Black Swan Green Book

'The world unmakes stuff faster than people can make it.'

Month by month our lives spiral forth into the future, with each moment shaping who we are and who we will become. It is no wonder that the pivotal years of adolescence, the stage of development classified by Erik Erikson as the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, is fertile land for novels (if the nutrients of such land has been dried up from overuse of such topics is up for debate). Mitchell's Black Swan Green examines this tumultuous period of development, drawing from his own experiences at times, to track the to-and-fro of the formation of an identity caught in the gale storm winds of external pressures from society, politics and family drama. While this may seem like something we have all read before, Mitchell manages to deliver it through one of his unique, multi-faceted methods and posing this novel as the metafictional chapter of his oeuvre.

The structure of this book is rather exciting, with each chapter functioning nearly as a stand-alone short story, ordered chronologically throughout one year of Jason Taylor's life. Starting and ending in January, we watch the progression of Taylor's identity during the trying stage when social cliques are formed (when one year everyone of the same gender in a class attends their peers birthday and the next year that person who invited you to their birthday won't even acknowledge you), and less-than-ideal physical or social traits make outliers of many youths. The pressures to fit in and the aggression of those who already do cause Jason's confidence to falter, demonstrating how easily we let outside forces shape what we are inside. Some of these forces are negative, yet there are many examples of positive reinforcement in the novel. What works best about the structure is that each individual chapter has Jason's personal path juxtaposed with that of a larger social theme. The family fallout, written with such scathing accuracy to demonstrate a failing marriage and shallow bickering that ensues, is detailed alongside the Falklands conflict, both being summed up beautifully by the sister in her explanation of a Pyrrhic victory during a family dinner. Another prime example is the juxtaposition of Jason's outsider status with his peers and the hatred towards the gypsy camp that moves just outside of town.

Each one of Mitchell's previous novels has a major point where he lifts up the hood and allows the reader to examine the engine driving his narrative. Cloud Atlas has the multiple allusions to it's own structure, such as Frobisher explaining his sextet in a similar fashion as one would explain the novel, and number9dream had the wonderful 'Goatwritter tales' that explored Mitchell's literary goals. In Black Swan Green we have his meeting with Madame Crommelynck's ¹ and her lessons on beauty and on being an artist. 'If you are not truthful to the world about who and what you are, your art will stink of falseness,' she instructs Jason. In effect, this novel is his truthful account of his life, exposing all his flaws, fears, failures and embarrassing moments in the name of truth and art. There is even a brief moment where the reader witnesses the creation of a rough draft for a previous chapter. The metafiction does not cease there, however, as this novel contains much of Mitchell's own life, particularly his overcoming of his stammer. Ironically though, could it be seen as Mitchell still hiding behind false pretenses and using Jason as his mouthpiece, thus missing the point of Madame Crommelynck's teachings? That, dear reader, is for you to decide.

If each of his novels has a metafictionally-revealing section, this novel serves as the metafictional novel to his oeuvre. As much of BSG focuses on the dangers and consequences of people operating with a closed, or selfish mind, Mitchell shows how much of the hardships in our lives could be alleviated if people just took the time to understand each other, to shoulder the burden of taking the right path instead of the easy path that burns a lot of good people in the process. He shows how those with power, such as the city council, or the nation with the stronger army, or even just the popular kids at school, will always use such power to ensure those beneath them stay there. 'I want to bloody kick this moronic bloody world in the bloody teeth over and over till it bloody understands that not hurting people is ten bloody thousand times more bloody important than being right.'This line from Jason echoes a message that permeates through all of Mitchell's novels. In Cloud Atlas, the abuse of power is present is a primary theme in each of the novels stories, as well as in Ghostwritten to a lesser extent. Even Number9dream toys with the ideas of power and the struggle for it. It is as if Mitchell took the events from his own upbringing and inflated the lessons he learned to the larger scope of society and the overall human condition. It could even be argued that Mitchell's own coming-of-age story was skewed and spun with larger literary themes into Number9dream, which further excuses him of his repeat visits to the bildungsroman theme.

There are several common complaints about this novel, and each one admittedly valid, yet I felt this novel still accomplished the goals set out for it and not by overlooking these shortcomings, but by trying to further understand them. Mitchell often preempts his criticisms and addresses them within the novel. Cloud Atlas, in particular, has Mitchell ridiculing critics in general through his slimy Miles Finch character, and addresses those who would see the book as nothing but mere gimmick. While Jason Taylor is fleshed out wonderfully with a whole repitoir of English jargon and juvenile slang, the narrative is often delivered through lush descriptions, complex metaphors and an insight into his situations that come across as overly mature for a boy of 13. To assuage such criticisms, Jason is written to have a precocious sense of literature and poetry. While it never comes right out and says it, his talents are hinted at being prodigious, or just so enough to reach the attention of Madame Crommelynck who is said to have a sharp eye for extreme talent (she did see the genius behind the insanity in Frobisher in CA). The reader can choose to accept this argument or not, however, Mitchell does not stop there in his attempts at believability. Much of the lush description teeters into the territory of over-writing, something that a young, unfocused writer often clings to. It isn't until the end of the novel that the supposed self-written tale of Jason Taylor is executed in crisper, well-executed prose to demonstrate that Taylor is beginning to finally come into his own as the purveyor of truthfulness that he has been taught to be mark of the true artist. Once again, the novel does rely on the acceptance of these techniques and this does not satisfy everyone. Then again, I may just be an apologist since I really do appreciate Mitchell hope for his success.

Mitchell's novel fall into a strange zone of literature that is both beneficial and problematic for him as an author. His novels are an interesting amalgamation of easily digestible plots, literary theory, fireworks and fantastic writing. This blend, which I have come to refer to as Literary Pulp, is most apparent in Cloud Atlas, and a further investigation into the terms implications can be found here ². Mitchell positions himself as a sort of literary gateway drug, pulling younger readers, or readers with more of an inclination towards plot-driven novels, into the wide wonderful wilderness of literature. Perhaps this is why I forgive some of his more 'gimmicky' techniques. The 'mind-blowing' big twists, ideas, structure or overall-appearances-of-texts type of gimmicks are something that really grabs many people, particularly those referenced a moment ago. Chuck Palahniuk reached fame in a similar fashion through attempting for the 'mind blow' and other gimmicks, and while he was an author that lead me into bigger, better authors such as Don DeLillo and Pynchon, he never had enough literary flavor of his own to keep my eye on him for very long. Mitchell comes across more like the overly excited professor that just wants you to love books as much as he does and is willing to sacrifice some of his literary merit with the higher brow to draw in a crowd of readers who would otherwise stay away from the higher brow literature. In Cloud Atlas, for example, someone who loved the Somni story is more or less instructed to seek out books like Brave New World while the Adam Ewing story borrows the style of Herman Melville to turn heads his way. Even in this book, Mitchell references many great writers such as T.S. Elliot or Chekov, references Madame Bovary (which he did in n9d as well) and offers a massive listening list of a wide variety of great musicians. This book would fits in nicely on a shelf for those who like higher literature, or would be just as at peace next to a book like The Perks of Being a Wallflower ³, however being an excellent gateway for someone of the latter category to continue a pursuit of literature. Mitchell's Literary Pulp method is a great way of reaching out, but it does garner a great deal of negative criticism for doing just that. As someone who hopes to go on into teaching, I find Mitchell to be a useful example of how to get people excited about books. Now that he has achieved recognition, he was able to move away from the more gimmicky methods to write something more subdued such as BSG and Thousand Autumns. I think there is a bright horizon for Mitchell if he continues to grow and push forward.

Although I read this book just over six months ago, it has not left my mind and recently I have spent a great deal of time fighting back the bleakness of the factory by over-analyzing this novel. Spending a year with Jason Taylor really endears the reader towards David Mitchell, as they quickly realize much of the stories are based on his own life. However, I would not recommend it as a first Mitchell read, seeing as it is a sort of commentary on the previous novels. Even if you disliked his earlier works, I would still recommend giving this novel a try, as it is a strong departure from his usual style. As the novel comes to a close, the reader sees life as a continuing spiral instead of something made of many beginnings and endings. It ends on the minor key, that angsty note that demands one final chord for completion and resolution, but Mitchell leaves the readers mind to fill that note in. We are left feeling things could get better, but to resolve everything would be to cheapen the story and to cheapen the actual course life takes. This is not a perfect novel, and has many aspects that leave a bad taste in the mouth of many well-read individuals (please browse GR, there are many with better tastes and insight than I that found a lukewarm reception in this book), yet I feel that Mitchell does an excellent job of covering his tracks. Simply put, and in the words of Jason Taylor, this book is 'ace in the face!'.
4.5/5

¹ Readers of Cloud Atlas will remember her as Eva, the love interest of Robert Frobisher. Fans of CA are treated to an alternative perspective on Frobisher's behavior and genius. Other characters that make a cameo in BSG are Neal Brose, of Ghostwritten, and Gwendolyn Bendincks, who stayed at the old folks home in CA.

² Please forgive my shameful self-promotion, but it would be far too time/space consuming to revisit the argument in proper detail here. The ideas of Literary Pulp are also prominent in the Goatwritter section of n9d as well.

³ I in fact recommended this book to my sister after she finished that novel, citing many similarities between the two. Both deal with a coming-of-age, musical tastes, and overcoming personal hardships, yet BSG is accomplished without the melodramatic angst and emotion that teenagers seem to thrive on. This book is also similar to Murakami w/r/t the constant allusions to songs, the great Murakami being a major influence on Mitchell (what? This review and the footnotes have been a blatant rip-off of DFW? Surely you Jest)


'A Pyrrhic victory is one where you win, but the cost of winning is so high that it would've been better if you'd never bothered with the war in the first place. Useful word, isn't it? So, Jace. Looks like we're doing the dishes again.'