A review by ingalls1969
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
5.0
Wow. I could not get enough of this book. It was a slow start for me, but eventually, I was flying through it and did not want it to end.
My first David Mitchell book (he’s the guy who wrote “Cloud Atlas,” among others) and not my last. I love the fact that the book was about a 13-year-old boy in 1982, since I myself was a 13-year-old boy in 1982. But I spent that year in New Hampshire, and Mitchell’s protagonist (named Jason Taylor) lives in rural England.
The book goes through an entire year and chronicles the usual 13-year old boy stuff: peer pressure, puberty, “fitting in,” music, trying cigarettes, trying to avoid getting the crap beaten out of you by schoolyard bullies…all delivered in a nearly incomprehensible (for us Yanks, anyway) British slang that almost sounds like characters from “A Clockwork Orange.” It’s like Judy Blume decided to write as a British kid with an “R” rating.
There’s so much more I want to write about this book, I feel like I’m only scratching the surface. A terrific coming-of-age story and the best novel I read all year.
My first David Mitchell book (he’s the guy who wrote “Cloud Atlas,” among others) and not my last. I love the fact that the book was about a 13-year-old boy in 1982, since I myself was a 13-year-old boy in 1982. But I spent that year in New Hampshire, and Mitchell’s protagonist (named Jason Taylor) lives in rural England.
The book goes through an entire year and chronicles the usual 13-year old boy stuff: peer pressure, puberty, “fitting in,” music, trying cigarettes, trying to avoid getting the crap beaten out of you by schoolyard bullies…all delivered in a nearly incomprehensible (for us Yanks, anyway) British slang that almost sounds like characters from “A Clockwork Orange.” It’s like Judy Blume decided to write as a British kid with an “R” rating.
There’s so much more I want to write about this book, I feel like I’m only scratching the surface. A terrific coming-of-age story and the best novel I read all year.