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Original poster

Anyone else find David Mitchell books a bit.......um.......dull?

37 replies

glitch · 29/11/2011 12:09

I've tried Cloud Atlas and failed miserably.
I'm now about a quarter of the way through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and it is such a hard slog.
Is it just me? Should I carry on? I hate giving up on books but it is just such tough work reading it.
His reviews seem to be fantastic but I just can't seem to read them.

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Pinkglow · 28/12/2011 11:36

Thought cloud atlas was very very clever but I didn't love it. I was reading it thinking 'oh yes this is clever, oh I can see what hes done there' but overall I was meh about the story and characters.

I have Thousand Autumns but have never gotten around to reading it

Acinonyx · 22/12/2011 17:02

I really loved the Poisonwood Bible - I'm going to give the Lacuna shelf space for a while and but I suspect it will have be replaced.

Will take a look at Ghostwritten.

Crumm24 · 22/12/2011 16:53

Pourneanother I think I possibly loved Ghostwritten more than Cloud Altas. Possibly.

I really loved the change of style for Black Swan Green too, but did struggle with Number9Dream...I got into it fully towards the end, but think I only persevered because I took on holiday with me and so had less choice to dump it!

Despite buying it when it first came out, I've not got very far with Thousand Autumns, and it's been discarded on the upstairs bookcase. Should I give it another chance? I found it hard work, but I've loved everything else by DM so much...do I need to give it another bash or categorise it in my mind as another Number9, good but possibly not (dare I say?) worth the effort?
XxX

bakingaddict · 22/12/2011 10:26

Lacuna...is that the one by Barbara Kingsolver. I bought that the other year but never read it. DH tried but said he couldn't get into it, we have quite similar tastes in books. I loved the Poisonwood Bible though which made me buy Lacuna. I'll let it gather dust on the bookshelves then. If you like South American literature I can recommend The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargos Llosa

Acinonyx · 21/12/2011 22:51

baking - I never finished 'one hundred years of solitude'. I got stuck with the Lacuna too.

pourmeanotherglass · 21/12/2011 22:40

I loved Black Swan Green and quite liked Cloud Atlas.

I've not read any of the others, but I've just downloaded a sample of Ghostwritten to my Kindle. What do you think, is it worth downloading the rest?

fivegomadindorset · 21/12/2011 22:37

Very dull.

yesbutnobut · 21/12/2011 22:30

My paperback edition of Thousand Autumns has a dramatis personnae at the back which I found incredibly helpful. ANyone who is struggling may want to take a look.

bakingaddict · 21/12/2011 18:14

Liking a book is a very personal thing, sometimes the book resonates with the mood your in, sometimes it leaves you cold. Personally I think that there are many great books in the world, so why continue reading one your clearly bored with. If I haven't got into the story after 100 pages then I put it to one side these days. I did persevere and read Gabriel Garcia Marquez 'One Hundred Years of Solitutude but god it felt like it had taken me 100 years to read it

Acinonyx · 21/12/2011 18:04

I don't usually persevere if I'm not into a book after 50 pages - but I kept going with Cloud Atlas which didn't grip me until about p100! But it was totally worth it.

TheFoosa · 30/11/2011 16:13

he's brilliant

RealLifeIsForWimps · 29/11/2011 23:44

thetasigmamum I don't actually doubt that he wrote BSG, but it's just in such a different style to all his other books. I have to admit I just assumed it was written before the others- interesting that he switched to that style and then switched back - a good thing IMO.

AugustMoon · 29/11/2011 13:06

I'm with you... tried Cloud Atlas twice because I love the title but just couldn't get into it. Then bought Thousand Autumns and got a few chapters in but struggled with the characters and gave up. I'm determined to finish it one day just because it's a poignant title for me and I'm convinced I'm missing something!

wem · 29/11/2011 13:04

I liked Black Swan Green and loved Cloud Atlas, but gave up on Thousand Autumns after a friend who had finished it said it didn't get any better. Having trouble getting into anything atm which didn't help.

DamselInDisarray · 29/11/2011 13:03

I recently finished number9dream. I was quite enjoying it until it just bloody stopped. Worst (non)ending ever. I had to skip over the story sections in the middle too. I just couldn't bring myself to read them. I gave up with cloud atlas because I was a bit bored.

thetasigmamum · 29/11/2011 13:03

Black Swan Green was written after Cloud Atlas. And it's clearly written by the same person as all the others not least because of the usual in-plot references to past books. :)

thetasigmamum · 29/11/2011 13:02

It's just you. And the people who agree with you. He is a fabulous author, one of my top favourites.

ShirleyKnot · 29/11/2011 13:01

Yeah that an all Hullster. That an all.

The one with the bloke and the book and the chick and the nasty bloke and that.

That one.

SinicalSal · 29/11/2011 13:00

Nope i can't get on with Cloud Atlas either.
very disappointing, excellent premise, just poor execution.

Cherrypi · 29/11/2011 13:00

I loved number9 dream but not got into any of his others. I think he is definitely an author you have to be in the right zone for.

Hullygully · 29/11/2011 12:58

I thought Cloud Atlas was beeter.

I didn't like the ending of Autumns.

Hullygully · 29/11/2011 12:57

Autumns?

ShirleyKnot · 29/11/2011 12:57

Oh! I'm having trouble with a Thousand Suns.

RealLifeIsForWimps · 29/11/2011 12:55

Yes, they are not dissimilar, are they? I'm not an expert on Japanese literature, but is it maybe a common style in Japanese?

LinzerTorte · 29/11/2011 12:50

Notquitegrownup Well, I wouldn't bother with Number9dream again - although I'm not a Mitchell fan. I also kept thinking I was reading a Murakami novel (I'd read Kafka on the Shore not long before) and it was most disconcerting.

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