Un coming of age que sigue al protagonista, un niño tartamudo de 13-14 años a lo largo de un año de su vida.

Me costó un poco cogerle el tono, ya que cada capitulo es como una mirada a su vida, casi como relatos individuales (mas normal en el estilo de Mitchell) que como capítulos que forman una historia larga. Es una novela muy costumbrista pero que en muchos momentos me ha retraído a recuerdos de mi propia infancia.

Me ha gustado más de lo que esperaba. ( )

Jace’s ace!

Jason Taylor is Will McKenzie, Adrian Mole and Benjamin Trotter with spokey dokeys on. I just loved everything about Black Swan Green – the characters, the content, the style, the setting, the local dialect, the humour and the nostalgia.

The characters spring to life in a single sentence.
“Alex is seventeen but he’s got bubonic zits and his body’s three sizes too large for him”.
“The man’s lips were gnarled and his sooty hair had a streak of white like combed-in bird crap”.

The cultural references to the early Eighties are spot on and I was instantly transported back to 1982 relishing Findus Crispy Pancakes and Butterscotch Angel Delight for tea and finding a furry stick of Wrigley’s juicy fruit chewing gum in my duffle coat pocket.

Adolescent angst - the horrors of school discos, wanting to be one of cool kids but knowing you’ll always be middle-ranking at best, trying to stay well below the radar and finding your parents cringingly embarrassing - was made all too real.

The reported speech had the local Worcestershire accent down to a T and the lyrical language reflecting Jason’s poetic bent was simply heavenly.
“The big field was full of wary ewes and spanking-new lambs. The lambs tiggered up close, bleeping like those crap Fiat Noddy cars, idiotically pleased to see me.”

I read most of this book with a smile on my face and laughed out loud in places.
But it’s not all ha-ha-ha. There’s serious stuff in here too. Coping with and trying to overcome a speech defect, being bullied, marriage break-ups, dementia, dysfunctional families, the personal consequences of the Falklands War and life-changing motorbike accidents. A little bit of everything.

This was my first David Mitchell novel and I hit pay dirt.
I can’t recommend Black Swan Green highly enough. ( )

Like all David Mitchell's books, I loved Black Swan Green. It's told from the perspective of 13 yr old Jason Taylor, growing up in 1981 England. A bit reminiscent of the Adrian Mole Diaries, the first person narrative let's us ride along in Adrian's mind as he experiences early adolescence.

There's only a slight hint of the surreal that permeates some of Mitchell's other books, but that's ok - it's a different type of story. The writing itself is beautiful - sometimes lyrical - and the imminent monologue and dialogues are spot-on for tone. Highly recommend! ( )

Good but being written from a child's point of view is a big problem, in my view. The general outline of the plot felt really close to a lot of my experiences and some parts were really effective in that sense but this just made the bits where it wasn't realistic incredibly jarring. There are a few bits which are clearly far out of the ordinary and these don't bother me as much as the unrealistic patterns of speech and social dynamics that are clearly supposed to be the bread and butter of the book. The ending is frustrating too because it ends after a year, right at the point a dramatic change actually happens in the life of the main character (everything else has been a lot of small events). The chapter breaks can be annoying because they typically end right before revealing the consequences of something - usually you can infer it from the chapter following but in places it makes the narrative confusing and elides important events.

This isn't to say the book is *bad* - not at all. His writing is excellent as ever, it made me tear up in places and bits were frighteningly realistic. It's just somewhat frustratingly inconsistent, marring the experience somewhat. I'd recommend reading his other books first.

On a final note, a few times he does "something happened actually it didn't." It feels like something out of Goosebumps and is just straight up bizarre.

later note: i reviewed this when i was really ill and i kind of dunno if i'd agree with what i wrote much. thinking back on it a month later all I can remember is how much it hit home. Just thinking about it makes me kind of sad. I think I was put off by the sadness. If you've liked David Mitchell I'd read this. ( )

Such a wonderful book, but very different from Cloud Atlas, though the author's incredible mastery of language and impressive imagination are equally in force. I had a hard time putting this book down and find that I'm still thinking about it. Thanks to my partner Tim for giving me such a great Christmas gift with this novel! ( )

This 13 year old's life isn't really anything I can relate to but David Mitchell writes well and conveys 1980s Britain and growing up. With a stammer, family discontent and bullies this is often painful, sometimes funny and occasionally mystical. The novel takes the reader deep inside Jason's mind and feels his puzzlement about so many things, including what a Brummie is and his efforts to explain the adult world. Nicely constructed if maybe somewhat a fantasy. ( )

Incredibly evocative of both a particular time and place, and of the universal feeling of being young and finding yourself and your place in the world as it constantly shifts around you. Masterful. ( )

Filled with 1980’s nostalgia, Black Swan Green transports the reader to a small town in Worcestershire, England, where thirteen-year-old narrator and protagonist Jason Taylor is dealing with the familiar challenges of adolescence. We follow his life in this small town as he seeks acceptance, observes the growing disharmony in his parents’ marriage, clashes with schoolyard bullies, battles a stammer that makes him agonizingly self-conscious, secretly writes poetry, and begins to mature into a more self-aware individual.

This book paints a portrait of an innocent youth starting to deal with the often-painful realities of life and learning that appearances can be deceptive. It is a character-driven story told linearly in thirteen chapters. I thought Mitchell did an excellent job of capturing the voice of a teenage boy, and the writing is reflective of how an adolescent would talk. A large portion of the book is spent inside Jason’s head listening to his inner dialogue around such topics as his discomfort around his parents’ marital troubles, dealing with the ridicule of his schoolmates, his push/pull relationship with his sister, his attempts to overcome speech difficulties, reactions to the Falklands War, and guilt over specific actions. I felt his pain and became invested finding out what was going to happen with him.

It takes a while to ramp up and builds momentum towards the end. I thought certain chapters were brilliant. I especially enjoyed the chapter entitled “Solarium” that features a flamboyantly eccentric character, Madame Crommelynck, an elderly Belgian woman who engages him in conversations about art, music, poetry, literature, and language. It contains elegant observations about youth and age, life and death, beauty and truth.

This book is filled with meaningful examinations on the vulnerabilities in human relationships and the difficulties in being true to oneself while feeling pressured to fit in. Although the story is narrated by a teen, I felt I got more out of it reading it as an adult than I would have when I was much younger. Recommended to those that enjoy subtle, contemplative, character-driven stories, especially those related to coming-of-age. ( )

One of THE best books ive read this year. ( )

What is beauty? What is life all about? The questions that generate and resonate from the years when coming of age are present in this fine novel. The young boy at the center of this story is fascinating in his experiences and recognitions of life and love and the joy of existence. Highly recommended. ( )

a coming of age book that doesn't depend on epiphany--something rare. And it's got great warmth without smarm! ( )

I like the way the author writes, he is very funny. A great story about a 13 year old boy. Very realistic. My only wish is that it would have had more of an overall story. Each chapter kinda felt like its own separate story. Not that it didn't flow or anything, it did and it moved along, but it seemed like for a while that there was less of a plot and more of chapters/stories of this kids life. Good, just not my favorite style. I'll probably pick up the author's other books. ( )

Ordered for the lovely cover and title, the first chapter was promising,
but plot and character development slow moving and not enthralling as anticipated.

No dead horse or dog in this one, simply a way-un-needed dead kitten...and more sad miseries. ( )

Mensmerizing, nuanced & poignant coming of age story about a young boy with a stuttering problem growing up in 1980's England. The book takes place during his 13th year and it is awe-inspiring how Mitchell, telling the story in first person, subtly and gradually matures his character's way of thinking about and relating to the world. Mitchell is a mster. Black Swan Green has entered my personal pantheon of favorite books. ( )

Voor zover ik al fan was van het werk van David Mitchell, is hij na het lezen van Dertien nog een trapje hoger komen te staan.
Indrukwekkend is niet alleen zijn stijl, die zo feilloos en trefzeker is, dat je haast vergeet dat hij er is, maar ook de manier waarop hij de genadeloze wereld van een dertienjarige vorm geeft.
Tegen de achtergrond van de Falklandoorlog, de relatie van zijn ouders die spaak loopt en een bikkelharde strijd met zijn zus, probeert de dertienjarige Jason Taylor zich staande te houden op zijn school en in zijn sociale omgeving. Mitchell geeft dit prachtig en helder weer, zonder te vervallen in al te gemakkelijke cliché’s of voorspelbare wendingen.
Leest als een trein en na afloop drukken we Taylor en zijn auteur dicht aan onze borst.
Prachtboek. ( )

i was a little unsure of how I felt about this at first, but this really comes into its own by the end. A solid coming-of-age tale that's beautifully written. ( )

I liked this one a lot. A fun voice, a neat sense of nostalgia, and bits here and there that invite rumination. It's not a hard book by any stretch of the imagination, or a formally tricky one (a la Cloud Atlas), but neither is it exactly light-weight. It's one I'd read again, possibly on a single tear with the other Mitchell I've read. Now I'm off to get his two earliest novels and will wait with bated breath for the next. ( )

This book is reportedly "semi autobiographical" so it is hard to know which bits are real life, and which fictional, but the searing nature of the trials of life as a 13 year-old seemed extremely real to me.
Beautiful writing, as I have come to expect from David Mitchell, but I found the contents of this book harrowing.
I wonder how much has changed in terms of the bullying and aggressive social ranking among adolescents since the 1980s. I can only guess that the advent of social media has supercharged the process. ( )

Loved this, not really what I was expecting. Surprisingly poetic but a straightforward read. Although I'm too young to remember that early in the 80s, the book captures the monocultural, village life that I recall very well from my youth - definitely brings back how awful early secondary school life is and the social stratas between kids which are a minefield to navigate.

Highly recommended. ( )

It was going so well. And then he goes to Mrs. Commelynck's house. And it's just the author pontificating about art, writing, poetry, etc. Bit of a disappointment there. In addition, it didn't seem to know where it was going. ( )

I can only call this an immature work. I have read and enjoyed most of David Mitchell's other books but this one did not impress. I kept reading it thinking something was going to happen ; some point to the story. I nearly gave up half way through until suddenly an ageing Belgian bohemian appeared in the story and I thought things were going to take a turn for the better. Alas no; the character disappeared after one chapter and the story plodded on and to be honest remained boring to the end. Maybe mildly interesting if you are a 14 year old boy. ( )

While I knew this was a semi-autobiographical novel about a 13-year old boy in the 80ies, and not really speculative fiction, I still expected something more. 'The Bone Clocks' blew me away - and not because of its speculative elements, but just because Mitchell wrote such a great, human book - judged by all kinds of parameters.

'Black Swan Green' is a bit too one-dimensional for me: one year in a boy's life, trapped with his stammer, in the disolving marriage of his parents, in the social world that is other kids in a small town. Been there, done that - so to say. It didn't surprise me, it didn't engage me and I didn't learn anything, so I decided to jump ship at 50%. I cannot fault David Mitchell - the language is great, there are some excellent scenes, and the protagonist's voice is convincing, but this was not the book for me: I'm simply not into the subject matter, I found out while reading.

If you do like books about teenagers: there's a significant chance you'll like this, a lot even.

More reviews on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It ( )

A complete departure from Mitchell's usual multifaceted attack. This book is glaring proof that his fiction's solidity isn't the result of a puzzle-piece pile of style and wit that dizzies rather than tells (as some have claimed), but the fact that each individual piece of his puzzle is cut, measured, and perfectly colored while somehow remaining absolutely human. ( )

Compelling novel of coming-of-age in small town Britain in the early 80s. ( )

I can't believe I'm quitting a book by my favorite author, but I just can't work up any interest in this one.