Bildungsromanesque

David Mitchell�s novel of an �80s adolescence

Comments (0) By Claire Messud Wednesday, Mar 29 2006

...continued from page 1

The minutiae of the period (as exemplified above) are also wonderfully caught. For those of us old enough to remember that time, it is given its particular local flavor (the Falklands War looms large in this young British boy’s year), but Mitchell vividly re-creates all the details of a historical moment that, coming on the heels of the flamboyant ’70s and before the rather different flamboyance of the later ’80s, is largely forgotten; and in so doing he adds another layer of pleasure to the text.

Any brief description of Black Swan Green would suggest to you that you’ve already read it: Nerdy teenage boy has social trouble while his parents’ marriage founders; becomes suddenly popular and kisses girl at end. And, of course, David Mitchell is fully and amusedly aware that you already have. But he follows Pound’s exhortation to “make it new”: You’ve read it before, and then again, you haven’t read it quite like this. Jason Taylor is a classic, stammer and all.