#1: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

I finished "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell with great gusto last month. It was a very enjoyable book, and I recommend it to anyone who's interested in a sweet novel with a twinge of sadness. The writing's a bit different from most of the novels I read, since the main character is a British boy from the 1980s, but nonetheless, it's still very understandable.

The story centers around Jason Taylor, a tween living in a tiny town in England pre-Falklands War. Jason loves to write, but he is plagued by a stutter and the desperate need to fit in at school. In order to do this, Jason attempts to keep both his writing and his speech problem as hidden as possible.

One of the main reasons I liked this book so much and am recommending it here is because of what I like to think of as little moments of wisdom. A couple of these moments come from the unlikeliest character in the book: Jason's sister Julia.

At first, Julia gives the impression of being a very typical, sort of snobby teenage sister. She loves going out with her friends and meeting boys. She also picks on Jason at times, even calling him "Thing" when she gets mad at him.
However, Julia has another side to her. She can also be a very hard worker and an open person, and she is determined to make Jason feel better when she gives him the following words:

-"It'll be all right." Julia's gentleness makes it worse. "In the end, Jace."
"It doesn't feel very all right."
"That's because it's not the end.”-

Black Swan Green, David Mitchell, 2006

Let's take a better look at Jason Taylor's life. The "popular" boys at school pick on him, his parents aren't getting along and his teachers don't seem to understand him very well. But somehow Jason pushes through, even by the skin of his teeth. He may not be the most popular, but he is able to win the respect of Dean Moran, a boy once called "Moron" who turns out to be amicable and good-spirited, and surprisingly, Holly Deblin, the new girl at school. Holly is the same one who approaches Jason on one of his uglier days, and tells him:

"You're not a maggot. Don't let dickheads decide what you are."

Black Swan Green, David Mitchell, 2006

I'm not going to tell you what becomes of Jason, his family and his schoolmates, but I will say that if you can give yourself the time, this is a book well worth reading.

;)

Courtney

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Black Swan Green Review by Courtney Justus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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