Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Mitchell, David (The Bone Clocks)

It's almost impossible to review a David Mitchell book. They're so full of... everything! This is my third novel of his, and definitely the most enjoyable.

However, I'm not sure it's the most transparent. (Hahaha, that's a joke, David Mitchell books are never transparent, hahaha). What I mean by that is, it's harder to find the theme in this one. Several reviewers have said that it's about how we view death (and consequently life) and what we do with our lives to prepare for it. I agree, in that our main character's life is told to us both directly and indirectly (through other characters), in relation to how she learns to accept and understand things that are completely beyond her ken but relate to the journey towards death. I refuse to give anything away here (I'll explain why in a moment), suffice it to say that the "supernatural brigade certainly seems to be out in force."

But I find it hard to believe that living Holly's life through the other characters' lives is all there is to those parts of the novel. There are three main men in her life, and they are extraordinarily different. In a way, it felt like what Patrick Rothfuss did in The Wise Man's Fear, just string really interesting stories together. Because I didn't find a theme across the three men (other than that they loved Holly).

One thing you must do as you read this book is... believe. When you reach about page 100 and everything goes to hell in a handbasket - in fact, you may think that Mitchell just ran his text through a random word generator - just, trust the author. He'll make it all make sense in the end.

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