A Temporary Future: The Fiction of David Mitchell

by Patrick O'Donnell

Overview

Having emerged as one the leading contemporary British writers, David Mitchell is rapidly taking his place amongst British novelists with the gravitas of an Ishiguro or a McEwan.

Written for a wide constituency of readers of contemporary literature, A Temporary Future: The Fiction of David Mitchell explores Mitchell's main concerns-including those of identity, history, language, imperialism, childhood, the environment, and ethnicity-across the six novels published so far, as well as his protean ability to write in multiple and diverse genres. It places Mitchell in the tradition of Murakami, Sebald, and Rushdie-writers whose works explore narrative in an age of globalization and cosmopolitanism.

Patrick O'Donnell traces the through-lines of Mitchell's work from ghostwritten to The Bone Clocks and, with a chapter on each of the six novels, charts the evolution of Mitchell's fictional project.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441157287
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/29/2015
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Patrick O'Donnell is Professor of English at Michigan State University, USA. He is the author or editor of 12 books, including The American Novel Now: Contemporary American Fiction Since 1980 (2010), Latent Destinies: Cultural Paranoia and Contemporary U.S. Narrative (2000) and The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Fiction (co-edited with David W. Madden & Justus Nieland, 2011).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Many Worlds, Real Time
Chapter One: A Company of Strangers: ghostwritten
Chapter Two: Metropolitan Traumas: number9dream
Chapter Three: The Reach of History: Cloud Atlas
Chapter Four: Timepiece: blackswangreen
Chapter Five: Minor Histories: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Chapter Six: The Bone Clocks
Epilogue: Toward a Fiction of the Future
Index

Editorial Reviews

O'Donnell is the first to explore the complete works to date of British novelist David Mitchell. From Mitchell's first novel, ghostwritten, to his most recent release, The Bone Clocks (2014), O'Donnell dedicates a chapter to studying each of the author's six novels in detail …. Referencing theorists such as Jacques Derrida and other authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, and Haruki Murakami, O'Donnell makes a careful and clear argument for Mitchell's project as well as his place in literature… it will appeal most to literature students, academics, and literary critics.” —Library Jourbanal

From the Publisher

02/01/2015
O'Donnell (English, Michigan State Univ.; The American Novel Now; coeditor, The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Fiction) is the first to explore the complete works to date of British novelist David Mitchell (b. 1969). From Mitchell's first novel, ghostwritten, to his most recent release, The Bone Clocks (2014), O'Donnell dedicates a chapter to studying each of the author's six novels in detail. As he moves through his investigation, he analyzes plot, structure, and theme and connects recurring motifs and characters across the works. O'Donnell suggests that Mitchell's interest in temporality, the past and future, extends beyond the individual novel to create an ongoing and evolving project that serves as a model for thinking about the future and the various ways we construct it. Referencing theorists such as Jacques Derrida and other authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, and Haruki Murakami, O'Donnell makes a careful and clear argument for Mitchell's project as well as his place in literature. While O'Donnell intends the book for both a generalist and academic audience, the result leans heavily toward the academic. VERDICT Devoted Mitchell fans might find this book of some interest, but it will appeal most to literature students, academics, and literary critics.—Stefanie Hollmichel, Univ. of St. Thomas Law Lib., Minneapolis

Library Journal