MixedThe San Francisco ChronicleLike Mitchell's earlier novels, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a page-turner, and Mitchell goes all out to keep the pages flipping. He is not afraid of plot twists into sensational territory (naval battles, sex slavery rings, cannibalism) or of graphic scenes … The results can at times feel almost afraid of more contemplative depths. Why does Mitchell feel a need to explain the poetry of the book's title – Japan is The Land of a Thousand Autumns – in alternation with an unseen sailor's loud, groaning poop off the side of the ship? If this is a self-deprecating joke, it feels excessive, too anxious. At the same time, our hero de Zoet is Mitchell's finest, most mature character yet, a classic protagonist: naive but sharp, curious, stalwart. We care about his fate, and the best parts of the book are the ones centered on him.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
