Currently Reading: Ghostwritten

image

I only started reading this this morning on my commute, so I've only got about a chapter and a half in, but I can already tell it's very well-written and takes great care in fully creating its characters.

For the life of me, I can't remember why I wanted this book, but I have a vague memory of it making one of the Top 100 Books of 2012 lists, which of course I can't find now.  Anyway, the novel is about nine very different characters whose lives intersect in odd and hidden ways. The first chapter I read was about a Japanese terrorist and cultmember, traveling around the country "cleansing" aka mass murdering the "unclean" also known us as regular non-culty folks. The chapter I am in the middle of is about a young man in Tokyo who works at a record store and finds his "inner place" through jazz.  

This is David Mitchell's debut novel, which always makes me feel completely useless as a human being because where is my debut novel?!  I'll hopefully give you an update after I finish it, but I think this is going to be an interesting, curious, and fun novel to read.