The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
One of the things about reading challenges is that they give you a push if not to read outside your usual genre, then to read about little explored area. I dont usually read books set in Asia; my interests lay in Anglo European history. But the challenged called for a book set in Asia and so I picked this book. Of course I knew about the Dutch East India Company, and the trading monopoly they had with Japan. Mitchells prose are nearly breath taking, I found myself going back to read passages several times. His style in this instance was not ponderous nor pretentious, or that the thesaurus was his very best friend, (that is my usual feeling when I read prize winning novels) I learned a great deal about the Dutch East India Company, the love story seemed to be culturally and historically accurate. A solid 4 stars.
One of the things about reading challenges is that they give you a push if not to read outside your usual genre, then to read about little explored area. I dont usually read books set in Asia; my interests lay in Anglo European history. But the challenged called for a book set in Asia and so I picked this book. Of course I knew about the Dutch East India Company, and the trading monopoly they had with Japan. Mitchells prose are nearly breath taking, I found myself going back to read passages several times. His style in this instance was not ponderous nor pretentious, or that the thesaurus was his very best friend, (that is my usual feeling when I read prize winning novels) I learned a great deal about the Dutch East India Company, the love story seemed to be culturally and historically accurate. A solid 4 stars.
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