The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

A Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet has been sitting on our kindle since Dave downloaded and read it during last winter's travels. I have been put off by its brick-thick-ness as I'm not a great fan of books that take ages to read. However, our last few days in Almenara allowed me lots of lazing time so I finally got stuck in. I've read David Mitchell before and liked Black Swan Green, but Thousand Autumns is a more serious novel. It does provide a fascinating glimpse into the bizarre crossover world of Dutch traders in - or at least very nearly in - 1800s Japan. The society with which these few Europeans wish to trade is closed, proud and rigidly governed, yet at the same time corrupt, misogynistic and seemingly stuck in a Medieval timewarp with regards to its technology. The reverse xenophobia of the Japanese officials being unable to tell European nationalities apart was a neat touch and I enjoyed reading about Dejima life and the day-to-day interactions between its residents. Descriptions of the buildings and courtly rituals are well presented and interesting. However, I couldn't buy in to the Ogiwa storyline and found it too bizarre. No doubt Mitchell's research would have uncovered a similar situation within the Japan of the time, but for me, the love triangle followed by the quests to rescue and avenge just didn't ring true.

It is so funny when you find the same character in two different books yet in two different registers. It is good to meet them again, it is like re-encountering an old acquaintance. This historical novel has this and that – merchants, scribers, nuns, samurais, captains, the rich, the dispossed, all so full of life, some even bigger than life. All bring to our attention issues like loyalty, honesty, corruption, fear, bravery, lust, eligion. How unthinkably big power can get to be, yet how it can be defeated when enough people are determined to fight for justice and space for love no matter what.

I found especially touching how, when the main character seemingly looses all because he refuses to be corrupted, he gains the simpathy and respect of all around him (except his bosses) all who again seemed ruthless and selfish at the beginning. May be that is why I loved it, because it gives us the triumph of good over evil that we all long for, in such a logical terms, like it is the natural thing to happen because alongside this triumph we have witnessed human and natural miseries too.
And I thought the epilogue touching and emotional, not unnecessary at all.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet tells the story of the Dutch East India Company’s trading post off of Nagasaki in 1977. Japan has been cut off from the rest of the world and the only outside influence was a small man-made island known as Dejima. Originally built by Portuguese traders, this island was walled off and used by the Dutch as a trading post from 1641 until 1853. This novel follows the story of Jacob de Zoet, a young clerk who has been sent to Dejima to uncover any evidence of corruption form the previous Chief Resident of this trading post.

My first attempt with David Mitchell was Cloud Atlas which probably was a terrible starting point; I had a lot of problems with the fragmented storyline. I know that Cloud Atlas was an experimental piece of post-modern fiction but for me it felt like a writing exercise to see what genres he was able to write in. With a little push, I was convinced to try The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which is a straight forward historical fiction novel that would allow me to discover Mitchell as a writer but try anything experimental again. I think if I read this book first, I would have gained an appreciation for this author and been more willing to see what he can do when he played around with genres.

This novel can be broken into two parts. The first half of the book establishes the world; we learn about the history of the Dutch East India Company, Japan and the island of Dejima. Mitchell spends a lot of time building characters and painting beautiful scenery. This is a nice slow-paced section that just explores the history and the culture clash between Japan and the Dutch; it also allows the reader to meet some of the characters. Then the book changes tone completely and everything becomes fast paced and thrilling which I won’t get into as this is where the bulk of the plot happens and I am not willing to give spoilers.

While this book does deal with the culture clash, it also looks at love and the human condition. Jacob de Zoet falls in love with a Japanese midwife, Orito and the plot does focuses a lot around this affection. Orito was a great heroine in this book. She pushes to learn how to be a midwife, in a time and place where the term midwife would have been unheard of. She is this strong willed and intelligent woman that just stole the show for me. I did struggle a little with Jacob de Zoet, he was this incorruptible man working on a trading post full of corruption. He just felt so good and kind, almost to the point of being fake. His prudishness and piety sometimes rubbed me the wrong way; as most people know. I do like characters that are deeply flawed so Jacob came across as too perfect. Having said that, I think this (somewhat) perfect protagonist was utilised well within the novel and helped Mitchell explore the themes around the human condition.

One thing I was curious about that I felt wasn’t explored enough was the language barrier between the Japanese and the Dutch. There was a great deal of exploration with the differences in cultures and how they clashed but when it came to language it was brushed over. There is so much there that was mentioned that I wanted more information about, for example when it came to the translators. The translators had the power to translate Japanese to Dutch and the opportunities for corruption was mentioned briefly and I would have loved to see these ideas explored more.

David Mitchell seems to have a keen interest in Japanese culture and the human condition, I felt like The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was able to explore these topics far better than I think Cloud Atlas did. I am not trying to rip apart Cloud Atlas (I may re-read it one day), I just felt the emotions and character development were missing from that novel. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet has given me the confidence to try more books by David Mitchell and I am not sure what I will look at next but I am curious. If anyone wants to recommend me another Mitchell book, maybe something with a flawed character, please let me know.

This book originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2015/01/17/the-thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet-by-david-mitchell/

The book is mostly about a clerk, working for the Dutch East India Company, who comes to Japan in 1799 to earn his fortune so that he can go back home to marry the girl he loves.

I say "mostly", because the plot does something wonky. Without giving too much away, this departure reinforces the idea that life is never what you expect--not just the events of the plot, but the departure from the expected for the reader of the fiction. (Does that count as metafiction?) Unfortunately, this little artifice caused me to become detached from the main character. By the time I got two-thirds of the way through the book, I really didn't care what happened to any of them--and that's sad, because there's some compassionate stuff in there. In hindsight, it almost felt like Mitchell had ideas for two novels, but just couldn't make them long enough, so he loosely combined them into one.

David Mitchell's narrative is fairly basic. He is neither verbose, nor spare--just adequate. However, he has two extremely annoying ticks that decreased the smooth flow of his prose. One, he overused ellipses. They're everywhere. Two, he carries the dialog in unusual places. By that I mean that he puts the "he said" in an awkward part of the sentence, usually in an unnatural spot too far to the beginning of the sentence. The two of these combined to really grate on me as I read the novel.

It's also fair to address James Clavell's Shogun at this point too. The two novels involve a foreigner coming to Japan and trying to understand the country, although Clavell's character has an easier time of it. Both novels have multiple plots and characters, but Clavell's easily has more. Mitchell has better characters and, when discounting the two annoyances with his narrative style I mentioned above, has a better use of language. Clavell had better atmosphere, if I remember correctly. However, I'd be hard pressed to pick which one is better. Flip a coin, I guess, and the winner is--

It's a semi-interesting story at times, but there really isn't much to discuss (other than an anti-religion tone). While the ending is well done, I don't think it saves this one.

This book turned out quite differently than I expected. I'm not familiar with Mitchell's other output, but articles led me to expect capital-L Literature. The New York Times Book Review blurb on the back cover promised "an achingly romantic story of forbidden love." The book starts out with way, with the first 175 pages chronicling a Dutch clerk's first few days in the Japanese port of Dejima and his fleeting encounters with an enigmatic local woman, but the historical romance plot is sidelined pretty quickly. The book soon turns into an almost C.S. Forrester-style adventure story--you know, the "rollicking" type--with a despicable bad guy leading an evil cult right out of a Fu Manchu yarn. Betrayed expectations might lead some to put the book down, but if you can keep up with the sudden changes in tone, the book is consistently good throughout. I couldn't find many faults with the Japanese historical details (something that has been a frequent disappointment when reading English books set in Japan), and Mitchell's occasionally purple capital L Literary stylings are balanced out by an earthy sense of humor. Worth a read if you like historical fiction as a genre or have an interest in Japan.

An excellent story, as I'm beginning to expect each time from Mitchell. I do often think the covers of books are too far apart, but Mitchell's big books should be bigger. I want to know his characters better, stay with them longer - he writes books worthy of greater investment.

Ninety per cent of this book pays off in just this lingering way. Characters are growing, there's movement of years that you barely notice are passed, and you become almost a native of this place he's creating. Then you come to that point when there's more book to the left than to the right (way too much) and you know how much ground Mitchell still has to cover (it's obvious) but there just isn't enough space. He's going to let you dangle or he'll strand you on this foreign island, forgetting to bring you home for something very like a thousand autumns.

But David Mitchell is a decent man. Rather than cut you off, he gives you the rudimentary supplies you need to get to your destination and a map.