A review by geekcliche
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
3.0
I'd like to be able to say that I really enjoyed this book. I'm an admirer of Mitchell's writing and have loved his other books. The same distinctive voice is present here and the main characters are all well defined. As in the other books, there's elements that may be Jason's imagination, mis-remembered memories or naïve interpretation.
For any child of the 80's there's unending depths of nostalgia; name any aspect of your childhood and there's a very good chance you'll find a memory triggering reference somewhere from throwaway mentions to Jason's interpretations of events of the Falklands War and its impact an the small community of Black Swan Green.
All of the above are huge plus points, but where I, personally, couldn't fully enjoy it is that Jason's most difficult and painful moments are far too close to my own childhood and sour my appreciation of the story. Where others may be able to say "yes, I remember how hard being a teenager was" or "I remember when that happened to x", it's just too many bad memories for me.
Perhaps a case of 'great book, wrong reader'
For any child of the 80's there's unending depths of nostalgia; name any aspect of your childhood and there's a very good chance you'll find a memory triggering reference somewhere from throwaway mentions to Jason's interpretations of events of the Falklands War and its impact an the small community of Black Swan Green.
All of the above are huge plus points, but where I, personally, couldn't fully enjoy it is that Jason's most difficult and painful moments are far too close to my own childhood and sour my appreciation of the story. Where others may be able to say "yes, I remember how hard being a teenager was" or "I remember when that happened to x", it's just too many bad memories for me.
Perhaps a case of 'great book, wrong reader'