The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. Pub 2014
I’ve been meaning to return to David Mitchell after enjoying Slade House a few years ago. I chose this one as it’s related to that other book in a prequel kind of way, and also because it helps to satisfy a tricky book club category (a book with a body part in the title). I was a bit daunted by the book length, but once I started, I found it to be an engaging page-turner.
Briefly, the novel tells the life story of one Holly Sykes, from her teenage years in 1984 through to her elderly years in 2043. Holly might have had an ordinary life had she not been noticed by two competing groups of immortals – the Anchorites (who stay perpetually young through the abduction and consumption of other souls) and the Horologists (who reincarnate after each life into a new one). Through each chapter, we learn a bit more about Holly and about the immortals, who come to play a larger and larger, if secretive, role in her life. By the end, we have, with Holly, learned all about their various histories and methods, and had a close-up view of their internecine war. We also get a glimpse of the world’s apocalyptic future, the end result of consumption and globalization and climate change – something the immortals can do nothing about except watch, as it means their own demise, too. The characters are complex and interesting, and the international locations and interior worlds of the leading characters were compelling.
Like with Slade House, the story is a mash-up of fantasy and ghost story, almost gothic except for the modern settings, with a dollop of social commentary, especially about globalization and its contribution to more specific challenges (overpopulation, climate change, pandemics, energy crises, homelessness, and poverty). Not for the first time was I surprised how much I enjoyed this spooky genre, and found myself caught-up in the netherworld created by Mitchell. I was reminded of both Raw Shark Texts and How to Stop Time, and their supernatural-in-the-everyday stories.
At almost the exact midpoint of the book, Mitchell (or one of his characters) sums up the source of our doom: rootlessness: “…that’s why we’re in the shit we’re in, mate. If you belong nowhere, why give a tinker’s toss about anywhere?” I was reminded of reading something similar about the challenge of globalization, how we might consider an emerging divide in society between the “somewheres” – those who have a strong attachment to the place that they live or are from – and the “everywheres” – those with little attachment to place who can move easily around the world – as a contributing factor to other divides and challenges. As such, this story was an interesting what-if after reading The Wayfinders.
In reading more about this book, I found out that Mitchell’s novels have various interlocking and overlapping characters, so I’ll likely read a few more by him. Who knows, I might finally break down and try Cloud Atlas one more time.
Fate: likely to pass on to another reader.
1 – a book with a murder
2 – body part in the title
rclr 