A review by samrose0531
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

3.0

A fictional account of a British band in the span of their successes and failures in 1967. Each chapter is dedicated to a different band member focusing almost entirely on Elf Holloway, Jasper de Zoet, and Dean Moss. This book felt very much like Daisy Jones and the Six but with deeper characters and a slower plot with a stereotypical struggling band story. Mitchell definitely loves his characters and chose to spend time with some more than others (including Elf, my favorite and one of the most dynamic female characters I've read in a while). The book includes some brilliant lyrical interludes and I found the chapter titles as song titles describing the journey to each song entertaining. Mitchell is fluent in imagery considering this book took place in three different countries. His obscure music references shows how heavily researched this book is. However, I still felt myself asking - what is the point of this book? Despite looking forward to reading it every day.