A review by matthewcpeck
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

4.0

One of the most enjoyable and satisfying novels I've read in many moons. Also, for David Mitchell, a step back in the right direction after "The Bone Clocks" and "Slade House". The fantastical entities from those works do make an appearance in "Utopia Avenue", but it doesn't tarnish the newer book's own lovingly created universe: the sweet spot of psychedelic rock in 1967/68. In fact, the wilder elements fit right in. Classic rock and the counterculture from which it sprang has been exhaustively and repetitively dramatized. But Mitchell somehow to skirt cliches, and he writes about the creation and performance of music with enviable skill. You can almost *hear* the titular English band, a quartet comprising three very different songwriters and a drummer, as you read the chapters, which are structured as tracks on the band's three albums. Along the group's bumpy journey from Soho basement clubs to San Francisco festivals, they mingle with dozens of real-life musical legends (all now deceased, notably) including David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, and Jerry Garcia. This can be a bit distracting, like a Simpsons episode full of contrived celebrity cameos - but I grant that it was probably ordinary for famous musicians to be constantly bumping into one another around this time. The easter-egg music references and cameos are fun, but it's Mitchell's characters and storytelling that keep the book's engine running. For the Mitchell-heads out there, this is actually closest to "Black Swan Green", but with an length and some metaphysical weirdness. A real treat for me, and for lovers of 60s culture.