Optimist
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Features
    • Book Review
  • Multimedia
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos
  • Podcasts
    • Optimist Overtime
    • Top of the Key
  • Police Log
  • Print Edition
  • Projects
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Policies
    • Staff Contacts
    • Jobs
You are here: Home / Life / The radio people and The Bone Clocks

The radio people and The Bone Clocks

February 19, 2015 by Maggie Marshall

The Bone Clocks… in short, it’s a work of beauty.

It begins with Holly Sykes in 1984. She is a rebellious teenager, determined to prove to her mother she can survive on her own after leaving home, only to be jilted by her older boyfriend. As a young girl, she was visited by a woman named Miss Constantin – a mysterious figure who fades in and out of the narrative – and hears voices from whom she calls ‘the Radio People.’

Other than the few and in between mentions of these shady visitors, the story seems to be one concerning real, plausible life. The mystical side of the narrative is only a blip on the radar, yet David Mitchell weaves it in perfectly as if it is nothing out of the ordinary.

But that is only the beginning. After Holly’s younger brother, Jacko (who is, by all standards, strange) goes missing, Holly returns home with a newfound friend, the young Ed Brubeck. From there, we are thrust nearly a decade into the future, 1991, into the narrative of one Hugo Lamb, a student at Cambridge who eventually meets Holly.

In 2004, we again find Ed Brubeck, now entwined in Holly’s life, and in present day we meet Crispin Hershey, diminishing author and soon-to-be acquaintance of Holly. In 2025, we find a mysterious figure, Marinus, the doctor who stopped Holly from hearing voices… and then we’re sent back around to Holly… in 1943.

Even all that information cannot spoil the mystery and the beauty and the complexity of The Bone Clocks. Somehow, Mitchell is able to write a story that spans across time, across dimensions but seems perfectly plausible. The first two thirds of the book are faintly laced with the supernatural, yet the entire time, you know something is brewing, and that something is big. It isn’t until the last quarter that – wallop – you’re hit in the face with the mystery that, so far, you’ve only seen the minutest of glimpses.

Ultimately, the book is Holly’s story. It begins and ends with her. She is the sun around which the universe of the bone clocks spin, and she is tangled up in something far beyond humanity’s ideas of time and space, life and death.

She is given a gift – the ability to see and know and hear things that no one else can, other than perhaps a small handful of others. And like all gifts, it can be a curse. I don’t want to spoil the mystery, because that is truly entertaining to find out on your own. But I will say that it is weird and satisfying and astonishing and so incredibly original. It involves some eternal life (not without terms and conditions, of course) a believable war between good and evil and a serious look at the value and finiteness of human life.

However, it isn’t the book’s plot that drew me in so deeply. Two other aspects accomplished that.

First: time.

Never have I ever read a book that made me actually feel as though I spent years reading it. And I don’t mean this in the damn-that-took-me-forever-to-finish-I’m-so-glad-it’s-over kind of way. I mean I felt as though I’d spent years with the characters. I saw them change. I saw them grow. I saw family members born, and I saw them die. And as I finished the last sentence, I found myself wondering when I’d actually started the book… because it felt as though I’d been following this story my entire life.

Second: the writing itself is absolutely marvelous.

I wish I had a better vocabulary to describe it. It’s smart, that’s for sure.

If you’ve ever studied literature, you will adore all the literary references that are weaved so perfectly into the book. Mitchell is one smart cookie, which makes The Bone Clocks a refreshing respite from contemporary fiction’s all-too-common lack of depth. Every single sentence is well-thought-out and beautifully crafted.

If I’d hated the plot, I probably would’ve kept reading anyway because the writing is just that good.

I would like to recommend The Bone Clocks to everyone, but I know not everyone would appreciate it. It’s probably a little beyond the grasp of the average reader (I’m talking to you, my fellow Americans) and would be very hard to get through if a reader is not truly dedicated to the act of reading itself.

I wish everyone would read it, but I know that just won’t happen with this kind of book.

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: book review

Other Life:

  • Highland Church of Christ fundraises for missions during Ultimate Game Night

  • Study Abroad: Students think of Oxford as new home

  • Teaching Kitchen class shows students how to make poke bowls

Avatar

About Maggie Marshall

You are here: Home / Life / The radio people and The Bone Clocks

Other Life:

  • Highland Church of Christ fundraises for missions during Ultimate Game Night

  • Study Abroad: Students think of Oxford as new home

  • Teaching Kitchen class shows students how to make poke bowls

Follow us online

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Optimist on Twitter

acuoptimistThe Optimist@acuoptimist·
4h

Students who test positive for COVID-19 or have to isolate or quarantine will be assigned a care coordinator to help them in their process, but ACU is asking for more volunteers. Read more below:
http://acuoptimist.com/2021/01/acu-asking-for-additional-care-coordinator-volunteers/

Reply on Twitter 1354200168812470276Retweet on Twitter 1354200168812470276Like on Twitter 13542001688124702761Twitter 1354200168812470276
acuoptimistThe Optimist@acuoptimist·
25 Jan

"There is much evil in America, and it does not belong in just one political party, people group or status." Read more from Editor-in-Chief Owen Simpson below:
https://acuoptimist.com/2021/01/analyzing-the-capitol-riots-through-both-lenses/

Reply on Twitter 1353788479398948865Retweet on Twitter 1353788479398948865Like on Twitter 1353788479398948865Twitter 1353788479398948865

Optimist on Facebook

The Optimist

4 hours ago

The Optimist
Students who test positive for COVID-19 or have to isolate or quarantine will be assigned a care coordinator to help them in their process, but ACU is asking for more volunteers. Read more below: ...

ACU asking for additional Care Coordinator volunteers - Optimist

acuoptimist.com

Students who test positive for COVID-19 or have to isolate or quarantine will be assigned a care coordinator to help them in their process, but ACU is asking for more volunteers. Care coordinators help students and give them support while in isolation or quarantine. Some coordinators will give them....
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

The Optimist

1 day ago

The Optimist
"There is much evil in America, and it does not belong in just one political party, people group or status." Read more from Editor-in-Chief Owen Simpson below: ...

Analyzing the Capitol riots through both lenses - Optimist

acuoptimist.com

The historical insurrection that transpired on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6 displayed the polarizing viewpoints of American politics and the means by which those will go to invoke their beliefs. It was nothing short of a tragedy. However, violent riots have been displayed more often than both major pa...
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Videos

Praise Day Fridays return to campus

Video by Allie Jones. https://youtu.be/4F0D1oNzGjM   ... [Read More…]

  • Optimist Newscast – Nov. 5, 2020
  • ACUTV, Optimist preparing for live election show
  • Earliest snowfall recorded in Abilene

Latest Photos

  • Home
  • Weekly Ads
  • Classifieds

© 2021 ACU Optimist · All Rights Reserved