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A review by teagan821
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
2.0
I wanted to love this book. I really did. I read Cloud Atlas when I was 16 and it felt life-changing. I was in awe of Mitchell's mastery of voice, language, setting, character, etc. And so while the synopsis of this novel didn't particularly intrigue me, I expected to set off into another incredibly crafted adventure.
To start, I had a hard time differentiating and remembering some of the characters. Especially when Uzaemon's point of view came into focus. Part of the issue was that it was difficult to feel these characters. Sure, there are lots of names and languages in play, but the tone and true personality of characters was vague and a bit unrealistic. I get that Jacob's whole schtick is being the straight and narrow, but nothing urged me to root for him. His entire existence was mechanical. There was nothing in his past or his psyche that fleshed him into a 3D human rather than a list of character traits. And that remained for almost all the characters. The only one who felt real to me was Marinus.
Another issue is that the subplot of Orito stuck at the monastery had the absolutely most unsatisfactory ending. That she almost gets rescued, then escapes, then turns back, then the novel turns its shoulder on her until the epilogue. On the one hand, I'm impressed by the unusual and daring choice to let Uzaemon get killed. On the other, how much more interesting would the novel have been had he lived? What was the point of having Orito turn back around right when she feels freedom? I would rather have seen her escape and then captured then simply turning around. It sucked the passion and urgency right out of the novel.
The last two main moves (poisoning Enomoto and surviving the English attack) felt the most satisfactory and meaningful of the whole novel. And yet, when I closed the last page, I wondered what it all added up to. Jacob was our main character, but didn't have much heart, realism, wants or needs. Our "love story" never once materialized. Our other main character, Uzaemon, had been dead for years without much of a second thought. And if the novel was supposed to be a larger commentary or broad strokes painting, it was too bogged down by well-researched details to move us in that direction. To agree with a previous review, the novel was technically well done, but lacked heart. The only thing that motivated me to turn the page was to log it on Goodreads.
To start, I had a hard time differentiating and remembering some of the characters. Especially when Uzaemon's point of view came into focus. Part of the issue was that it was difficult to feel these characters. Sure, there are lots of names and languages in play, but the tone and true personality of characters was vague and a bit unrealistic. I get that Jacob's whole schtick is being the straight and narrow, but nothing urged me to root for him. His entire existence was mechanical. There was nothing in his past or his psyche that fleshed him into a 3D human rather than a list of character traits. And that remained for almost all the characters. The only one who felt real to me was Marinus.
Another issue is that the subplot of Orito stuck at the monastery had the absolutely most unsatisfactory ending. That she almost gets rescued, then escapes, then turns back, then the novel turns its shoulder on her until the epilogue. On the one hand, I'm impressed by the unusual and daring choice to let Uzaemon get killed. On the other, how much more interesting would the novel have been had he lived? What was the point of having Orito turn back around right when she feels freedom? I would rather have seen her escape and then captured then simply turning around. It sucked the passion and urgency right out of the novel.
The last two main moves (poisoning Enomoto and surviving the English attack) felt the most satisfactory and meaningful of the whole novel. And yet, when I closed the last page, I wondered what it all added up to. Jacob was our main character, but didn't have much heart, realism, wants or needs. Our "love story" never once materialized. Our other main character, Uzaemon, had been dead for years without much of a second thought. And if the novel was supposed to be a larger commentary or broad strokes painting, it was too bogged down by well-researched details to move us in that direction. To agree with a previous review, the novel was technically well done, but lacked heart. The only thing that motivated me to turn the page was to log it on Goodreads.