Fringe benefits

Week 42: Ghostwritten – David Mitchell
Recommended by: Jon Mazliah

Before you ask, no, not that David Mitchell, novelist David Mitchell. Indeed his first novel, and in the opinion of my recommender at least, his best. The only Mitchell I'd read before this was Cloud Atlas, way back when I was just started my career and had also just formed a book club. I enjoyed it for its scope and ambition, weaving the strands of several separate tales together through different periods of time.

It's a similar premise here, interwoven stories spanning Asia, Europe and North America  with characters as strangers and outsiders, on the fringes of society. The narration takes place from an array of points of view, from a terrorist cultist in Japan to a scientific genius in rural Ireland via a spirit in Mongolia. It's certainly a way to showcase the writing talent that Mitchell has from both a characterisation and plotting point of view. I don't know if all of his novels are structured in the same way, as I'd like to see what he does with the chance to develop characters over more than 50 pages each, but certainly within the form he's brilliant.

Inevitably some stories grabbed me more than others but the overarching strands running through it pull it together and make it more than the sum of its parts. It's smart too, the author giving himself the platform to show his intellect as well as his range. Even more than this though, is how prescient it feels reading it now. The themes of modernity and change, dislocation in the face of global connection, fear and conspiracy, would be cutting edge now. Published as it was just before the turn of the 21st century, pre-World Trade Centre attack, it must have really captured the zeitgeist.

If there's one criticism of it I can make it's a personal one. For all that it's whip-smart, on the money, crammed full of interesting ideas and well-crafted characters, I found that it was just missing that je ne sais quoi.I liked it, indeed I liked it a lot and can appreciate all of the things that a great about it. But I never found it unputdownable, it didn't grab my by the throat and yell "This is good! This is real!" at me and I can't quite put my finger on why. Everything about it was great and to my taste but somehow, for me at least, it lacked the X-factor which would have put it into the absolute top tier.

Admittedly if that's the worst thing you can say about it, then you're still looking at a damn fine book. And this certainly is that. Packed full of bankers and backpackers, robbers and radio DJs, there is a lot of depth to the work that almost surprises because of the breadth of ambition. It's a whirlwind tour across the globe, it's explosive stuff, so strap yourself in and prepare for take-off.