The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Mitchell's got the precision of Roth, the bigness of Tolstoy, the ventriloquism of Pynchon and the heart of ... Hugo perhaps. IT is rare for me to find a book that hits me as hard as this one did. A near perfect novel.

I enjoyed this book, but I found it to be uneven. The author tells the story episodically, focusing in turn on several characters. The first part off the book focuses on the Dutchmen Jacob and the trading factory at Nagasaki. I found the characters and plot very engaging. Then he shifts gears to focus for the most part on the Japanese characters in another subplot. There is a necessary change of pace when going from a bustling seaport to a monastery, but I found that the book became significantly less engaging through about the middle third of the recording. Like everything was at one remove. The artistic intent was there, but at times it felt contrived & too slow. The plot elements and characters are in place, but the author didn't draw me in the way he had earlier in the novel. Then in the last third of the novel, the vigor came back.

There were a couple of places in the recording where there were silent gaps of up to a minute that made me wonder if parts of the book were unintentionally omitted in the recording and editing process. There is a much anticipated taiphoon that is not described. Audible should review these recordings from start to finish before they are posted for download.

It is a story that immediately demand your attention. Its setting is very well described and the characters develop nice and evenly and give more depth to the environment the book is placed in. At times it can be hard to keep some of the characters apart, but that doesn't seem to harm the flow of it. Even though the story mainly takes place on a tiny island, it opens up a whole world of intrigues. This book has it all, romance, adventure, science, murder etc etc. Its a shame that the narrators are unable to pronounce the Dutch names better.

I loved Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, for its invention, its haunting imagery, and its wonderfully varied collection of characters and voices. However, it was more a series of thematically-linked vignettes than a true novel. In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeSoet, Mitchell puts his undeniable imagination and talent to work in a more traditional work of long fiction. All in all, much of what I enjoyed most about Cloud Atlas -- the colorful characters and their unique vocabularies and mannerisms, the historically-based but somewhat fanciful quality of the writing, the posing of deeper questions about human morality and relationships -- is here in this book. Anyone who's a fan of David Mitchell won't be disappointed.

That said, I think what worked well so well in Cloud Atlas's loose pastiche doesn't expand perfectly into a longer story. For all Mitchell's skill as a writer, the larger plot arc is somewhat pedestrian, and the three parts of the tale join a bit awkwardly. Interesting characters and examinations of issues fill the reader's attention for a while, then disappear for whole chapters, if not the rest of the book. I wondered if the work had started out as a collection of short vignettes and episodes, a la Cloud Atlas, but had been turned into a novel. Also, Mitchell wears his political leanings a bit on his sleeve at times -- there's a strong cynicism to his portrayal of capitalism and its authority figures.

But, these issues are minor next to the sheer mastery of the writing. There are brilliant, beautiful passages and scenes. The dialogues and interactions between characters are filled with depth, humor, and subtlety. Even if Mitchell uses some obvious 21st century artistic license, his turn-of-the-19th-century sea captains, petty officers, salt-of-the-earth sailors, samurai, doctors, magistrates, and translators are wonderfully rendered. Obviously, much research went into the novel. If the whole felt segmented to me, each segment is engrossing. One is never sure what will happen next, or to whom, and by the time the story nears its climax, only the most jaded reader, I think, will be able to put the book down. The melancholic ending almost had me tearing up.

Is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeSoet as imaginative and daring a work as Cloud Atlas? No. Is it as exquisitely written? Yes.

Audio note: the reader does a generally fine job with the personalities and accents of the various European characters. However, I found his choice to give British accents to different Japanese characters (whenever the narrative is from a Japanese viewpoint) a little disconcerting.

This is not a "page-turner" but is a well paced, well written novel. The narration is somewhat confusing at times with miss-placed accents but one gets used to it.

Wonderful story and beautifully narrated. I was transported into a different land - and resented having to lever myself back into the "real" world when I had to turn it off. The character's different voices, accents, and names were quite clear. Not sure how they did that!

Booker Prize nominees rarely disappoint and this is no exception ... deeply engaging characters and plot immersed in a fascinating historical setting -- very reminiscent of the Aubrey-Maturin novels. Excellent narration.

Exquisitely crafted and beautifully performed!

I confess to getting lost among the plethora of characters and situations; often struggling to remember who was who and what they were up to. I sometimes felt as though I were sitting too close to a large painting, only able to see details but unable to see the big picture.

In the beginning I occasionally felt like giving up, but decided to simply step back and enjoy the ride; hoping that, eventually, things would come together and the fog would clear.

The ride was fascinating; even when I wasn't always following the intrigues. Just being in this place; witnessing this culture, and its characters, was enough to keep me listening. I left like an observer who, while I didn't always know what it was all about, was fascinated by the personalities, the voices, the conditions and the strangeness of the Japanese culture of the period.

As it turned out I found myself enjoying many Aha moments, as pieces suddenly fell into place and situations became clear.

This book is set in old Japan when the Dutch were trading. I enjoyed it and will warn the reader that it moves a bit slower than some audiobooks that I have read.

I would probably have given it 5 stars but something is wrong in the third part and it repeats.

I also don't know if it is the fault of the author or if the audio book has skipped some chapters because it seems to have all the loose ends pull together in one chapter which I found to be quite sudden. Otherwise, I did enjoy the book, except for these problems.

I tried. Really I did. But I couldn't finish it. There are innumerable characters, each with unmemorable names, having tedious conversations with seemingly no relevance to the story or the plot. I think the narrator did an amazing job with a multitude of accents, but for me it was virtually impossible to keep track of all the characters, despite his vocal characterizations. If you enjoy hours of inane conversation, punctuated only occasionally by interesting plot elements, take a shot. But I did not enjoy this book, despite my general like of long detailed audiobooks.