Status Updates From Utopia Avenue

Stays in the mold of historical fiction. No deeper insights, no challenging literary means. Just narrating life as it was or could have been. But highly entertaining in an interesting period and place. Structuring it into LP sides for the parts and titles for the chapters is a nice idea.
Utopia Avenue is seeing success after Dean's return from an Italian prison and they are reaching for the top. I root for them.

The integration into the Mitchell-verse elevates it. The incorporeal Mongolian and the DJ Bat Segundo from Ghostwritten, Jasper de Zoet as descendant of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the obscure compositions of Robert Frobisher from Cloud Atlas reappearing.
Add to this cameos of more or less known VIPs. Levon Frankland just had a gay night with Francis Bacon in the Colony Room of Muriel Belcher.

The band got its record deal, the first single just hit Top of the Pops. Jasper talks with Brian Jones about voices in the head. Jimmy Savile is creepy as hell. Utopia Avenue leads to the epicenter of the Swinging Sixties.
The characters are workable, so far they are on their heroes' journey. The breaking points are designated though. The immaterial being in the head of Jasper being the most noteable.

I wouldn't read historical fiction about a band's fate in the late 60's if it weren't by Mitchell. I love his first books up to The Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Since then, they are good but not special. Utopia Avenue is the least fantastic so far. Still, different viewpoints (3 of the musicians). Entertaining but I am hoping for more depth and inventiveness to come.