Utopia Avenue

tags: fictional British band, the 60s

from GoodReads

Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967 and fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, guitar demigod Jasper de Zoet, and blues bassist Dean Moss, Utopia Avenue released only two LPs during its brief, blazing journey from the clubs of Soho and drafty ballrooms to Top of the Pops and the cusp of chart success, and on to glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American fortnight in the autumn of 1968.

David Mitchell’s captivating new novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue; of riots in the streets and revolutions in the head; of drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder. Can we change the world in turbulent times, or does the world change us?

I'm a bit uncertain if I like or love David Mitchell's latest novel. The characters are not very likable and their back stories, except Jasper de Zoet's, are rather boring. There are plenty of cameos from real people from the music and arts scenes but they seem contrived and tedious. Mitchell again incorporates a few characters and places from his previous novels - Marinus and Enomoto and the town of Gravesend where Dean is originally from. Jasper's great great great grandfather is Jacob de Zoet from a previous novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Jasper's story is the more interesting of the 4 band members. He is schizophrenic, actually someone is living in his head since he was 16 years old. He spent 2 years in an asylum until he was given a classical Spanish guitar as a therapy. The only notable part that made me smile is the short conversation under a dining table between Jasper and John Lennon.

Utopia Avenue band is a mix of progressive rock, jazz, folk, and blues. 1968/69 Deep Purple music comes to mind right away. Although Pink Floyd is mentioned in the book as one of the progressive rock bands at the time, DP [before they changed the lead singer and became a generic screecher band] in my imagination closely resembles the sound of Utopia Avenue if it was a real band. Jasper de Zoet, described as a guitar god, has a German girlfriend who lived with him for a while, just like DP guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had a German girlfriend living with him in London. BTW, I love eclectic music specially when merged together. Example: jazz with a bit of classical, pop, electronica, and heavy metal elements. Yes, to me it's not weird at all.

Deep Purple 

 

Jasper's practice guitar music - Andres Segovia, RECUERDOS DE LA ALHAMBRA

Update 09/4/20: after rereading the novel, I have added another star. I'm still not liking the Elf character and her story. She is just not an interesting person IMHO.

The Bone Clocks

 tags: family, fantasy, science fiction, supernatural

Synopsis

Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.
For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.
A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list—all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder.

David Mitchell has yet to write a novel I couldn't love specially now that he has gone Haruki Murakami in Bone Clocks with elements of fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural themes. The supernatural good versus evil epic battle between super humans is worth the wait in Part 5 although these characters appear in parts 1 to 4. David Mitchell is a great story-teller and his prose is beautiful.

The 640-page genre-bending novel is divided into 6 parts, all bound to the main character Holly Sykes, and similar to Cloud Atlas, spans decades between 1984 and 2057. Although I have it in my Kindle, I borrowed the book from the library. I loved the feel of the book's smooth silky pages. It's a joy to read. Highly recommended

Books by David Mitchell I have read and also highly recommend:
Black Swan Green
number9dream
Cloud Atlas
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

Some characters in The Bone Clocks appeared in David Mitchell's previous books. My favorite is Dr. Marinus from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.

Might contain spoilers