eShop USA > Books > Black Swan Green: A Novel
Black Swan Green: A Novel
List Price: $13.95Our Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780812974010
ISBN: 0812974018
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: February 27, 2007
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: February 27, 2007
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new.
Black Swan tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran Lps, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons.
Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Decent read but unremarkable
The novel covers one year in the life of thirteen year old Jason Taylor during the 1980s in Worcestershire, England. I'm not really sure why the author chose to create a character that can resemble almost any child at that time and place. Even though Jason was a good kid, maturing month by month into a teenager, his world seemed no different than anyone else's. Of course there was the two month long war in the Falkland Islands where the casualties touched close to Jason's home but that seemed to ... Read More
Rating:  - Wonderful coming of age novel
Jason Taylor is 13 and grows up in a small village, Black Swan Green. He has all the usual problems boys of that age have: his sister is a [...], his parents do not understand him and there is a very strict hierarchy among the village boys (from absolute losers to the most popular boy of the village) and you have to constantly watch your act to make sure that you do not become a loser. And apart from that he is a secret poet and is pestered by "Hangman": a to Jason very real personality who impedes ... Read More
Rating:  - Gradually engaging, but not memorable
I've heard many good things about David Mitchell (but have not yet read his others), and was provoked by the blurb proclaiming Black Swan Green as a British Catcher in the Rye. Ultimately, however, I found this book to be fine but uninspiring. The narrator mostly came off as being dim, rather than just being 13, but I don't think that was the point. In fact, I could not get The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time out of my head as I was reading Black Swan Green--though the former is narrated ... Read More
Rating: - Survivors of Adolescence Unite!
The characters in this book, from the narrator/protagonist 13-year-old Jason Taylor, to those who make the briefest of appearances, are so richly drawn, so multi-layered, and speak with such convincing dialogue, that the created world of the small English town of the title becomes as real as the town of the one's own youth. That isn't to say this novel is comforting; Jason experiences a 1982 that is both brutal and unjust yet ultimately transformative. Non-British readers of Black Swan Green will note the ... Read More
Rating: - Black Swan Succeeds
A look into the bullying society prevalent during 1980s Thatcher England. We experience one year in the life of a 13 year old artistic middle class British boy pressured by bullying peers and an unstable family life. His poetic imagination and sensitivity makes life practically unbearable, and yet he survives. Authentic language,excellent characterizations and a satisfying conclusion. Good read.
Related Categories:
| |
 |
