''number9dream'' is the second novel by English author
David Mitchell. Set in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, the 2001 novel narrates 19-year-old Eiji Miyake's search for his father, whom he has never met. Told in the first person by Eiji, it is a
coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...
and perception story that breaks convention by juxtaposing Eiji Miyake's actual journey toward identity and understanding with his imaginative journey. The novel employs eclectic narrations in each chapter.
Summary of the plot
The novel is divided into 9 chapters.
One: Panopticon
Eiji waits inside a café in front of the Panopticon building in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. Akiko Kato, his father's lawyer, works in the building. Eiji plans to meet her and find out who his father is. The chapter alternates between descriptions of Eiji waiting in the café and his fantasies about his meeting with Akiko Kato: first he imagines trying to bluff his way into the building before storming it with weapons and stealing his file; then that a huge flood would submerge Tokyo and drown him; then that he subtly follows Akiko Kato into a movie theater, eavesdropping on her meeting with his father while a surrealistic film plays on the screen. Eiji drifts out of his waking dreams and, back at the café, he observes the customers and waitresses: he is attracted by a waitress with a beautiful neck and he shares his cigarettes with an old man resembling
Lao Tsu
Laozi (), also known by numerous other names, was a semilegendary ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. Laozi ( zh, ) is a Chinese honorific, generally translated as "the Old Master". Traditional accounts say he was born as in the state of ...
who passes his time playing
videogame
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedb ...
s. However, Eiji never finds the courage to confront Akiko Kato about the whereabouts of his father.
Two: Lost Property
This chapter consists of three interweaving narrations.
Eiji finds a job at the lost property office of a subway station. His boss, Mr. Aoyama, is worried that a restructuring could cost him a job; he becomes paranoid, accuses Eiji of conspiring against him, kidnaps a railway manager and finally kills himself.
In parallel, Eiji remembers his youth on the island of
Yakushima
, native_name_link =
, image_caption = Landsat image of Yakushima
, image_size =
, nickname =
, location = East China Sea
, coordinates =
, map = Japan#Japan Kagoshima Prefecture
, map_relief ...
, where he lived with his twin sister Anju after their mother abandoned them. One day Eiji is going to the mainland to play a soccer game. Before leaving he prays the thunder god to make him win, promising anything in exchange. Eiji's team wins the match thanks to him, but when he comes back to the island Anju has disappeared. Eiji discovers that she tried to swim to the ''whalestone'', a rock in the middle of the sea, and drowned. He takes revenge on the thunder god by climbing to the top of the mountain to his statue's shrine, and sawing off the statue's head before throwing it into the sea.
While in Tokyo, Eiji receives two letters. The first is from Akiko Kato, attempting to deter Eiji from seeking his father. The second is from his mother, Mariko Miyake, revealing details of his and Anju's birth and infancy. Their mother had a rich married lover. When she got pregnant, he abandoned her. Mariko was an
alcoholic and was unsuited to raising children, at one point deciding to throw Eiji off the balcony of her apartment. Before she could do so, he fell down the stairs. After Eiji's injury, she decided to bring the children to her native island and give them to her own mother to raise. When present-day Eiji calls the hospital from which the letter was written, he is told she left that morning.
Three: Video Games
While playing in a video game arcade, Eiji is befriended by Yuzu Daimon, a rich final-year law student. Daimon is waiting for a girl that doesn't show up, so he decides to take Eiji to a Christmas-themed bar in Shibuya. They pick up a couple of girls and Daimon takes them to an exclusive bar where he behaves very rudely to the waitress, named Miriam. Then Daimon takes Eiji and the girls to a love hotel where they drink and take drugs, but before pairing off to sleep together, Daimon insists that he and Eiji switch partners. Eiji finds himself alone with the girl that spent her night lavished by Daimon, and despite the odd, abrupt decision, they have sex. The next morning Eiji wakes up to find that he has been left there with the bill to pay, and Daimon is nowhere to be found. The management attempts to trap Eiji, but he escapes through the kitchen of an adjoining hotel and finds himself near the bar in front of Panopticon where he was at the beginning of the novel. He helps the waitress with the beautiful neck to get rid of a bad customer and he makes friends with her, learning her name, Ai Imajo.
Later he meets Miriam in a park. She mentions something about his father and leaves, dropping a library book. Eiji, with the help of a hacker friend called Suga, traces her and finds her address. He goes there and asks about his father, but he finds out that Miriam thought that he was Daimon's brother and so she was talking about Daimon's father.
Four: Reclaimed Land
Eiji is kidnapped by a
yakuza gang. Daimon has been kidnapped as well. Eiji finds out from him that there is a yakuza war going on: The old boss, Konosuke Tsuru has disappeared and his two subordinates, Jun Nagasaki and Ryutaro Morino are struggling to replace him. Nagasaki seems to have the upper hand and Morino seems to be washed up. It is Morino who had Eiji and Daimon kidnapped, because they have been disrespectful to Miriam, Morino's daughter. Morino threatens Eiji but doesn't harm him, and he reveals to him that he knows who his father is, but he won't tell him. He also had his men take a litre of blood from Daimon's body as punishment and warning; then he sends them away. Eiji puts Daimon on a taxi to his apartment and goes back to find the documents about his father. He only finds a picture of his father with Akiko Kato and a message to meet with Morino immediately at a slot machine arcade. Morino forces him to take a blood oath of submission to him for the night in exchange for information about his father. He takes him through a murderous spree that ends in a confrontation with Nagasaki near an unfinished bridge to a new airport terminal that is being built on land reclaimed from the sea. Nagasaki's men outnumber Morino's, but he has a secret weapon, an explosive that has been planted on them. He blows them all up and orders Suhbataar, his Mongolian hitman, to kill Eiji. But Suhbataar is working for the old boss, Tsuru, who is still alive: he blows up Morino's men and lets Eiji go.
Five: Study of Tales
Eiji wakes up in an unknown house. He receives a visit from Buntaro, his landlord, and discovers that he is the son of Mrs. Sasaki, Eiji's boss at the subway station. Buntaro reveals that he rescued Eiji after the events on the bridge. The house belongs to Mrs. Sasaki's sister, a deaf writer of fantastic tales, who is momentarily in Germany.
The narration alternates between Eiji's stay at the house and a surrealistic tale written by Mrs. Sasaki's sister. The tale's main characters are three
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
animals: Goatwriter, a literate goat who collects and writes tales and like Mitchell has a
stammer; Mrs. Comb, his servant and cook, a hen; and
Pithecanthropus, his handyman, a primitive
hominid
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
. They live in a wasteland devastated by war and inhabit a coach that travels around of its own will. After various adventures, they reach a pool at the foot of a backward flowing waterfall, a metaphor for death. All three jump in the pool.
Buntaro is going on holiday with his pregnant wife and asks Eiji to mind his video rental shop while he is away. Eiji makes contact with Kozue Yamaya, the woman detective who investigated his father for Morino. He asks her to give him the information, but she disappears before answering. Later he is contacted by his grandfather Takara Tsukiyama who asks to meet him. He also gets back in contact with Ai Imajo.
Six: Kai Ten
The grandfather doesn't come to the meeting for health reasons. Instead he sends an old friend, Admiral Raizo, who explains to Eiji that his father is a discredited son. He gives Eiji a journal that Mr. Tsukiyama's brother Subaru kept at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
The chapter alternates between entries from the journal and the events at the video shop. Subaru Tsukiyama was a pilot of
kaiten, a torpedo modified with a cockpit, used towards the end of the war for suicide missions against American ships. The journal describes the life of the pilots from training to the end of their mission. But at the fatal moment Subaru's kaiten doesn't explode, it sinks to the sea bottom and he has the time to write his last journal entries before dying.
Eiji passes the days tending the video shop. In the evening he phones Ai and they talk about the meaning of life. She is a pianist and dreams of going to a music school in Paris, but her parents won't let her go. One evening, Suga shows up completely drunk and tells Eiji about a tragic event of his past when he involuntarily caused the death of a child. When Eiji goes to the appointment with his grandfather, his step mother and sister are there instead. Grandfather has died. They tell him that the man claiming to be Admiral Raizo was actually Mr. Tsukiyama himself. They ask him to leave their family in peace and he accepts: He doesn't want to meet his father anymore.
Seven: Cards
Eiji finds a job as a cook in a pizza kitchen; his boss is Ai's roommate.
One day he receives a package from Kozue Yamaya: she reveals that, when she was a young mother, she and her baby were kidnapped by Yakuza as payment for her husband's debts and she was forced to prostitute herself. Her child, also named Eiji, was killed and his organs sold illegally. She managed to escape, became a private eye and dedicated her life to investigating the gang that killed her child. She is presumed dead but sent discs of information on the Yakuza organ-harvesting ring to several people she trusts, including Eiji.
When Suga is discovered trying to break into the Pentagon's computers, the secret service offers him a job working for them in Saratoga, Texas. Before leaving for America he gives Eiji a virus that can spread any kind of information through email.
Eiji finds a call on his answering machine from someone claiming to be his father. When he goes to the appointment, he finds that he has been tricked by Yakuza in order to collect on unpaid debts left by Morino. He and three other men are forced to play a deadly game of cards for the enjoyment of Tsuru. They are saved by Tsuru's death by a stroke and fatal burn from a grill.
On his last shift at work, Eiji gets an order from a lawyer working in Panopticon. He realizes that the lawyer is his father, but when he goes to meet him he discovers that he is a selfish and vulgar man and prefers not to reveal his identity. Eiji later uses Suga's virus to send Yamaya's information disc to thousands of e-mail accounts across Japan, including law enforcement.
Eight: The language of mountains is rain
Eiji travels to Miyazaki to meet his mother. He travels on board trucks. The drivers tell him their stories and he dreams. When he gets to the clinic where his mother is recovering, they talk and find some understanding.
Afterwards, Eiji travels back to Kagoshima. A typhoon breaks out and he is forced to shelter in a garden hut. The next morning he takes the ferry to Yakushima and goes to visit his grandmother's house, but she is not home. The radio is on and broadcasting news of a major earthquake in Tokyo. He tries to phone Ai, but cannot get a line. Then he decides to run back.
Nine
The last chapter is empty.
Main characters
* Eiji Miyake – A twenty-year-old Japanese student from the rural island of Yakushima, Eiji journeys to Tokyo to seek out a father he has never met. Eiji narrates the novel from the first-person perspective, and his narration mixes video game and blockbuster film-inspired waking dreams with reality, so the reader is often not quite sure about what level of reality events Eiji describes are taking place.
* Ai Imajo – A waitress at the Jupiter café. Eiji sees her early in the novel and is immediately smitten with her beautiful neck. Since he is too shy to engage her in conversation or even ask for her name, he refers to her as "the waitress with the beautiful neck" for much of the narrative, until circumstances pull them together.
* Yuzu Daimon – A womanizing final-year law student, born into money and privilege. He meets Eiji at an arcade and leads him on a night of debauchery, which ends up tying their fates closer than either of them first realize.
* Buntaro Ogiso – Eiji's landlord, who also runs the video rental store on the building's first floor. At first, his relationship with Eiji is strictly business, and Eiji worries that, should he not be able to make rent, Buntaro will have no qualms about evicting him instantly. But as the plot progresses, Buntaro is revealed to be very affectionate for Eiji, secretly rescuing him after an encounter with the Yakuza.
Critical reaction
Similarities with Haruki Murakami
Several reviewers have noted that ''number9dream'' draws heavily on
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...
's fiction, especially ''
Wind-up Bird Chronicle''.
See also
*
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...
*
Number 9 Dream
"#9 Dream" is a song written by John Lennon and first issued on his 1974 album ''Walls and Bridges''. It was released as the second single from that album months later, on Apple Records catalogue Apple 1878 in the United States and Apple R600 ...
– a song by John Lennon
* ''
The Voorman Problem
''The Voorman Problem'' is a 2011 British short film directed by Mark Gill, who also co-wrote the screenplay and edited the film with producer Baldwin Li, who also wrote the score. It is adapted from "Panopticon", a film within a story from t ...
'' – a short film produced in 2013, based upon a section of this novel
* ''
The Bone Clocks
''The Bone Clocks'' is a novel by British writer David Mitchell. It was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2014, and called one of the best novels of 2014 by Stephen King. The novel won the 2015 World Fantasy Award.
The novel is divided into ...
'' – Mitchell's 2014 novel, in which the character of Crispin Hershey is revealed to be the author of
The Voorman Problem
''The Voorman Problem'' is a 2011 British short film directed by Mark Gill, who also co-wrote the screenplay and edited the film with producer Baldwin Li, who also wrote the score. It is adapted from "Panopticon", a film within a story from t ...
* ''
Ghostwritten
''Ghostwritten'' is the first novel published by English author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around East Asia, but also moves through Russia, B ...
'' – Mitchell's first novel, published in 1999, in which Mr. Suhbataar also plays a role.
References
External links
Excerpt of Chapter 1in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
The Complete Review profile
Reviews
I think I'm turning Japanese — David Mitchell's second novel number9dream is flawed but stylish, finds Steven Poolereview by Stephen Poole for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
When Blade Runner meets Jack Kerouac — David Mitchell lets his imagination run riot in number9dream, but can he control the results?review by Robert MacFarlane for ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
''
Daydreaming in Tokyo — David Mitchell's surrealistic coming-of-age novel was a finalist for the Booker Prizereview by
Andrew Roe
Major General Andrew Michael Roe, is a senior British Army officer who currently serves as Chief Executive and Commandant of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.
Military career
Roe was commissioned into the Green Howards in April 1992 ...
for the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
''
In which the Crocodile Snout-Butts the Glassreview by
James Francken
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
for ''
The London Review of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.
History
The ''London Review of ...
''
Wandering Along the Border Between Reality and Fantasyreview by
Michiko Kakutani for ''
The New York Times
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Zombie Spawn Descend to Earthreview by Daniel Zalewski for ''
The New York Times
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''
Reviewby ''
The New Yorker
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Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
''
Hackwriters review
Critical essays
by Rose Harris-Birtill. ''SubStance'' 44.136 (2015): 55–70.
{{David Mitchell
2001 British novels
British novels adapted into films
Novels by David Mitchell
Novels set in Tokyo
Sceptre (imprint) books
Novels set in Japan
Postmodern novels
Japan in non-Japanese culture