Acknowledgements

by David Mitchell

One of the author's short stories which form part of his uber novel, featuring Clive Pike who appeared in Black Swan Green. You can find it online

8 pages, ebook

Published October 22, 2005

About the author

David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. After another stint in Japan, he currently lives in Ireland with his wife Keiko and their two children. In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote: "I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I'd spent the last 6 years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself." Mitchell's first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. Mitchell's American editor at Random House is novelist David Ebershoff.

Reviews

[Mangrii · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I, Clive Pike, shall now inform my followers of the people who helped me bring forth the Book."

Me encanta esta historia corta, y más que Clive Pike sea el prota y hable de la psicomigración.

Se puede leer gratis aquí: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/cu...

[Rachel Axton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clive Pike, author of 'The Book' is writing his 'Acknowledgements' of which this short story consists. Clive starts his Acknowledgements by thanking Johnny Ball, the host of 'Think of a Number', a children's programme that aired from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Concepts of maths, philosophy and metaphysics were embedded deep within Pike's brain, and ultimately led him to his creation of 'Psychomigration'.

What 'Pyschomigration' is, will be revealed in the telling of the story, but before it progresses, Pike moves on, next he would like to thank his wife, Pearl, but here the story deepens, as he tells of his separation and some questionable activities at her parting.

Then we move back further to a job he held at Customs and Excise House in Potters Bar, which is where part of the book idea comes from, and where he starts to write.

'I was sitting in my cubicle on the ninth floor, gazing out at traffic on the M25, when a binary metaphor coalesced in my brain. Bodies are vehicles: minds are drivers. These six words and their colon were the ova of what became the Book.'

With each 'acknowledgement' more and more of the details are uncovered, coming together in a brilliantly conceived story that is so well written and put together. The character swings from heart felt thanks to bitterness and back, but is completely whole.

Mr Nixon is the other key part of the book, but who he is, is not revealed until midway through and then the mysteries of the story start to unlock themselves.

It fantastic flight between reality and something that is almost not. Initially the writing sets you at kilter and it is only by reading each acknowledgement, and therefore revealing more and more of Clive Pikes 'Book', motive and past, does it all come together.

It also benefits a second read or skim, as I did when I finished and found that some characters who are mentioned early on are only properly revealed towards the end. So the second reading gives it more meaning and intent.

Ultimately it is brilliance and madness. I really enjoyed its cleverness, but that it also remains accessible and relatable. A great short story.

Read more of my reviews: https://yarrabookclub.wordpress.com/