The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David MitchellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having read "Ghostwritten" and "Cloud Atlas" I was expecting some jumps through time while reading this book, which never occurred. Being anchored to the lip of 19th century Japan was fantastic! The beginning was a loud and unfamiliar party of accents, dialects, terminologies, people meandering in and out, that sets the scene for the bulk of the book. Each page, each line, demands to be taken piece by piece, patiently and with full attention. Mitchell has written a trustworthy narration that recounts a few years on a Dutch trading post on an island off of Nagasaki with such sensation that I found myself wincing at times. This novel has grit, adventure, wit, and the sparks of clashing cultures. He incorporated near poetic tools to convey the bilocation most of his characters were experiencing with beautiful and frequently amusing prose. Thank you, David Mitchell, for a terrific and careful novel.
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