Today, I finished David Mitchell's 'Black Swan Green'.
Narrated by a 13-year-old boy, the story takes place over 13 months of his life, and is set in the England of 1982.
This novel resonated all the more for me for two reasons: I have a 13-year- old son, and I was not living in England in 1982. For these reasons, the story has given me wonderful insights. On the one hand, I valued getting a teenage angle on the Falklands War (I was 14 in 1982) and on the other, I relished the opportunity to see through the eyes of a young boy of this age. I don’t think I have ever read anything with this kind of voice before. I rarely read books twice, but I can see myself wanting to go through this experience again.
What I have retained most, on first reading, is the poignancy and immediacy of the young boy's experiences - the adjacency of revelation, pain and joy. Especially effective is the way Mitchell has the boy narrator (cast as a fledgling poet) quoting his own poetic lines, in a way that makes them spontaneous and relevant to the moment, but also timeless. This gifted child is put to the test by his peers in rites of passage & initiation, but is also tested and mentored by the mysterious Madame Crommelynck – a character of archetypal quality – in a section of the book which is strangely otherworldly. In fact, Mitchell evidently enjoys using such episodes which act as subtle, unconscious psychological explorations. Take the house in the woods - at first we can’t work out whether the narrator is dreaming or not. But the narrative is so good, it can be read and enjoyed effortlessly without concerning yourself, if you prefer, with what these episodes might really be conveying about the character – they’ll affect you whether you realise it or not. The time-frame is fairly short, and densely packed with engaging detail and dialogue which keeps you hooked. Yet, essentially, I think that this is a story about the survival, nurturing and awakening of a poet. And this is why we want our protagonist to win through – because the world needs its poets – something that society so easily forgets. I couldn't recommend this book highly enough. I was pleased that the story included a positive relationship between the boy and his older sister too. I only had a couple of minor complaints: At times, in the early stages of the novel, I felt a little like I was reading the Beano and also, I felt that some of the 1982 references were surplus to requirements and were there as an easy hook for the age group of reader that the author obviously had in mind.
Night Owl's 'pellets' from this book:
'The world's a headmaster who works on your faults.'
'Woods in winter're brittle places/Your mind flits from twig to twig.'
'Over the English Channel, the sticky afternoon was as turquoise as Head and Shoulders shampoo.'
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