maragtzrbooks's review against another edition
2.0
2/5 stars
I bought this because I already read Cloud Atlas and while a lot of people hated that book because it was confusing and slow, I ended up enjoying a lot, so I thought I get the style of David Mitchell but with this book I realized that I'm not sure about it. I found it very similar to [b:Norwegian Wood|11297|Norwegian Wood|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386924361s/11297.jpg|2956680] by Murakami and was so much better than this.
The writing was good but I got bored a loooot of the time I was reading this, and I have to confess that I had to skip parts because it was getting so frustrating. Of all the books I had read, this is the first time I skipped something and I felt so bad about it but so good at the same time because I was closer to finish it.
Finally after a lot of time I ended it and didn't get it (because of the skipping I know!)
I have [b:The Bone Clocks|20819685|The Bone Clocks|David Mitchell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398205538s/20819685.jpg|26959610] in my bookshelf waiting to be read, I'm giving David Mitchell another shot to win my heart (like he cares...).
In the meantime, I don't recommend this book. Sorry!
I bought this because I already read Cloud Atlas and while a lot of people hated that book because it was confusing and slow, I ended up enjoying a lot, so I thought I get the style of David Mitchell but with this book I realized that I'm not sure about it. I found it very similar to [b:Norwegian Wood|11297|Norwegian Wood|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386924361s/11297.jpg|2956680] by Murakami and was so much better than this.
The writing was good but I got bored a loooot of the time I was reading this, and I have to confess that I had to skip parts because it was getting so frustrating. Of all the books I had read, this is the first time I skipped something and I felt so bad about it but so good at the same time because I was closer to finish it.
Finally after a lot of time I ended it and didn't get it (because of the skipping I know!)
I have [b:The Bone Clocks|20819685|The Bone Clocks|David Mitchell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398205538s/20819685.jpg|26959610] in my bookshelf waiting to be read, I'm giving David Mitchell another shot to win my heart (like he cares...).
In the meantime, I don't recommend this book. Sorry!
superfamoustia's review against another edition
Dear Mr. Mitchell,
How I've MISSED you...so, SO nice to have you back in my life. Mmmmm. *Thank you.*
Love,
Tia Marie
Love,
Tia Marie
lucysmith13's review against another edition
5.0
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2020 prompt: A book set in Japan (host of the 2020 Olympics)
I'm making my way through David Mitchell's back catalogue (did I mention I'm a fan of his?), and have finally read number9dream. Another excellent read, although admittedly it did take a little getting into at first (I think I've said this a few times before, maybe it's just how he writes).
Eiji Miyake has come to Tokyo to find his father, whom he has never met. In need of a job and desperately trying to figure out how to contact him, what he doesn't expect is to encounter a piano player, an incredible hacker, a super rich guy and a number of people whose practises are questionable, among a host of others. Tokyo is nothing like Eiji's rural home, and nothing can prepare him for the rollercoaster that will be his life over the coming weeks. He will need all of his luck and the help of his friends if he is going to accomplish anything and survive.
Another fascinating story - Mitchell's characters are always very believable, and practically jump off the page. There were so may plot twists, it was almost hard to keep up, but this kept the story riveting and realistic. If you're familiar with Mitchell's other work, you will enjoy the tiny references hidden throughout (I spotted two referring to Cloud Atlas, but there may be more). Overall, a brilliant novel!
I'm making my way through David Mitchell's back catalogue (did I mention I'm a fan of his?), and have finally read number9dream. Another excellent read, although admittedly it did take a little getting into at first (I think I've said this a few times before, maybe it's just how he writes).
Eiji Miyake has come to Tokyo to find his father, whom he has never met. In need of a job and desperately trying to figure out how to contact him, what he doesn't expect is to encounter a piano player, an incredible hacker, a super rich guy and a number of people whose practises are questionable, among a host of others. Tokyo is nothing like Eiji's rural home, and nothing can prepare him for the rollercoaster that will be his life over the coming weeks. He will need all of his luck and the help of his friends if he is going to accomplish anything and survive.
Another fascinating story - Mitchell's characters are always very believable, and practically jump off the page. There were so may plot twists, it was almost hard to keep up, but this kept the story riveting and realistic. If you're familiar with Mitchell's other work, you will enjoy the tiny references hidden throughout (I spotted two referring to Cloud Atlas, but there may be more). Overall, a brilliant novel!
thesinginglights's review against another edition
5.0
What can I say about this book that other people have reviewed constantly and are better at expressing their thoughts? How do I do it about a book I've already read? I guess I'll be honest. It'll be brief, methinks.
My brother describes Mitchell's prose as someone who got bored with how fiction is written. I can see where he's coming from: Mitchell captures the loud, crowded sense of Tokyo by making constantly feel like it is moving with no pauses. In a way it feels as if the city is a character itself. But maybe that's stretching it. David Mitchell is a master of metaphor. His prose is fierce.
Mitchell consciously acknowledges his influence from Murakami and there are some similarities in terms of the cast and types of characters involved. Both Eiji and Toru have to deal with death and growth during the death of their teens; they also deal with first loves and sexual experiences. But the comparisons aren't too full. Like the songs which both are named after, "number9" being a descendant of "Norwegian Wood", so in the book number9dream a descendant of Norwegian Wood in a way. But they are notably divergent. For starters the Eiji and Toru have different coping mechanisms for dealing with the trauma in their lives. While Toru favours isolation and detachment, Eiji seems to lose himself in his wild imagination that mixes up pop culture along with personal experiences. Norwegian Wood has a gentleness to it while number9dream explores more chaotic aspects.
I love this book, that is simply put. If you read, see what you think. No amount of words can adequately describe this book.
My brother describes Mitchell's prose as someone who got bored with how fiction is written. I can see where he's coming from: Mitchell captures the loud, crowded sense of Tokyo by making constantly feel like it is moving with no pauses. In a way it feels as if the city is a character itself. But maybe that's stretching it. David Mitchell is a master of metaphor. His prose is fierce.
Mitchell consciously acknowledges his influence from Murakami and there are some similarities in terms of the cast and types of characters involved. Both Eiji and Toru have to deal with death and growth during the death of their teens; they also deal with first loves and sexual experiences. But the comparisons aren't too full. Like the songs which both are named after, "number9" being a descendant of "Norwegian Wood", so in the book number9dream a descendant of Norwegian Wood in a way. But they are notably divergent. For starters the Eiji and Toru have different coping mechanisms for dealing with the trauma in their lives. While Toru favours isolation and detachment, Eiji seems to lose himself in his wild imagination that mixes up pop culture along with personal experiences. Norwegian Wood has a gentleness to it while number9dream explores more chaotic aspects.
I love this book, that is simply put. If you read, see what you think. No amount of words can adequately describe this book.
thesinginglights's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favourites. Review to come.
EDIT: Review of 2018 read
This is an almost companion piece to one of my favourite all time novels, [b:Norwegian Wood|11297|Norwegian Wood|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386924361s/11297.jpg|2956680]Norwegian Wood. The comparisons are not made emptily: Eiji is a 19-year-old adrift, just like Murakami's Toru. Both of them turn 20 throughout their coming-of-age tales, and both books are named after Beatles songs. But to say that number9dream is a copy of Norwegian Wood would be a disservice to the skill and originality of Mitchell's second book. Eiji, for example, is a much more active protagonist, although Tokyo and its inhabitants are larger than life and drag him along quite a bit.
I would say that this book can be summarised as a meditation on life and stories. Eiji, an imaginative youth, is in Tokyo in search of his father and gets mixed up in all sorts of madness, partly his imagination, most of it true. The book weaves through 9 different parts with as many flavours, from Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk to metafiction (which is the weakest part of the book. I understand the Message but it's still the worst part for me).
Over the course of the book, he becomes more grounded and finds a purpose beyond the grand narratives of stories and fancies of imagination: he reckons with his past and his reality. He must write his own narrative by living his life, an important lesson: you can't do it all in your head. It's a whirlwind of imagination and of brilliant sentences: "The sun steam-irons the street through its rain-washed lens", "A single night is stuffed with minutes, but they leak out, one by one." Conveying being broke in a big city is hilariously on point as well. Longing for betterment and your goals and constantly falling short is well-realised. I am glutton for these kinds of stories.
Like John Lennon, Eiji is haunted by the number 9 that recurrs in various ways: the numbers of the time adding up to nine, for example, the place he is from has nine letters, the area is from is called Kyushu (Nine Provinces), etc. On my inital read-through I thought there was a significance to the nines but it's more a motif that pays homage to Lennon and I suppose I did get feverish trying to spot all the different instances across the book.
A wonderful, touching, transformative novel.
EDIT: Review of 2018 read
This is an almost companion piece to one of my favourite all time novels, [b:Norwegian Wood|11297|Norwegian Wood|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386924361s/11297.jpg|2956680]Norwegian Wood. The comparisons are not made emptily: Eiji is a 19-year-old adrift, just like Murakami's Toru. Both of them turn 20 throughout their coming-of-age tales, and both books are named after Beatles songs. But to say that number9dream is a copy of Norwegian Wood would be a disservice to the skill and originality of Mitchell's second book. Eiji, for example, is a much more active protagonist, although Tokyo and its inhabitants are larger than life and drag him along quite a bit.
I would say that this book can be summarised as a meditation on life and stories. Eiji, an imaginative youth, is in Tokyo in search of his father and gets mixed up in all sorts of madness, partly his imagination, most of it true. The book weaves through 9 different parts with as many flavours, from Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk to metafiction (which is the weakest part of the book. I understand the Message but it's still the worst part for me).
Over the course of the book, he becomes more grounded and finds a purpose beyond the grand narratives of stories and fancies of imagination: he reckons with his past and his reality. He must write his own narrative by living his life, an important lesson: you can't do it all in your head. It's a whirlwind of imagination and of brilliant sentences: "The sun steam-irons the street through its rain-washed lens", "A single night is stuffed with minutes, but they leak out, one by one." Conveying being broke in a big city is hilariously on point as well. Longing for betterment and your goals and constantly falling short is well-realised. I am glutton for these kinds of stories.
Like John Lennon, Eiji is haunted by the number 9 that recurrs in various ways: the numbers of the time adding up to nine, for example, the place he is from has nine letters, the area is from is called Kyushu (Nine Provinces), etc. On my inital read-through I thought there was a significance to the nines but it's more a motif that pays homage to Lennon and I suppose I did get feverish trying to spot all the different instances across the book.
A wonderful, touching, transformative novel.
jessgock's review against another edition
4.0
There is a compelling story here, but it sometimes gets lost among all the layers of this novel, most of which reads like David Mitchell trying very hard to be [a:Haruki Murakami|3354|Haruki Murakami|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1350230608p2/3354.jpg]. The novel switches between dreams, fictional short stories, diary entries, and the actual day-to-day travails of Eiji Mikaye over an eight-week period of his life as he moves from rural Japan to Tokyo to try to find the father he has never known.
You can tell that this is an early Mitchell book - a lot of the strengths of his later novels are here, but it's not as well organized or thoroughly crafted. There's a tendency toward silliness and overwrought scenes, especially the times Eiji gets mixed up with the yakuza (not to mention the bizarre parting gift his friend Suga gives him). It is deliberately hard to tell which scenes are dreams and which are reality, which gets less disorienting as the story progresses but requires a lot of patience from the reader in the opening scenes.
I enjoyed this quite a bit, but having read almost all of Mitchell's novels, this is my least favorite to date.
You can tell that this is an early Mitchell book - a lot of the strengths of his later novels are here, but it's not as well organized or thoroughly crafted. There's a tendency toward silliness and overwrought scenes, especially the times Eiji gets mixed up with the yakuza (not to mention the bizarre parting gift his friend Suga gives him). It is deliberately hard to tell which scenes are dreams and which are reality, which gets less disorienting as the story progresses but requires a lot of patience from the reader in the opening scenes.
I enjoyed this quite a bit, but having read almost all of Mitchell's novels, this is my least favorite to date.
rhymeswithjulia's review against another edition
3.0
So many things happened in this book, and I'm still not sure how they all fit together, and what was real and what wasn't.
brentmiles's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
cassidyloverofbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
walruz's review against another edition
4.0
I'll say this: the man has an imagination. Mitchell tranforms a conventional "search for my father" narrative with his characteristically captivating style creativity. The result is sort of A Prayer for Owen Meany (while on drugs and in Tokyo).