The Slade House by David Mitchell

 

I read this book only because it fit the bill for my book club.  I thought other people would like it more than I thought I would like it.  But I am glad that I read it.

David Mitchell is an ambitious contemporary writer.   His most ambitious theme, in my opinion, is to reconcile modern science with a new breed of spirituality.  This spirituality would not be at odds with science but could somehow accommodate it.  

Basic backstory: the Slade House sits on a very small alley that would be easy to walk by without even seeing.  People who visit this place, have been know to disappear.  To say more would give some of the book's surprise away - but I can say that reading this book requires the reader to constantly readjust their expectations.  By this I mean : nothing is certain and take nothing for granted.  

That is what I liked most about this book.  It challenged me to flex my reading skills - something I can't say I've been doing for quite some time.  I like that the book challenged me in this way.  David Mitchell's writing was not fantastic, but it wasn't awful either.  I think that there's not much better you can ask for these days among the contemporary writers.  

David Mitchell probably is a little too ambitious - and this is his downfall as a writer.  He's not quite satisfied selecting a story (or allowing his story to select him) and following it where it leads him.  In my scant experience trying to put pen to paper I think I can say that to do that is very difficult.  More difficult than it sounds like it should be.  David Mitchell inserts a lot of twists or ploys into this story - like supernatural phenomenon - that become the glue that ties the story together.  I don't think a well-written story would be that way.  There were a few times in the book that I actually wondered how he would make the story consistent or, in other words, keep it from becoming ridiculous.  In the books I read, I rarely have occasion to ask myself that and I don't think it's a good sign that a writer has succeeded.  

So I would say that consistency is what was missing from Slade House.  It captured my attention but often I didn't really give it willingly or with much excitement.  There was one piece of the book that was an exception to this though called, "Oink Oink."  This section was about one's willingness to suspend disbelief.  That's always been one of my favorite aspects of story telling.  It's the nexus that makes the journey between reader/writer a collaborative one.  Without it, you're either reading something didactic, or uninteresting, or anyways altogether different than a good story that you're enjoying.  In this section, I liked and cared about the characters - I thought that Mitchell hit his stride - and I enjoyed the book the most.  Sometimes just a little gem makes the time investment of reading something worth it - you remember that one bit.   

If you like supernatural stories, I would recommend giving this book a try.