Sunday, July 1, 2018

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

WARNING: This post contains spoilers.

Title: The Bone Clocks
Author: David Mitchell
Pages: 624
Finished: July 1, 2018

First Sentence: I fling open my bedroom curtains, and there's the thirsty sky and the wide river full of ships and boats and stuff, but I'm already thinking of Vinny's chocolaty eyes, shampoo down Vinny's back, beads of sweat on Vinny's shoulders, and Vinny's sly laugh, and by now my heart's going mental and, God, I wish I was waking up at Vinny's place in Peacock Street and not in my own stupid bedroom.

Summary: This novel follows numerous people in each of its six parts, all revolving around Holly Sykes. We start with 15 year old Holly running away from home after a fight with her mother. While out on the run, she meets a woman named Esther Little who asks her for asylum, and finds herself in a "daymare." In the end, she returns home when her younger brother, Jacko goes missing.

We jump ahead about ten years to Hugo Lamb (the cool, mean cousin from Black Swan Green). He's a nasty piece of work who basically takes advantage of as many people as he can. He meets Holly in Switzerland over the New Year's holiday and falls for her. Hard. But that romance will never be because he's recruited to the Anchorites by an old school friend Elijah D'Arnoq (related to the D'Arnoq in the Adam Ewing chapters of Cloud Atlas.)

Ten years later and we follow Ed Brubeck, the boy who helped Holly back when she was fifteen. They're a couple now with a young kid name Aoiefe. Ed is a war journalist who just wants to get back to Iraq. During this escapade, Aoiefe goes missing, and Holly goes into some sort of trance where she gives Ed the location of their missing child.

Another ten years and we start following the life of author Crispin Hershey. He's a failed author at this point thanks to an awful review. But he keeps going to various lectures and author signings where he keeps meeting Holly Sykes who's written her own book called "The Radio People" about her childhood psychic encounters.

Fast forward to the 2020s and we get to what feels like it should be the culmination of this book. Poor Holly has been the host of an Atemporal being. Her missing brother was another Atemporal being belonging to a group called the Horologists, who try to save people from Anchorites... beings who decant people's souls for a way to cheat death. This is clearly the meat and potatoes of the book as we witness the final battle in this war between these tiny factions of people.

Then comes the very last chapter taking place in the 2040s where climate change has basically ruined the world. Mo from Mitchell's first book (Ghostwritten) shows up here. Holly is now in her 70s and raising her granddaughter and her adopted grandson in this desiccated world. As society continues to collapse, a ship carrying the Horologist Marinus (from Thousand Lives of Jacob de Zoet) arrives with the ability to save her grandchildren. The beginnings of the Prescients in Cloud Atlas show up here.

Thoughts: Blech was that a long summary. I'm sorry guys. I couldn't figure out a way to shorten it.

General thoughts. I was really into Holly Sykes' first story. It felt very similar to Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane. I was also picking up a lot of Black Swan Green. I was intensely curious about Marinus who we last saw as a man living on Dejima in 1799. In fact, I was more than a little annoyed when the story changed. Particularly when it changed to Hugo Lamb. I hated that Holly fell for him primarily because he was such a jackass.

The Ed Brubeck portion was engaging to me. I was very happy to see they got together, but was definitely on Holly's side for almost the entire story even though I really liked Ed. Crispin Hershey's chapters were a huge let down for me. Again, I didn't like Crispin at all. In fact, by this point, I found something else to read because it was just dull.

Luckily, after Crispin Hershey, we get the Horologist/Anchorite war. Now this is my jam. Perhaps a bit more technobabble than I really wanted, but I was totally into it. I particularly enjoyed how they brought back bits of Jacob de Zoet with Marinus, though I'll that retroactively decided a couple other Atemporals were there too was a bit much for me.

The final part was the hardest for me. It takes place in a post climate change ravaged world. And guys, it sucked. It really REALLY sucked. And it feels like it could totally happen. I live in a country that seems to be self-destructing. I just broke my foot and my mental health has seen better days. This part of the book just ripped me apart. It tore me up so badly that my husband had my toddler bringing me Kleenex and giving me hugs. And as much as I appreciated the connection between this and the middle two stories in Cloud Atlas, I just couldn't handle it.

I had been really excited for this book. I'd heard it was his masterpiece. The parts that I liked, I REALLY liked. As the books are starting to call back on each other, I'm getting more and more interested. But that being said, I don't know how fully invested I was. Am I glad I read it? Yeah. And a part of me wants to actually go back and reread some of the stuff I just read, but I think I'll hold off on it.

Read as part of my David Mitchell Personal challenge.

2 comments:

  1. Great review. I struggled with explaining the plot in my own review; there's just no way to shorten it. I think it's awesome that you read all of Mitchell's books as a challenge. I'm planning on reading number9dream after rereading Slade House.

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    1. Thanks! It was definitely a struggle.

      I have to laugh at myself for doing all these challenges. I love adult literature, but as a children's librarian, I find myself reading a lot of children's literature. I need some structure for my adult reading, otherwise it doesn't happen. Of course, looking at my challenges this upcoming year, I may need to bring children's lit back into my life!

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