A Temporary Future: The Fiction of David Mitchell

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Description

Having emerged as one the leading contemporary British writers, David Mitchell is rapidly taking his place amongst British novelists with the gravitas of an Ishiguro or a McEwan. Written for a wide constituency of readers of contemporary literature, A Temporary Future: The Fiction of David Mitchell explores Mitchells main concernsincluding those of identity, history, language, imperialism, childhood, the environment, and ethnicityacross the six novels published so far, as well as his protean ability to write in multiple and diverse genres. It places Mitchell in the tradition of Murakami, Sebald, and Rushdiewriters whose works explore narrative in an age of globalization and cosmopolitanism. Patrick ODonnell traces the through-lines of Mitchells work from ghostwritten to The Bone Clocks and, with a chapter on each of the six novels, charts the evolution of Mitchells fictional project.

Reviews

A Temporary Future provides a thought-provoking assessment of the novelscertainly much more than simply the introduction that ODonnell claims it isand, like any good work of criticism, it makes us eager to return to the novels themselves and read them in light of our new understanding. * English Studies *
ODonnell is the first to explore the complete works to date of British novelist David Mitchell ... [He] makes a careful and clear argument for Mitchells project as well as his place in literature It will appeal most to literature students, academics, and literary critics. * Library Journal *
Like Mitchells novels, this study is itself 'a capacious assemblage,' drawing on ODonnells impeccable grasp of multiple literary traditions, of diverse critical frameworks, and his sensitive readings of Mitchells characters 'spontaneously associative mental threads.' These elements come together to make this a pioneering study by an accomplished critic, which offers not only comprehensive readings of Mitchells work but also extends and expands our understanding of what a cosmopolitan style might achieve, and how the hybrid novel might evolve in our temporary future. * Stephen J. Burn, Reader in American Literature, University of Glasgow, UK *
Patrick ODonnell has produced an authoritative account of the novels of David Mitchell in A Temporary Future. Uncovering the poetic interplay of mutable time signatures in Mitchells work, ODonnell presents the reader with an elegant set of interconnected readings of his oeuvre to date. Mitchell has emerged as one of the most important British writers in recent years, and this book will serve as an invaluable critical introduction to his fiction. ODonnell has captured the fluidity and breathless energy of his novels throughout this study, Mitchells preoccupation with pulsing, intersecting times, realities and worlds shines through. This is a richly suggestive account, and a book that anyone with an interest in contemporary fiction and literary representations of temporality will want to read. * Caroline Edwards, Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature, Birkbeck, University of London, UK *
This is indispensable reading for those who want to orient themselves not only to Mitchells individual works but also to the connections across those works. ODonnell is attuned to the book-ness of Mitchells writing: its way of reflecting on the formats and media of contemporary fiction, right down to the typeface or visual experience of the page. In Mitchells fiction of the future, ODonnell heralds the future of contemporary fiction. * Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Rutgers University, USA *

Author Bio

Patrick O'Donnell is Professor of English at Michigan State University, USA. He is the author or editor of 12 books, including The American Novel Now: Contemporary American Fiction Since 1980 (2010), Latent Destinies: Cultural Paranoia and Contemporary U.S. Narrative (2000) and The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Fiction (co-edited with David W. Madden & Justus Nieland, 2011).