Having just finished this
book a half-hour ago, I may be picking too soon a time to write about it, but I
thought I might as well get it out of the way here and now. David Mitchell is a
writer of breathtaking creativity. Anyone who has read Cloud Atlas will attest
to his original thoughts and imagination. He does not follow trends in fiction
and every book he puts out offers something different, even if they may be to
large in scope to digest right after reading about it (let alone writing about
it). His most recent book, which I just read, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de
Zoet, is very different than Cloud Atlas, but has all the same feats of the
mind, and problems unfortunately. While Cloud Atlas was a collection of loosely
connected narratives that allowed Mitchell to experiment with very different
kinds of narratives that tied into one theme, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de
Zoet is a classic historical novel that takes place in port city of Dejima in
Nagasaki, Japan during the turn of the 18th century. It tells of
Jacob, a Dutch clerk who is stationed in the city who must earn a fortune to
win the hand of his wife back home in The Netherlands. While there, he comes in
contact with all sorts of different people, most of whom are quite unsavory,
but becomes infatuated with Orito, a disfigured midwife and doctor apprentice.
This doomed romance clouds his judgments, and he makes a terrible mistake that
leads him and a select few around him to horrific circumstances. Like cloud
Atlas, there is a little too much research and detail here, so it is easy to
lose track of where you are and what each character does and who they are
linked to, but what really makes this worthwhile are some of the moments in
between, like the birth at the beginning and the painful removal of a kidney
stone, as well as the bittersweet final pages, that show the optimism in the
continuation of life after hardships. A real treat for anyone who wants a
challenge, this book is filled with many little treats that make some of the
books problems go away.
Rating: 4/5
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