The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

I don't think I've read a David Mitchell book yet that I didn't love. This is in many ways a much more straightforward book than you might be used to from him, but the combination of vivid writing, humour, an incredible amount of historical research (it's set on a Dutch trading outpost in the bay of Nagasaki in 1799) makes it if anything an ever stronger read.
How he straddles the different sensibilities of the Dutch, Japanese and English through language is amazing, but of course this wouldn't count for much if it wasn't also a very emotionally captivating novel.

I found after finishing this terrific fiction I was looking to read about the events that this book was based on. I came away impressed that David Mitchell could turn an historical event as was a small trading depot on a man made island called Dejima in the middle of Nagasaki harbour in the late 1700's into such an epic but subtle fiction. No Hollywood ending! Fantastic.

David Mitchell is a great story teller and a great writer. I have read his oeuvre in order and have yet to not be anything but enthralled. A damn fine book.

I love David Mitchell but this one was a dud for me. And not just because I loathe gory descriptions of difficult births (which this novel opens with) or stories involving forced pregnancy (a major plot point). Not even because the first half of this book was like someone decided the world needed a retelling of The Handmaid's Tale from the point of view of a white dude who barely knew her. I would forgive Mitchell even that, I know I would.

Maybe my real problem is just that this is the most ordinary Mitchell novel I've ever read: too little magic, too much realism (as I quipped on Twitter). Straightforward narrative, a single chronology, precious few interconnections to the rest of his metaverse (Marinus notwithstanding). Maybe it was the weirdly unsatisfying way everything turned out, with the feeling that all the real mysteries remained unsolved; maybe it was that I chafed at spending so much time in Jacob's head (and that of the insufferable Captain Penhaligon) while the characters I wanted to spend more time with got shuffled to the sidelines. Maybe it was simply that historical fiction is not my genre; certainly this novel has no lack of accolades.

Wonderful book. Beautifully written and absorbing

For me, the appeal of David Mitchell is his ability to write in any voice and nail it. It's a skill, but I'm sure it also requires significant research. In most of his novels, the reader is entertained by several of these voices from beginning to end. In a couple, Mitchell employs more traditional means and keeps to one story, one time period. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is one of the latter. It's a fairly straight-forward historical novel. But of course Mitchell had to break up the narrative somehow. And this was when the book fell apart.

In The Thousand Autumns..., Mitchell opens a window onto Japan during its period of isolation. The research is clear in the writing, and Mitchell's talents are obvious. Had the narrative stuck with de Zoet, as it does for the first 175 pages, I would've been pleased. But then we're transported to a mountain cult which didn't lend much to the story. Then back to de Zoet briefly, then an English ship, then we're just all over the place for the rest of the book. It's Mitchell's signature style, and it certainly could've worked, but the problem was I didn't care about Orito and her shrine days, I didn't care about the English, I wanted Jacob de Zoet. Wasn't this book supposed to be about him?

I get that Mitchell had set up a chess board here, that certain pieces needed to make certain moves, that other pieces had to fall. I get all that. Largely, I think I understand what he was doing here. But the story became so overwrought that it forgot the most important part: the story. I've always been entertained with Mitchell's writing. Even when I think the story is a poor hack of another author's style (number9dream), or is a bit dry (“The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing”), or is difficult to read (“Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' After”), I am entertained. Here, I was frankly bored. I know entertainment isn't everything, but it's a big something, and The Thousand Autumns... could have used more of it.

With precise diction and purpose David Mitchell again has written a novel worthy of winning more prizes than it did. Mitchell's love of Japan and his characters can be read throughout the book. I would recommend this to everyone in to contemporary literature and even more so for the people into historical novels.

The life of a young Dutchman, Jacob de Zoet, goes to the trading post of Dejima close to Nagasaki in the Japanese Empire for the hopes of some extra cash. As a clerk he hopes to make some money so he is worthy of marrying a woman he loves back in Zeeland (the Netherlands). He finds out soon enough that in the Dutch East India Company in the tail of the 18th century honesty and diligence are not always considered virtues by his superiors, peers or subordinates. Corruption and fraud is what keeps the company a float. And his report digging up dirt on all his superiors predecessors is not wholeheartedly welcomed.
Through events like these the intelligent clerk learns to be a shrewd diplomat and not to blindly the virtues of his superiors.

I think I'll leave it at that. The book is to intriguing and intricate.. just read it yourself. Mitchell is an artist.

I've been doing a lot of genre reading lately; lots of fantasy, the occasional crime story – and a non-fiction title here and there. With this novel I got back into a big, meaty, literate tale. You know, high-brow stuff. I'd almost forgotten how captivating that can be and this one did captivate. This story is about a Dutchman, Jacob de Zoet, who travels to a small island called Dejima located across a small bridge outside of Nagasaki in Japan. The year is 1799 and the Japanese do not allow foreigners within their country. But the Dutch East Indies Company is allowed to have about a dozen traders live on the small manmade island of Dejima. (There's a sketch of it early in the story.) Jacob has given himself five years to make his fortune so that he can return and win the hand of a woman back home in Holland. But things take an interesting turn after he meets a local midwife named Orito Aibagawa and he becomes somewhat besotted with her. My expectations for the story were changed completely after about 100+ pages into the story and it wouldn't be the last time. This was very well written and absorbing. It was a story I was eager to return to again and again. I'll most likely be reading more books by this author. (This would make a great book-club book.)

I wasn't planning to read this novel when it first came out, since I usually read many more older books than newly-published ones, but when I saw that it involved two cultures close to my heart – my family is Dutch and I was raised just about as Protestant as you can get; and I've had a crush on various aspects of Japanese culture since being a huge Sailor Moon fan in my adolescence – I went for it. It took me longer than usual to get into it, although once I got there it was engaging enough to read for long stretches and finish in a week or two. I expected more from it, though, especially having enjoyed Cloud Atlas very much a few years ago. The ending was mildly disappointing; the story seemed to fade away without a gesture toward something larger. Perhaps I missed it? I was expecting something to resonate, but nothing did beyond Jacob's stand on the watchtower.

Very good, but it could have used more scenes with the monkey pissing on people.