𝑻𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝑼𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒂 𝒊𝒔

𝑨 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒖𝒏𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒑 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕,

𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏

𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕

Can the same be said about building a band? 𝘜𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢 𝘈𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 is about the rise and fall of a British band, new on the London psychedelic scene in 1967. Elf fronts the group, a folksinger whose break-up with her boyfriend Bruce has her on the edge of quitting the music scene altogether. It all changes when she is approached to bring the spirit of folk to a new group. Of course she disappoints her family, who don’t much like a daughter ‘cavorting’ in Soho. They’d far rather Elf start a family, settle herself. But she is only now beginning to understand her own desires, seeing what others hint at. Jasper de Zoet is the character that had the most draw for me, tormented by Knock Knock, a noise that haunts his mind. Is it madness, is it real? Is there another being trying to push him out? Or is this just the crossed wires of genius, talent? His guitar playing is beyond divine, if only he could master his mind. His story confronts mental disturbances and those of another realm, which makes this more than just a typical band’s journey. Where hallucinogens create an altered reality for those on a high with Jasper, it seeds naturally. To his band-mates he is ‘Mr.Enigma’, spaced out more often than not. Dean Moss is the luckless, blues bassist who is sick of being skint, especially now that he’s been booted out of his band. When Levon Frankland offers him a place to sleep he asks only for a small favor, listen to a band- he lures Dean into the group that doesn’t exist yet, one he is curating. Even if Dean fears Levon’s queerness, that the man could be making a pass at him, it beats dodging landlords and being anywhere near the father who tried to destroy his dreams with his mean fists, the same ones he used on Dean’s mother, long gone. Drummer, Peter Griffin “Griff”, just like Dean comes from working class people, at home in his skin, enjoys his drink, and a little anarchy. He has his jazz, his joking, his growling and his thunderous drumming.

They light the sky like a comet, for a bit anyway. No one can alter what’s coming. The band may be a distraction from real life, but it’s always waiting to take you down. Love betrays, there is incarceration, mental collapse, David Bowie, death, fame and every ugly beast that hitches a ride. Of course a band Mitchell writes about is going to be ‘eccentric’. I really kept reading for Jasper though, because he is the universe here. Through him the reader catches a glimpse of what it’s like to live in a brain that tries to sink you. Mind-bending.

Publication Date: July 14, 2020

Random House

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me with a coveted ARC from David Mitchell. I admit my track record with Mr. Mitchell’s previous tomes have not been successful so I was overly optimistic this stand alone would convert me. Sadly, this wasn’t the case.

Having read others reviews it seems this is indeed part of the Mitchell Universe and I can see now, why I felt like the odd kid out. I had this feeling, the entire time I was reading the novel, that I was missing the “joke, never quite getting the punchline.

Set in 1960’s London, at a time when rock and roll is starting to find its stride, an up and coming band tries to make it big on the music scene, This is the literary version of Daisy Jones & The Six, but for me it was difficult to follow and became marred down in zaniness, bizarre celebrity encounters and a never ending plot.

After weeks of trying to reach the conclusion and then discovering I still had another 45 % left in the book, I decided it was time to move on.

I must admit, this is probably a case of Right Book, Wrong Reader.

David Mitchell may be my favorite author of all time, but I think this was my least favorite book. It was just slow/boring for the first half and I had little interest in picking it up. Skimming ahead, I read the sections which seemed closer related to The Bone Clocks and Thousand Summers ( loved both) but by then I was no longer invested in the story. I will probably give this book another try on audio as I can’t believe David Mitchell could write a book I wouldn’t enjoy.

I am part of the 2% of people who have not read or seen Cloud Atlas, which was written by this author. I own it, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet, so this was my first David Mitchell novel and I am really impressed! The writing was good and he set the scene so well. I highly recommend it!

Five years it's been. But when David Mitchell is absent from booklists, it seems much longer. And if Slade House was a bit of a downer and a little too weird for you, take a walk down Utopia Avenue. Actually, it's more of a hop, skip and a jump: a mostly good vibrations romp through the musical heyday of the 60s. The novel chronicles the public life cycle of a band thrown together like one of my anti-recipes, a bit of this and that and a dash of whatever. Readers who were lost in Cloud Atlas, drowning in Black Swan Green or out of synch with Bone Clocks will find this novel more accessible -- just buy a ticket and take your seat. For Mitchell's missionaries, never fear: there is a mystery wrapped inside an enigma and the best knock-knock joke you've ever heard. Along the way, you'll catch a tune from every famous musician of the era. Utopia rocks!

David Mitchell is always worth reading, and "Utopia Avenue" is no exception. But compared to Mitchell's *other* works, it's a bit of a letdown.

This story of an obscure British band's formation and rise to fame doesn't seem to have a lot on its mind, relative to Mitchell's other volumes. There are many attempts to connect it to Mitchell's other novels—most notably , Cloud Atlas's Luisa Rey makes a welcome reappearance here—but these mostly tend to distract rather than delight. An extended digression into the world of Horologists and Anchorites—familiar to readers of The Bone Clocks—is particularly wearisome, and doesn't seem well-integrated thematically with the rest of the story.

Longtime readers of Mitchell's canon can't pass this one up. But it won't bring many new fans into the fold.

Writing: 3.5 Characters: 5 Plot: 4/5

A gritty, detailed and yet expansive, story about the evolution of a top (fictional) pop band (Utopia Avenue) in the late sixties. From obscurity to fame — raw talent discovered, initial deals, touring, and the bribery / flirtation / whatever-it-takes approach to getting the music played. The four main band members come from different backgrounds and blend different musical strengths: Dean — an “angry young bassist” specializing in R&B; Elf — a “folk-scene doyenne”; Jasper — a half Dutch “stratocaster demi-god”; and Griff — a Yorkshire jazz drummer.

A lot of dialog and description is devoted to describing the music itself and the music business. For me personally that was less interesting — I love listening to music but don’t translate writing about music to music itself well — but for those who do enjoy discussing and thinking about those topics there is plenty available.

He did a good job of bringing that musical time to life. Many famous musicians pass through these pages with mini appearances that appear true to recorded history: David Bowie, Keith Moon, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, and Frank Zappa all make realistic cameo appearances. We spend time with the band at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. All the aspects of their world comes out — family issues, possible mental illness, drug use, the “offsprings” of philandering, and philosophies.

Mitchell’s books are sometimes hard to read. They all develop slowly and the writing style is a little more stream of consciousness than I like, but somehow I’m drawn in, and by the end I’m completely in the grip and continue to think about the emerging holistic picture afterwards. As an aside — and it’s a weird aside — one thread of this novel ties in with characters (beings?) that are elements of at least two of his previous works. It’s really just a thread here but this book fits squarely within the Mitchell universe which is not completely founded on the reality most of us share.

Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for this free ARC.

A very different type of book for Mr. David Mitchell but still amazing. If you grew up in the 60's this book will be a great flashback to the start of such a great music scene. The lay out was fun and it was great to get a POV from the different members of the bad.

Covering a short time over 1967 and 1968, Utopia Avenue recounts the early days of a famed rock/folk/blues band of that name in swinging London. Filled with real life people from the artistic scene and brimming with period detail, Mitchell nails the historical novel angle; and by creating four distinct and relatable characters to people his imagined band, Mitchell sets up an interesting scaffold upon which to hang conversations about art and immortality and how to live a life. Somehow, though, this potential didn't pay off for me – interesting things happen in the personal lives of the characters, and I liked seeing how they turned those experiences into art; I was also interested enough in seeing how the music industry works and how long and hard artists need to pay their dues to become an overnight success (yet, is there anything new in this?); but between an overabundance of real life people flitting in and out and an ultimately shoe-horned tie-in to Mitchell's uberverse (which started out fascinating and eventually disappointed me), this didn't, in the end, really feel like a book about the core characters so much as a book about the times they were moving through (And is there anything new to say about the swinging Sixties London scene? At any rate, there's nothing new here.)

Utopia Avenue is the fake rock biography I wanted Daisy Jones and the Six to be, until the hard pivot into Mitchell's horology multiverse. Jasper's mental illness is handled well and is interesting until the US tour where the mystical is shoved down our throats - complete tonal dissonance compared with what everyone else has been and will be up to for the remainder of the book.
I would recommend the story, because it is largely interesting and an enjoyable exploration of the 60s rock scene in London.
Thank you to the publisher, via NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy for review.

David Mitchell does not let you down and takes you places you never thought you would go. There are comparisons with other rock and roll novels, but none invites you into the mind of a bipolar, on-the-spectrum rocker who is fighting with a genetic inner, evil voice. Each member of the Utopia Avenue band has a back story which colors the narrative to the end. We follow them as they write songs, move up the chart, s and hit the big time in LA and San Francisco. All kinds of real musicians that this baby boomer grew up with are present: Lenny (Cohen), David (Bowie) John (Lennon), Frank (Zappa)...you get the picture. The probably unauthorized Spotify soundtrack will entertain as well

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing this ARC. This is a must read for David Mitchell fans, but should have a wider appeal as well. I have only read a few of his books (The Bone Clocks and Slade House) both of which I loved. Familiar characters from prior Mitchell books make appearances, but you don’t need to know the backstories to follow along in Utopia Avenue. I’ve heard his novels called not accessible but that’s definitely not true here. It’s an easy to follow story about a fictional band in mid to late 1960s England. If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six, you should like this as well. I recommend this novel for a wide audience.

Not quite what I expected, but fantastic nonetheless. A great new novel from Mitchell after a succession of great, lengthy novels. As a music fan/historian, it was a welcome addition to my library.

It took a bit for me to get into this one, but once it started moving I enjoyed it. The writing (as always) was great. I really loved the different characters. I thought for the longest time this book was just going to be about a band but then we got a nice little Horology/Marinus surprise. I do think that part might get a little “out there” for those not familiar with Mitchell’s previous books, but I for one read and loved The Bone Clocks. This was a very solid read and would definitely recommend to fans of David Mitchell and fans of tales about bands. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for granting early access to this book. I will post this review tomorrow to my Bookstagram and companion Facebook page @thatreadingrealtor.

This is a novel that really works on two levels. On the surface, it's the story of a psychedelic rock band from England, set amid the cultural revolution occurring in English and the USA during the late 60s. Fans of Daisy Jones & the Six or Almost Famous will enjoy it, stuffed as it is with pop culture references and a storyline that moves from character to character as each one's personal and professional lives rapidly change.

For fans of David Mitchell's other novels, there are plenty of references to his other works -- some are subtle and some are definitely not subtle at all. If you aren't familiar with a couple of his novels, there's a section toward the end that may feel jarring and out of place. However, it's somewhat short and is somewhat self-explanatory, so I don't think readers should feel too out-of-their-depths for long. My only complaint with this novel is that it felt too long at times -- the middle third, in particular, was slow-going for me.

As a whole, though, the novel works extremely well, whether you're a Mitchell fan or not. The writing is strong, the characters are engaging and interesting (I particularly enjoyed Jasper's story arc), and I really enjoyed the ending.

Books about imaginary music are hard to pull off. It's one thing to directly reference a real song or singer to give flavor to a narrative but another to invent one from scratch.
This is one of those rare books about music where you're actually a little mad that the music isn't real and you can't pick up the album and hear it.

Somehow David Mitchell has done both. He's written the story of a band that I can almost hear in my head while referencing real musicians and artists in an organic and nearly seamless way.

The Mitchell metaverse runs deep here and of course the moon gray cat appears though I was worried for awhile. The links back to earlier works like Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas, and most obviously The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet are here for the fans but won't alienate or befuddle a first time reader of Mitchell's work.

David Mitchell is back and he’s playing with structure again and as is often the case with Mitchell, the result will depend on how much work the reader is willing to put in.

Mitchell has always demonstrated a respect for his readers as seen by the high level vocabulary he chooses, the manners in which he plays with and even invents language and of course in his experimentations with structure. Readers willing to do some of the heavy lifting will be rewarded with a unique look into the 60s music scene on both sides of the pond in a context that allows one to explore what it means to be human.

While this is definitely a book that focuses on music and creativity (it’s even structured like an LP) it remains firmly planted in the David Mitchell universe. Long time fans will recognize some names and there are twists which involve the sci/fi and fantasy which Mitchell has always made a part of his stories. The result is a novel with rich character development that educates and entertains. For me it is another strong piece of evidence that Mr. Mitchell is one of the greatest living authors writing in English.

In Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell once again proves why he is one of the finest writers of this generation. This is a strange, beautifully written, nostalgic novel about the musical England of 1960s. 

In the time of The Beatles and Rolling Stones, there was another band that almost made it, and Utopia Avenue was its name. 

On the surface, it seems like a very contemporary, easy-to-read novel about the life of a fictional band in the late 60s England. Dean, Jasper, Elf and Griff find themselves in a band put together by an unlikely manager/visionary, Levon . Each band member brings their own personal stories to the band and their songs - from tragic to the absurd. Accompanying them is a revolving door of famous musicians from the late 1900s. There is enough name dropping and musical references to make its own Wikipedia page. 

This is a David Mitchell novel, so not everything is as simple as it seems. The chapters are organized as album tracks, and with each chapter we learn the origins of the songs. But it’s not really about the songs, it’s about being inside their creator’s head.  There are references to others in Mitchell’s literary universe the most prominent by Jasper De Zoet, a descendent of the titular character of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. The eternal, body-hopping Marinus makes an appearance too. Mitchell continues to explore themes of continuity, redemption, action and consequence and meaning of existence. 

Music is essential to the novel, and Mitchell shows incredible understanding of the craft of music. I can’t even imagine the research it would have taken to understand and then express it in words. Every time Mitchell writes a book, I am sure I will be rewarded by an entirely new experience. And this was no different.

This novel starts at full speed, it drew me in from the first paragraph. The characters are tangible and the record format adds to the immersive quality of the book. I immediately knew the where and when of the book just from its rich detail. This is one I would love to a hardcover copy of. It's also the type of book you read once for discovery and then again just to enjoy the writing.

I received and ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a ride. David Mitchell can do anything with his writing and he goes out and proves this again and again. Even while branching out to what appears to be a 'typical' rock and roll novel, Mitchell keeps this in his own imaginary universe. The characters are clearly drawn and utterly unique. Rock and Roll stereotypes, a bit, but they're their own people throughout.
The plot follows a typical trajectory but does so in a way that constantly surprises. As I was reading, and I did this slowly, I was looking at the page count dreading the end. Utopia Avenue is the type of book you wish could just go on and on and you could keep living with these characters.
Mitchell continues to be one of the greatest writers of our time and Utopia Avenue proves he is absolutely capable of writing whatever he wishes.