David Mitchell is brilliant. Hard to believe this is his first novel.

I wish that I had read David Mitchell's novels in the order they were written. He not only is the master of linked narratives he links his books/characters both forwards and backwards as well.

I really liked the interconnectedness (is that a word?) in this novel. Not just between the stories but the bigger notion of being connected in the world.

I only have 2 of his novels left to read so I hope he writes another one soon.

4.5 stars

An absolute wowzer of a 1st novel.

The amount of personal knowledge, research, and thought that must have gone into creating such an expansive novel! Mitchell has his material entirely under control right from the start. It doesn't escape out from under him even once no matter how many twists or connections or details appear (or disappear).

Impressive.

And one could probably say this is the realistic twin of Cloud Atlas (which was literary/fictional) and score extra brownie points for "how cool is that".

But there *are* problems.

First of all, the characters are rather stereotype. Or at least, they're easily guessable because they would probably be many people's 1st or 2nd association with that place/job/person. I know they were mine.

Another minus point is that, unfortunately, a good chunk of those guessable main characters are dicks with all the smarmy charm of wormy chickens. (Especially: Hong Kong, Petersburg, London and Night Train.) Others characters are just dull (Clear Island, Tokyo).

What Mitchell DOES with these characters, the twists he gives their stories, is unique and fascinating - but I found that many of the chapters started out very standard (read: kinda boring) and had a rather steep uphill grind to get anywhere interesting. Which they all did...eventually.

The exception - and for my money the very best chapter in the whole novel - is "Mongolia," which admittedly, contains a lot of Mitchell magic. That one starts out at 200 mph of interesting and doesn't slow down.

If only more had been like that one!

This is my 3rd Mitchell and I'd have to say 2nd fave after Cloud Atlas and before Jakob de Zoet.

Amazing first novel by a truly original writer who's fast becoming a favourite. It's possible I liked this one even better than his later, and better known, Cloud Atlas. Although the style he hones by CA is still a bit rough around the edges here, that roughness actually works in the novel's favour as structure and style did not threaten at any point to overwhelm substance/content.

Mitchell's virtuosity employing different genres per story-chapter is less delineated here than in CA, but that again works in Ghostwritten's favour, I think, by uniting the story-chapters through more than just symbolism or discrete events. (although these nuggets are still sprinkled throughout for the reader to find like easter eggs - with as much delight).

Perhaps because its various storylines are more contemporaneous (anchored by the real-life Tokyo subway gas attack), and less speculative-fictiony than CA, Ghostwritten feels more human and even humane, and the characters are easier to identify with.

There is also the truly extraordinary way he describes place - from Hong Kong, to Tokyo, to Mongolia, to London, to Petersburg, to a remote Irish island (the novel really does span the globe); these descriptions alone are worth sticking with Mitchell on the journey, which goes to some truly dark and lonely places both geographical and psychological.

Among the themes he explores, the spirituality-meets-technology one, and the search for / construction of meaning in a random universe, weave their way like DNA strands through the work, culminating in an elegant and breathless ending that neatly ties up most of the plot threads. Earlier inconsistencies are resolved and while some suspension of disbelief is required, the whole thing feels not just logically plausible - with the sense of foreboding doom that implies - but it also never loses the sense of human drama and angst, the poignant search for connection, place and purpose that each character embodies being shared, ultimately, between the reader (at least, this reader) and the novel.

Mesmerizing, engrossing, very beautiful, very sad.

I simply cannot add anything to Nat K's wonderful review. This has to be one of the best debut novels I have ever read, and even after the third read I feel that there is a plethora of hidden connections and Easter eggs I have missed. The way in which Mitchell switches genres so effortlessly and yet still remains in the structure of the overall story is brilliant.

At times, the stories are so good that you miss what an amazingly descriptive writer Mitchell is. His metaphors mesmerize, and his characters so rich and real. I know that his style is not for everybody, but for me he is one of the best contemporary authors writing today.

If you have not read this yet, I urge you to give it a try. Check out Nat K's review, or one of the other excellent reviews floating out there. Off the top of my head Henk's and Cecily's are outstanding.

The 'G' on my keyboard barely works. I keep typing host for ghost. But that's all right - hosts and ghosts are the point in Ghostwritten. A similar problem could have given me ghost-ridden, which this book is (there's even a Caspar) yet it's the hosts here that are the most interesting, not the ghost surfing.

Mitchel's characters are real - the man knows how to write, as I found out in Cloud Atlas. There, the connection between the characters is metafictional. In Ghostwritten it is metaphysical. However, the whole overarching theme of ghostwriter puts a foot in that other door, as a sort of containing device.

Who but a writer would use ghostwriter as a metaphor for the metaphysical? Writers: the people who give us books. If only non-writers could write. But...they can...! and that is why ghostwriters exist. It's a big industry - for instance the ghostwriter for Hillary Clinton's memoirs received a fee of about $500,000 of the book's $8 million advance. In fact probably all books written by the famous are ghostwritten. Cookbooks, guides, self-help books too. Medical papers. Nancy Drew.

Oh please let Chronicles, Vol. 1 and Just Kids be the exceptions!

Ghostwritten has ten chapters, nine places, and many remarkable characters. Their lives intersect directly and sometimes just by a bare feather's touch. The plot is can be explained like this totally spoilered summary:

A mad religious fanatic sees himself in a baby's eyes and phones a jazz guy to say that his dog needs to be fed and this causes the jazz guy to run to Tokyo and be noticed in a restaurant by an unhealthy man who is screwing his maid (her grandmother had been raped and had a baby and that old woman talks to a tree: the tree ends up as a baby girl) and later there's a comet which has nothing to do with Eve and the Serpent by Delacroix [a fictional painting] being stolen from the Hermitage, nor the gunfire, nor the unhealthy man's wife moving to London because she can't have a baby even though there's a ghost baby in their apartment, so she screws a guy who's a ghostwriter, whose girlfriend had had a baby several years earlier, and that same guy saves the life of a physicist who also once had a baby but damn, babies turn into teens before you can say Jackie McLean (or Miles Davis, Kenny Burrell, Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, or Herbie Hancock - all mentioned by the jazz guy - see Ian's  review for the whole list and a better review too) but the physicist does know the three laws of robotics - and uses them wisely - however those rules can be circumvented ever so easily, damn, as we learn from a DJ (he has a baby too - it's about 8 years old) by his giving bad advice to a gizmo machine that seems to be a sentient satellite with powers that can make others give up the ghost...and possibly all ghosts.

Just read it.

You must read this book.

Ghostwritten is at once an entire novel and a series of stories. The book is divided into nine parts told by nine different narrators: a member of a cult based in Japan that is trying to “cleanse” the earth; a young saxophone player who works in a record store; a British attorney working in Hong Kong caught up in a money laundering scheme; an old Buddhist woman who owns a tea and noodle shop on the slopes of a Holy Mountain; a non-corporal automaton looking for evidence of his corporal past; an art thief in St. Petersberg; a young drummer and womanizer in London; a physicist employed by the CIA on the run; and a New York City “shock jock”. In each of these stories, Mitchell uses a different voice and realistically tells very different stories from the viewpoints of the different narrators.

Each of the nine stories could stand on their own – the people in them have little to do with one another, and yet there is a small but tangible web of connections between them. Each character is introduced briefly, tangentially, in the previous story, prior to being able to tell them own. Aside from the appearances of different characters in each others’ stories, the connections are emphasized by Mitchell’s use of language. For instance, the main character in the first story is named “Quasar”. Later, the word quasar is as an analogy for various events in two other stories. Language relating to ghosts and comets also crop up again and again in different stories. For example, this bit is from the attorney’s story:



For the last few months I’ve been living with three women. One was a ghost, who is now a woman. One was a woman, who is now a ghost. One is a ghost and always will be. But this isn’t a ghost story: the ghost is in the background, where she has to be. If she was in the foreground she’d be a person.


And this is from the drummer/womanizer’s story:


I couldn’t get to sleep afterwards, worrying about the possible endings of the stories that had been started. Maybe that’s why I’m a ghostwriter. The endings have nothing to do with me.


Unfortunately, I found the ending of this book to be a little heavy-handed. Mitchell’s book as a whole makes a statement about the world and the way that the events in one person’s life impact the lives of other people. However, in the final story, I think he wanted to make a far grander Statement, and as a result it feels extremely heavy-handed in comparison to the rest of the book. Despite that flaw, I highly recommend this book. In fact, when I was finished, I almost felt compelled to turn it over and start again, just to look for more connections between the stories with foreknowledge of what comes next.

Mitchell really surprised me with this one. This being his first novel, I had lower expectations than his other novels. However, this may be the best of the bunch.

I love how Mitchell weaves in these small science fiction elements without making it SF. I believe I read that he lists Le Guin as one of his early influences and it shows. However, it is just one of the small things that makes this book great. If you loved Cloud Atlas, you will love this one, and vice-versa.

This is a hard book to rate because, let's be honest, it's David Mitchell: that's an automatic 5-star rating there. But knowing that it's David Mitchell, I find this book a little lacking. It's his first novel; it's not perfect. Despite its imperfections, however, it still destroys most of its competition. I certainly couldn't have written it. So it deserves all five stars.

If you've read only one Mitchell novel, it's likely you've read his third, Cloud Atlas. Ghostwritten is Cloud Atlas, Junior. It is Cloud Atlas taking its first steps, burying its face in a birthday cake, making it through its first day of school, playing at the park, kissing the neighbor girl, surviving its first day in junior high, learning to drive, and attending prom with the girl with a comet-shaped birthmark. Cloud Atlas is everything Ghostwritten hoped to become. But it was Mitchell's first and, as such, he tried to cram a lot in here. Maybe that's just David Mitchell—he does try to fit much into all of his stories—but here it feels a bit forced at times. It’s all about interconnectedness, but sometime the connections are a little too flimsy. Sometimes the style Mitchell employs to tell his story is strained. Sometimes the narrative voice is a little too shaky. And once—dare I even say it—Mitchell switches verb tense for an entire section for no reason. It’s almost like he just… made a mistake.

But putting all that behind us, Ghostwritten is a brilliant novel. It’s intelligent, thought-provoking, and fun. Though not as grand as Cloud Atlas, it utilizes the same variety in place, method, and voice. And best of all, it connects us to Mitchell’s other works—the Cavendishes, Luisa Rey, Neal Brose, and a certain birthmark all make an appearance. It’s an ambitious work from a very ambitious author. Ironically, I’d say my favorite episode from this novel is the least ambitious, that being “Tokyo”; it was interesting and full of heart without trying as hard as the other stories.

I really like David Mitchell. I wouldn’t say he’s my favorite living author because I think there are other writers who can capture my heart and mind without gimmicks—which is exactly what Mitchell employs in his works, albeit with exceptional skill—but his works certainly keep me more riveted than any other writer does. I look forward to the next.

It was due to the glowing review and my very fond memories of Cloud Atlas that I read this. And neither prepared me for just how good this was.

David Mitchell is a talented writer, and this is probably the best début I've ever read. His characters are so real you feel like there is no separation between you and the page.

The plot is a river delta of interleaving stories, perspectives and motives. And to be honest I think only in rereading it will I really grasp the scope of what he has portrayed.

And I was happily surprised by the little mentions and hints at what would eventually become the Cloud Atlas story.

I cannot recommend this book more highly.

If I had read Mitchell's novels in the order they were published, I would not have been so astonished by Cloud Atlas. I would have just said, he's done it again. For here in his accomplished first novel are all the lush elements, the great leaps in time and narrators, tackling the big questions, a flawless use of language and voice.

In my opinion this writer stands head and shoulders above many of his contemporaries.

n  
"I couldn’t get to sleep afterwards, worrying about the possible endings of the stories that had been started. Maybe that’s why I’m a ghostwriter. The endings have nothing to do with me."

“The human world is made of stories, not people. The people the stories use to tell themselves are not to be blamed” n

David Mitchell's first book is a cricketing equivalent of scoring one's maiden test match century at Lord's on debut against the Number 1 test team. And by God, David Mitchell can write!

Ghostwritten is an exhibition in impact writing. Described as a novel in nine parts, you take connected-ness for granted. However the author cleverly passes off 9.5 chapters of short story material as a novel - like a beach side shell necklace. The powerful narrative around the world, through varied narrators and styles with gripping stories takes the reader by storm. Not to forget the wry humour and wit in the writing.

Each chapter seems to be perfect with each sentence - but does not let on the reader where it is headed. Heisenberg principle explained later almost seems to be the guiding principle. According to me there were 3 standout chapters - Mongolia, London and the Night Train. In Mongolia the narrator is a disembodied spirit in search of an answer and who is more humane than his multitude of hosts. In London we have a playboy ghostwriter's story of chance and destiny making the reader think of cause and effect. The night train, written as radio show transcripts featuring  a rogue Artificial intelligence system Zookeeper clarifying ethical decisions with Bat the RJ is one of the best!

The rest of the chapters were brilliant too and probably deserve a second reading. The different geographies and the full circle chapter have a refreshing effect on you. The supernatural/eerie stuff is done so well, they don't appear contrived.

The connections have a separate google page - not just between chapters/character, but between his other books. This is the signature of man who is absolutely clear of the story in his head! There were lines that were so beautiful that you HAVE to re-read them.

Some of my favorite:

- “We all think we're in control of our own lives, but really they're pre-ghostwritten by forces around us.”

-“The act of memory is an act of ghostwriting.”

-“We create models to explain nature, but the models wind up gatecrashing nature and driving away the original inhabitants.”

-"But this isn't a ghost story: the ghost is in the background, where she has to be. If she was in the foreground she'd be a person.”


If a book can make you feel like a treasure hunter chasing gems in a room full of riches - then the book should be worth every word! Highly recommended.

Special thanks to Syl who gifted me the book as Secret Santa and bade me to Buddy read! :)

David Mitchells debuut: De geestverwantschap. 9 verhalen over 9 mensen die losstaand lijken omdat we van Okinawa via Mongolië en Sint-Petersburg bij Clear Island en New York uitkomen. Maar het is Mitchell, dus notitieboekje in de aanslag! Je wordt als fan van dit oeuvre niet teleurgesteld, er zitten een boel linkjes tussen de personages zodat soms via een ander duidelijk wordt hoe het de een verging. Sommige personages komen in latere boeken terug (volgens mij vooral Wolkenatlas en DroomNummerNegen) en ook de basis voor transmigrerende non-corpa, communiceren via alfagolven en corrupte KGB-Mongolen wordt gelegd. Aan te raden voor beginners; welkom in de Mitchellverse.