Book Report II

While in Portland I had a discussion with my friend Dade.  He's the guy that comments on this blog.  Towards the end of that discussion he pressed upon me, despite my protestations, a large and heavy hardback book for me to carry with me back to Texas.  This book is entitled The Thousand Lives of Jacob van Zoet written by David Mitchell.  As with the last book given to me, I feel a responsibility to say what I think and feel about the book.

I will start with the writing style, which, for a work of literature rather than pulp, is generally forthright and straight forward.  The writing is more about what happens than an ostentatious display of writing prowess.  The descriptions are excellent, but brief and always for the purpose of adding to the story.  There is a fair amount of dialogue throughout the book and it feels entirely natural, with each person seeming like an actual individual person rather than a piece of the author.  Still, the writing has a depth of intelligence that is subtle enough that you often only notice it some time later in the book when the plot drops enough clues to put everything before it in a different light.  In contrast to Tinkers, the writing is about a story and the characters within that story.

That story starts with a young Dutch clerk landing on a trading enclave in Japan at the very end of the 18th century.  He is there to make an adequate fortune to return to the Netherlands to marry his sweetheart, to be achieved through a five year position for the Dutch East India Company.  The plot unfolds from there through the combination of fate, and the steady removal of layers of ignorance.  What was clearly so at the beginning becomes increasingly not so throughout the book.  I will say nothing more of the plot since the book relies on this progression of fate and understanding for its effect.  Suffice it to say the book is thoroughly researched and the story is excellent, far from cliched, subtle, and excellently written.

I can, however, put forward what I feel are the themes of the book.  The first, and most obvious, theme is of aliens living within the constraints of particular societies.  The Dutch trading post's dimensions are measured in yards rather than miles, and its inhabitants are forbidden from leaving it for the mainland of Japan.  In addition all communication with the Japanese is through a very small group of officials, students and interpreters and all under strict Japanese law.  Even the practice of Christianity is forbidden.  This idea of constraint is repeated in a number of situations throughout the book, within the Japanese family, profession, caste and religion.  This constraint is highlighted not only by the vagaries of fate, but also by the main characters who are all educated and seemingly reasonable people.

The second theme is an examination of honor.  What is honor, and does it do us any good?  Is it better to suffer for your honor or to bend the rules a little for your (and others) betterment?  Are honorable actions always the right thing to do?  Or even usually the right thing to do?  Are people honorable?  Is it possible to be honorable within the obscure complexity of humanity?  What happens when the different concepts of honor inherent in different cultures come into conflict?  As someone who has always despised the idea that honor is more important than people, I found this theme both fascinating and somewhat painful.

This is a very worthy book, one that I think all of you should purchase and read.  It has fluid and excellent writing, a fantastic plot unveiled with patient skill, rich characterization, and thorough research that leads to a solid grounding in space and time.  For its type I can only think of one "novel" (stretching to twenty one volumes) that I have read that I feel is superior, that being the Aubrey - Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.  Since that work has been called "the greatest historical novel ever written" and is among the candidates for greatest novel ever written, this is far from any suggestion of denigration for Mr. Mitchell's work.