“Although Number9dream differs from Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas in that it is the telling of one story throughout - that being the story of Eiji Miyake, a 19-year-old Japanese boy who comes to Tokyo from his small island home in search of his long-lost father - it is just as all-encompassing, if not more so, than Mitchell's preceeding and following novels. Number9dream is structurally defined by eight chapters, nine if you include the final, blank one. Each chapter flits between two narratives, Eiji's story and in each chapter something else - whether it be Eiji's fantasy-world, dreams, childrens stories, a wartime journal, or letters. Basically it is as full and rich as any of Mitchell's others, taking you up, down, through and welding you to his character - Eiji - in the most captivating and interesting way.
I of course loved every word of it, am at a loss to describe how it made me feel, and the impressions of Tokyo I felt from it. All the hysterical, fantastical, violent and euphoric experiences Eiji has subsequent to his few weeks in Tokyo, real or not, help the reader to understand him and sympathise with him. His story is a many-layered one full of coincidence, adventure, romance, daring, misfortune and friendship... and in the end, even though he claims that he feels "sad that I found what I searched for, but no longer want what I found”, it was the journey that was the most important thing - and it's stories like that which I like best... probably because it is cohesive with my life theories. :p
anyway, I won't ramble on about it because we all know that I love David Mitchell and will probably love everything he ever writes. So I'll leave it there. :)”
Evelyn wrote this review Thursday, May 29 2008.
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