David Mitchell quotes one famous rock musician saying that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” I had read this quote before and that there was some debate as to who said it. Whoever said it may have had a point depending on one’s view on the topic of writing about music. Writing about any of the arts in general is fraught with danger. Aesthetic values are a very individual pursuit, as is reading and then reviewing a book on Goodreads. I was telling some work colleagues who

David Mitchell's new novel is the history of a fictional band. Utopia Avenue form in 1967, as the hippy idealism of the free-love Sixties is colliding with the bleeding edge of rock 'n' roll. There are four members, three of whom get their own detailed backstories and subplots. Elf is a folk singer battling sexism and figuring out her sexuality. Jasper is a posh, eccentric guitar prodigy, heavily implied to be on the autistic spectrum ('emotional dyslexia' is the term used in the book). Dean, th...

Sadly adding this one to my DNF list. 🥱😴

David Mitchell’s groovy new rock novel belts out the lives of a fictional band in such vivid tones that you may imagine you once heard the group play in the late ’60s. Set in London when “new labels are springing up like mushrooms,” “Utopia Avenue” is a story of creative synthesis, one of those astonishing moments when a few disparate individuals suddenly fall into harmony and change the sound of an era. Mitchell — cult writer, critical darling, popular novelist — knows much about the unpredicta...

I hate to say this but, after some entertainment early on, I found Utopia Avenue irritating, vapid and often boring. My love affair with Mitchell reached its peak with Cloud Atlas. The decline began with The Bone Clocks and Slade House. They at least though were entertaining in their silly madcap way. This often struck me as a novel written with too much glee and not enough artistry. Mitchell loves the band he's created. He writes about them with fidgety infatuated excitement. He lovingly descri...

Offspring of the swinging sixties were flower children and rock musicians. Now, ‘looking through a glass onion’, David Mitchell recreates that fabulous psychedelic epoch…‘The Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Kinks,’ says Griff. ‘They’re not trying to change the world. They don’t buy their mansions by writing anthems about CND or making a socialist paradise. They’re just out to make fookin’ good music.’‘The best pop songs are art,’ says Jasper. ‘Making art is already a political act. The artist

People of Goodreads, this one was worth the wait! David Mitchell is a gift to the literary world, and his groovy new novel, Utopia Avenue, TOPS THE CHARTS! This may very well be my favorite of the year (and it’s only February!).First things first: I LIIIIIIIVED for the music, pop culture, film, and history references in this book. David Mitchell chose his decade and setting well for this outing. The 60’s London music scene was (and is!) I-CO-NIC, but it was also a decade of momentous change, con...

Welcome to the swinging sixties: to the world of youth-driven revolution, modernism combines with hedonism showing its creative flourishing at the art, music, fashion. The world of Vietnam War, hippies, drugs, sex, rebellion, rock n roll! But this is not a story about Four Liverpool boys conquer the world with their rhythm and charisma or the other band members made us empathize with devil and taught us the importance of having satisfaction.Nope this story is about Utopia Avenue, one of the stra...

Despite the for me unappealing topic a surprising heart wrenching book, elevated by its connections to the Mitchellverse and the normal wit and literary craftsmanship on a sentence level of the authorArt is memory made public. Time wins in the long run. Books turn to dust, negatives decay, records get worn out, civilizations burn. But as long as the art endures, a song or a view or a thought or a feeling someone once thought worth keeping is saved and stays shareable. Others can say, “I feel tha...

“the supreme enemy of all Utopias—boredom.”―Arthur C. ClarkeWith its goofy celebrity cameos, cheesy dialogue and affable but wooden characters, Utopia Avenue is a bit like an extended Doctor Who episode set in the Swinging Sixties except it’s much less fun and takes itself way too seriously.This novel is too long, too dull, and unconvincing as a 1960s period piece. I can’t see that it adds anything to the Mitchellverse that we don’t already know from previous novels (I haven’t read them all, so

Utopia Avenue chronicles the life and times of a British psychedelic rock band who shine brightly for a while in the late sixties, charting their journey from humble beginnings to fame and infamy. This big novel paints a colourful picture of the music industry and life in the 1960’s - it’s druggy idealism, long hair and explosion of sexual and musical experimentation. It’s also a change of direction for David Mitchell who is more typically known for his ‘linked short story’ style of writing - Cl...

Expect the unexpected! Isn’t that always the case with any new novel by David Mitchell? After ‘The Bone Clocks’ and ‘Slade House’, I was certainly not expecting a straightforward narrative and I must confess that this made me initially nervous, even a bit anxious, because I feared that David Mitchell had decided to write a novel in a conventional way just to show he is capable to do that magnificently as well. Thus, to my surprise, I did not encounter any unexpected strange or fantastical events...

4.5, rounded up. In many respects, this is a departure for Mr. Mitchell, and I think how people will react to it will largely depend on whether they are long-time die-hard aficionados (as I AM!) ... or if this is their first exposure to this definitely sui generis author. This chronicle of two years in the formation and rise to fame of a late sixties 'psychedelic/pop/rock/folk' group could easily be seen as just a more literary version of the recent best-seller Daisy Jones & The Six - since it t...

A couple of years ago, I attended an event in Dublin where two authors chose a treasured album and talked about its effect on their lives. One of them was David Mitchell, and he selected Blue by his namesake Joni. He spoke passionately about his admiration for this record, dissecting its lyrics and rhapsodizing about his favourite tracks. Mitchell's deep knowledge and love of music shone through, so when he mentioned that his next book was about a British rock group, set in 1967, it shot instant...

When the hefty ARC of Utopia Avenue turned up in my mailbox, it immediately felt promising to me. Sure, I’d never read any David Mitchell (sorry), but of course I’d heard many great things, and the plot of this novel—concerning a rock band in sixties London—sounded amazing. (It didn’t hurt that both the title and the cover reminded me of my beloved Telegraph Avenue—although I have no idea if that will delight or annoy most Mitchell fans.)At the beginning, Utopia Avenue seemed poised to live up t...

I wasn’t convinced I was doing the right thing by spending an Audible credit on a long (over 25 hours) audiobook from an writer I’d only had one experience with – a bad one as it happened. I found the author’s Cloud Atlas impressively clever but nonetheless pretty much incomprehensible, so why would I dip my toe in that particular pond again? Well, simply because I’d heard really good things about it. Utopia Avenue is a band, put together in 1967 by Canadian manager Levon Franklin. It comprises

I find David Mitchell a slightly frustrating writer, but there is always plenty to enjoy in his books. As I have said before, I find the fantasy elements of his imaginary world and his battling immortals far fetched and impossible to take seriously, but when he writes about subjects more grounded in reality he can be engaging and perceptive.Music and musicians are notoriously difficult subject matter for literature, but for me this book does it pretty well, and I found it a lot more convincing t...