Ghostwritten

David Mitchell's Ghostwritten is described as a novel in nine parts. Mitchell molds the formats of the novel and the short story into one with varying levels of success. Many consider this book to be the work of a master, and it's not hard to see why, but whenever somebody does wild experiments such as this, there are bound to be effects other than those intended.

None of the stories were written as short stories, so none of them are able to hold up on their own. Because the stories don't hold much weight on their own, the reader is asked to memorize names and events in order to uncover connections in the story which do not reveal themselves until later. This book is a giant puzzle which seems nonsensical until the last pieces are put into place. While I find that sort of thing to be extremely interesting, I did find myself over halfway through the book without a clue as to what this novel was about.

Despite the distracting format, this book is extremely well written and has some big ideas behind it. This review was written immediately after finishing, so hopefully I will have more polished thoughts about it soon.