Just Finished Reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

The first time I heard of author David Mitchell was about five years ago when previews of the new movie Cloud Atlas were being shown.  I was so intrigued by them that I read the book...and never did get around to watch the movie in full after seeing that it rearranged the book too much.  Maybe I should...after all, two of my favorite actors were in it: Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.  Instead, I happened upon another of Mitchell's novels while browsing the shelves at my local public library: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.  It's an historical drama centered on the title character, a young Dutch clerk on the island of Dejima, situated across from the Japanese harbor city of Nagsaki during the tumultuous years 1799-1800 when the European powers of Britain and France are vying for superiority on both land and sea.  Jacob, very faithful to his Christian beliefs, becomes isolated among his fellow Dutchman as he stands strongly against corruption, something that the rest of them have accepted as a fact of life.  The Japanese restrict all foreigners to Dejima and are fighting the spread of Christianity in their own land.  Two of the story's other protagonists, the Dejima midwife Orito Aibagawa and the translator Uzaemon, also have strong moral convictions in contrast to many of their own fellow countrymen...corruption apparently is a universally-practiced vice. Orito one day is spirit away against her will to a remote monastery run by the evil Enomoto...both de Zoet and Uzaemon love her, and the latter mounts a rescue campaign.  Later in the story another unlikely protagonist enters the tale as the British Captain Penhaligon takes his warship to Denjima to wrest control from the Dutch and establish his own country as Japan's main European trading partner.  Penhaligon, my second favorite character in the book, is wily and practical...with a touching streak of compassion, not exactly your stereotypical Captain Bligh of this era.  How does it all turn out? Guess you'll need to read it to find out. My favorite character by far was the Dutch physician Marinus, who gruffly refuses to take any kind of nonsense from anyone, either Dutch or Japanese, and establishes a special respect and rapport from all parties.  After a rocky start with him, Jacob de Zoet forms a strong bond and Dr. Marinus becomes his greatest ally and friend...

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet gives an extraordinary look into a special time in history as well as expose many of the customs and attitudes of Japanese society and politics back then.  What gave me a start was how the story appeared to be building up to a big final climax in one area, only for that climax to occur in a completely different, unexpected setting and for different reasons.  I enjoyed it, and being someone sensitive to the characters in the stories I read, I appreciated how well David Mitchell developed them into people that I won't soon forget.  Get a copy and read it for yourself...did I already mention that I checked it out from my own public library?