#40. Set During A Holiday You Don’t Celebrate – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Paperback)

I really enjoyed David Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten. I was confused by his third novel, Cloud Atlas (although after reading the book and then watching the film, everything suddenly slipped into place in my addled brain.) 

When reading Slade House, I realised this was a writer who has the ability to write about anything; it was probably one of the most frightening/disturbing novels I’d read.

So when I came across The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet in a charity shop for 50p, it was a bargain I couldn’t resist; however it never quite reached the top of my TBR pile. Thanks to this challenge, it's finally found a reason to become a priority read. 

“In your hands is a place like no other: a tiny, man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for two hundred years the sole gateway between Japan and the west. Here, in the dying days of the 18^th century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart.

 

Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle with schemeing traders, spies, interpreters, servants and concubines as two cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control – of riches and minds, and over death itself.”

Mainly set in 1799 & 1800, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a character-driven, historical tale, that unfolds on the isolated Dutch trading post of Dejima in Japan. This small, man-made island in Nagasaki Bay, served as a window between the East and West amidst Japan’s strict isolation policy whereby Japan only traded with the Dutch. The Japanese were forbidden to mix with the Dutch and any attempts to break the rules resulted in dire consequences.

In this fictious tale, David Mitchell explores culture clashes, love, morality and ambition through the eyes of Jacob de Zoet, a young Dutch clerk who has been sent to Dejima to uncover corruption in the trading logs of the East India Company.
Jacob’s life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Orito Aibagawa and becomes infatuated with her. As Jacob struggles to come to terms with the complex nature of Japanese society, the novel reveals far bigger tensions between Eastern and Western values.

The book is beautifully poetic, however, I did find it a taxing read. There was an eloquence in the writing, and the descriptive nature of the book created vivid images of a time and place in history, but it made trying to keep up with conversations extraordinarily difficult. This book is filled with numerous characters. All have a role to play, but there are too many of them. Fortunately there is a list of characters to be found at the end of the book, so you can remind yourself of the connections as you read.

Several characters interact in conversations, but they interrupt each other, and I found myself reading and re-reading passages trying to understand the ebb and flow of the conversation. At times it became bewildering. There were times when I didn’t understand why various people were pertinent to the conversation and I felt my focus begin to wane when I could have given my energy to the story instead. I also found that Mitchell complicates matters further when he annoyingly breaks this dialogue in completely the wrong places, to inform the reader that a dog is barking outside, or birds are singing overhead! 

The book is split into three rather hefty sections, with parts 4 and 5 taking up a few pages at the end of the book to nicely tie things together. I really wanted to love this book, but I found the first part of the book set in 1799 (pg 1-198) dull, despite what seemed an exciting and promising start to the novel.

The opening scene is the birth of a Japanese magistrate’s concubines baby. The baby has no sign of a pulse and is lying in a breech position, and if not delivered soon, the concubine will die. The doctor who should have attended didn’t want to risk his reputation delivering a dead baby, and the doctor in attendance is not allowed to see or touch the mother. Miraculously, due to the skill of the midwife Orito Aibagawa, the baby survives the traumatic birth, and Orito is rewarded by being allowed to study medicine under the tutelage of the Dutch Doctor Marinus. This was a brilliant opening to a novel.

In 1619, the city of Batavia was founded by the Dutch East India Company to promote Dutch identity. By 1799 when the book begins, Amsterdam was on its knees. It was fearful of losing Batavia and was reliant on copper from Japan in order to mint coins so it could pay its native armies. However, corruption was rife on this tiny artificial island.

This story follows Jacob de Zoet, a honest and diligent Dutch clerk, who is tasked with reviewing all the warehouse ledgers and cleaning the books up. He hopes that he can make his fortune during the five years of his tenure and return home, a wealthy man, to marry his sweetheart Anna who he has left in his homeland.

Jacob soon realises fulfilling his dreams will be harder than he anticipated; he finds himself embroiled with unearthing a trail of corruption amongst his kinsmen, and several Japanese dignitaries. He also has found himself captivated by the beautiful mid-wife with a burn scar on her face, Orito Aibagawa. She is torn between proving herself by studying medicine, and her growing feelings for Jacob. Aware of the cultural barriers and the associated risks, they slowly connect, leaving Jacob to question his faith, and his moral principals, knowing that he has Anna waiting for him back home.

This book is dominated by its extensive list of characters and an intriguing and beguiling plot, so how could I find the first part of the book such an effort to get through? I breathed a sigh of relief as we left Dejima port with its disgruntled Dutch traders and their embezzlement schemes behind. Part 2 continued through 1799 (pg 201-363) but focused on the mid-wife Orito and scenes outside of Dejima. Once again Mitchell paints a picture through his poetic use of language and he sets a scene of intrigue with some new characters in the first few pages.

Every good book needs a villain, in this instance Lord Abbot Enomoto is a powerful, but sinister figure. When Orito’s father dies, leaving the family with huge debts, Enomoto ensures her step-mother’s future by paying to remove Orito from the family home and sending her to the Mount Shiranui Shrine. The town believes the shrine is a sanctuary, however, in reality it is a prison for women. Each month various women are singled out to provide babies for the monks. They believe that after the baby is born it lives a life in the city below until such time as the woman can no longer bear children, and then they will return to the town and witness how their children have grown up. The truth is far darker and sinister than could be imagined.

When Jacob realises that Orito has gone to the shrine and will not be coming back, the tension and plot begins to ramp up and I became truly invested in the novel. The dialogue became clearer, and Orito is a strong well-developed character who piques your interest at every stage of her journey. When Dr Marinus, Orito’s mentor, realises what really happens at Mount Shiranui Shrine, he faces a moral crisis that allows us to move forwards to Part 3.

We have now moved into the next century, 1800 (pg 365-527) and the story is back with Jacob and the port of Dejima. I didn’t find this part of the story as tedious as the first part, but I had now connected with the main characters and that connection created an interest into what would happen to the people, to the port, and what the future held for links between East and West.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a complex and beautifully written novel, and I did enjoy it, but I did take a lot of breaks reading the first third of the novel. I couldn't reach the point where I was so invested I had to keep reading; well, not until I reached Orito's story, after that I was pleased that I stuck at it. 

This book is completely different to David Mitchell’s other works and it gave an insight into the cultural dynamics of early 19th-century Japan offering the reader the thoughts and feelings of the Japanese and Dutch, men and women, high-ranking officials and low-ranking clerks. These shifting points of view provide an understanding of the books themes whilst deepening the emotional impact of the novel, once you connect with the characters!

I would say that this is a book that requires patience from the reader, however, I think the reader is rewarded by their perseverance. Unusually, I found I connected better with Orito’s character rather than the protagonist Jacob de Zoet. Her life story stuck with me far longer than Jacob’s!

 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Japanese Lit, Fiction, Romance,

Release Date: 13^th May 2010

Publisher: Sceptre

Pages: 560

 

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