East, West – it’s all there, with different tones for each. They connect often in incidental ways. For instance, events in story A are probably not crucial antecedents in story B. But the links can be entertaining in the same way that recognizing characters Mitchell reused in his other novels can be. Seeing the likes of Neal Brose, Luisa Rey, and Timothy Cavendish, who reappear in later books in different phases of their lives, can be fun. It’s like when you watch Mystic Pizza years after it was filmed, and see Matt Damon in a minor role as the kid brother of the spoiled, rich guy. Anyway, these connections, and all connections, could be mere happenstance. Or they could be fate. Then ask yourself this: Is everything determined by sets of causal inputs? Is there a role for free will? Is choice an illusion? What are the drivers within the system, the control variates, the precipitants? What part is played by love, greed, altruism, or self-interest? Mitchell’s answers to these questions were sometimes oblique, but he deserves full credit for raising them.

Getting back to structure – the focus of many reviews – Mitchell’s hallmark inventiveness was in early evidence here. To be honest, though, I didn’t think the pieces were stitched together quite as effectively in this one as in Cloud Atlas. Still, there were signs of the mastery to come. He switched voices well, clearly recognized the importance of good storytelling, and only occasionally dragged when describing the many people and places. I thought the stories set in Tokyo and London were especially well done. Other characters were appealing, too, or if not that, at least interesting. The common thread of the parts I enjoyed most was that they were told without devices, in a straightforward, true-to-life kind of way. I felt in other parts of the book that the then less mature Mitchell relied too much on transmigrating spirits, sci-fi AI constructs, and other phenomena not of this world. The supernatural entities helped tie things together, but for my taste they took more away in cogency than they added in creativity. He was also more convincing with the nobler traits. The young sax player in love was so much better drawn than the terrorist who was brainwashed. Thank you, David, for that.

I’ll sum up my experience reading this with a reference to Keith Jarrett. He’s the pianist that the young jazz buff in the Tokyo chapter appreciated for his improvisational skills. Jarrett will occasionally throw in little vocalized drones during his solos that can be a distraction. Despite this, you often get some of the best original work ever. And he just makes it all up.

With a rating of four I’m dropping a star, but not my membership in the Mitchell as Marvel Fan Club.
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May 30, 2008 Madeleine rated it liked it

Shelves: our-libeary, head-in-the-clouds-nose-in-a-book, 2009

Okay, so first of all: Don't get me wrong, this is a mighty fine book. There's a reason David Mitchell is among my all-time favorite writers, and it's mostly because he does beautiful things with the English language and knows how to tell a story both well and differently. Hell, I even picked up this book as a fictional escape when"Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell" got to be a little too heady and, even though this book is more than twice the size of Huxley's two essays, I wound up finishing Okay, so first of all: Don't get me wrong, this is a mighty fine book. There's a reason David Mitchell is among my all-time favorite writers, and it's mostly because he does beautiful things with the English language and knows how to tell a story both well and differently. Hell, I even picked up this book as a fictional escape when"Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell" got to be a little too heady and, even though this book is more than twice the size of Huxley's two essays, I wound up finishing it before I even got halfway through "Doors/Heaven." Unfortunately, as much as I hate when other people do it, I couldn't help but compare this to "Cloud Atlas," which is still my favorite of Mitchell's works. "Ghostwritten" is original, dazzling and an impressive first novel, but it just didn't win me over like the later book did.

Unlike the boomeranging technique employed to tell the story in "Cloud Atlas," "Ghostwritten" strings together 10 seemingly unrelated narratives told from nine individual vantage points; like "Cloud Atlas," the voices within "Ghostwritten" are all connected and, when pieced together, tell a much bigger story. And you'd better pay attention to the whole thing, because sometimes those connecting threads are not immediately apparent. Some of the novel's narrators even cross paths, though they are wholly unaware of the importance those casual encounters hold. Mitchell even takes it one step further by taking characters from "Ghostwritten" (Timothy Cavendish, Luisa Rey) and later dropping them into "Cloud Atlas," which adds a hovering sense that something bigger is happening to both novels. The unexpected treat of familiarity made for an enjoyable surprise.

It is pretty interesting to see how the smallest gestures and grandest actions affect each subsequent narrative. There's a reason Mitchell's novels constantly seem to be nominated for this award and that recognition -- he's a great writer who really knows how to craft multidimensional characters. Even if a new voice didn't grab me right away, I found myself completely fascinated by the way Mitchell employed in media res and variations on a theme to make his reader want to keep going. And it simply made for a fun read to see a writer so masterfully force his audience to consider seeing an event or a mindset from myriad perspectives. The whole novel toyed with the idea of right and wrong in ways most writers wouldn't be able to juggle.

I really wish I had read this book first. It's as compelling as it is ambitious, and getting to know its characters is as interesting as they are varied. It's a shame I couldn't force myself to either be more objective or stop comparing it to the poetic brilliance that is "Cloud Atlas." If "Ghostwritten" had been penned by a lesser writer, I'm sure I'd be laying the complimentary superlatives on right thick. ...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Casey rated it really liked it

I've read David MItchell's books in reverse chronological order, which usually happens when you read an awesome book and want to read his/her other stuff. Ghostwritten is really good but the ties that connect each character/chapter are tenuous and detract from Mitchell's theme on the shared life experience of seemingly different people. ...more

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May 19, 2013 Andrew Moore rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Read this as a follow up to Cloud Atlas. Even though this book is Mitchell's first it works extremely well this way round. In fact it's can be argued that the linkages between stories are subtler and more tenuous and therefore the book is less accessible than Atlas so its good to have had a bit of exposure to Mitchell's method beforehand. Great read! ...more

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