Line #16 Literature/Ghostwritten


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/71kqwcxuc6l.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''Who was blowing on the nape of my neck?'']]
3
4	->''"We're all ghostwriters, my boy... We all think we’re in control of our own lives, but really they're pre-ghostwritten by forces around us."''
5	-->-- '''Tim Cavendish'''
6
7	''Ghostwritten'' is the first novel by Creator/{{David Mitchell\|Author}}, published in 1999. The novel is made up of nine loosely connected short stories ranging from Japan to New York. Most of the stories take place around the turn of the 21st century, although two of them begin early in the 20th century. While each part functions on its own complete story, events of the stories often interlink and overlap.
8
9	The nine narrators are, in order: a cult member living in Okinawa, UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}; a record-shop clerk and saxophonist living in UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}; a corrupt British businessman in UsefulNotes/HongKong; a tea shack owner living on a Holy Mountain in UsefulNotes/{{China}}; a "noncorpum" entity in UsefulNotes/{{Mongolia}}; an art thief in [[UsefulNotes/TheCityFormerlyKnownAs St. Petersburg]]; a drummer in UsefulNotes/{{London}}; a quantum physicist in Clear Island, UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}; and a late-night radio DJ in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity.
10
11	''Ghostwritten'' discusses many themes, including the role of chance and fate in life.
12	----
13
14	!!This book contains examples of:
15
16	* DarkerAndEdgier: Perhaps the least heartfelt of all Mitchell's works. Most of the main characters aren't all that likeable and the narrative doesn't hold anything back.
17	* FreakOut:
18	** When the well-meaning noncorpum entity in the fourth part attempts to talk to his hosts, several of them believe they are hearing voices and go insane.
19	** Experienced by Margarita, the narrator at the end of the St. Petersburg chapter, after [[spoiler: Jerome kills Rudi, Margarita kills Jerome, and Suhbataar phones the police, leaving Margarita alone]]:
20	--> ''None of this happened. None of this really happened.''
21	%%* GainaxEnding
22	%%* GenreBusting
23	%%* {{Jerkass}}
24	%%* MindScrew
25	* NoEnding: All of the chapters [[spoiler: ended abruptly. While not all of them, most of it are left unsolved or ended immediately when their actions began.]]
26	* ParentalAbandonment: Satoru, the narrator of the second chapter. His mother was a Filipino prostitute deported after his birth; he never knew his father.
27	%%* PostModernism
28	* RapeAsDrama: The female narrator in the Holy Mountain story when she was young.
29	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The plot of the first part of the novel resembles the 1995 Sarin gas attack in Tokyo.
30	* ScrewDestiny: A view held by Marco, the narrator of the ''London'' chapter. Possibly a view that David Mitchell expresses throughout the book as well.
31	* ShoutOut:
32	** The noncorpum entity in the fourth part is implied to have once resided in the body of Jorge Luis Borges.
33	** A minor character was reading Literature/WarAndPeace.
34	%%* TitleDrop: Uttered by Tim Cavendish as he and Marco discuss honesty in the ghostwriting of autobiographies.

Context Literature / Ghostwritten