{"id":124877,"date":"2020-06-15T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T00:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=124877"},"modified":"2020-06-24T10:42:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T23:42:43","slug":"review-utopia-avenue-by-david-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2020\/06\/15\/review-utopia-avenue-by-david-mitchell\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/utopia-avenue-david-mitchell\/book\/9781444799439.html?utm_source=booktopian_blog&amp;utm_medium=booktopian&amp;utm_campaign=review_utopia_avenue\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/UtopiaAvenue-Blog.png\" alt=\"Utopia Avenue - Header Banner\" class=\"wp-image-124879\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/UtopiaAvenue-Blog.png 665w, https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/UtopiaAvenue-Blog-300x158.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 665px) 100vw, 665px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With nearly 5 years between novels, there are a lot of us out there that have been itching with excitement to read <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/utopia-avenue-david-mitchell\/book\/9781444799439.html?utm_source=booktopian_blog&amp;utm_medium=booktopian&amp;utm_campaign=review_utopia_avenue\">Utopia Avenue<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, the new offering from David Mitchell. If you\u2019re expecting another <em>Cloud Atlas<\/em>, this book is not that. Instead, this novel sees Mitchell try his hand at the rock novel along the lines of <em>Daisy Jones &amp; the Six<\/em>, in a show of realism we haven\u2019t seen from the author since <em>Black Swan Green<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"attachment_126328\" style=\"width: 221px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/utopia-avenue-david-mitchell\/book\/9781444799439.html?utm_source=booktopian_blog&amp;utm_medium=booktopian&amp;utm_campaign=review_utopia_avenue\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126328\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-126328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/David-Mitchell.jpg\" alt=\"David Mitchell\" width=\"211\" height=\"248\"><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-126328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Mitchell (Photo by Paul Stuart).<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The story follows the formation and meteoric rise of fictional band Utopia Avenue in late \u201860s-era London. Think secret London clubs where you brush shoulders with Brian Jones, meeting Leonard Cohen in an elevator, bumping into young ingenue David Bowie on a street corner, invites to parties at the Chelsea Hotel with Janis Joplin, and taking your first trip at Jerry Garcia\u2019s house.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>We also see the darker side of the music biz. Dodgy deals, dodgy drugs, mental illness, sexual politics, and a whole spectrum of complicated family relationships make this book more than just an exercise in literary wish fulfilment. There are a couple of cheeky nods to previous novels too; Jasper de Zoet\u2019s name is a clear reference to <em>The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet<\/em> and, without giving too many spoilers away, I can confirm that the horologists from <em>The Bone Clocks<\/em> make a brief appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rock\u2019n roll cliches are bursting from the seams of this novel, which in less deft hands would see me curl my lip. But in Mitchell\u2019s hands these tropes are like a warm, safe, and familiar place from which to explore four complex characters and the upheavals they experience being young in the \u201960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;Jo Lewin, Head of Trade Books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/utopia-avenue-david-mitchell\/book\/9781444799439.html?utm_source=booktopian_blog&amp;utm_medium=booktopian&amp;utm_campaign=review_utopia_avenue\">Utopia Avenue<\/a><\/em> by David Mitchell (Hachette Australia) is out on the 14th of July. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jo Lewin reviews the latest novel from the author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":126336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[1557,1974,3822,4484,11323],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/UtopiaAvenue-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124877"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126724,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124877\/revisions\/126724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}