book review the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet

Mitchell would like to present himself as an expert on the Japanese culture, but also displays surprising ignorance, and a number of cultural and linguistic “blunders” in his story. Another issue is that the main hero, de Zoet, comes across as almost too pathetic, hardly sympathetic and actually quite annoying (for example, constantly fearful about everything, perpetually sexually-aroused, and disloyal to his fiancée at home the moment he sets foot in Japan).ĭejima’s layout, copied from a woodblock print by Toshimaya Bunjiemon. However, the author also presents too many characters, and when one central character in the story moves places, the narrative also starts to crumble. The book starts well, Mitchell presents a rather vivid Japan, and his story ends up to be rather “cinematic”. In times of all kinds of persecutions and discriminatory policies, de Zoet has to navigate a very uneasy road in the foreign country through cultural differences and alleged conspiracies.

However, “inadvertently”, he falls under the spell of one disfigured midwife Miss Aibagawa, who, in turn, aspires to knowledge and then freedom. Engaged to be married, de Zoet seeks a fortune and a high position to impress the family of his fiancée in Europe. In this tale by David Mitchell ( Cloud Atlas (2004)) the year is 1799, and Jacob de Zoet, a Dutch clerk, arrives with the Dutch East India Company to the trading post of Dejima, an artificial island in Nagasaki, Japan at the time of the sakoku, when Japan permitted only very limited contact with foreigners. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – ★★ 1/2

Book review the thousand autumns of jacob de zoet