Can the Brilliant Author of “Cloud Atlas” Do It All Over Again with “Utopia Avenue”?

I bought David Mitchell’s latest book without knowing anything about it, other than the fact that Cloud Atlas changed my life forever

Alright, so. David Mitchell wrote Cloud Atlas. I loved Cloud Atlas. More than almost any other book I’ve ever read. So, even though I pretty much had zero interest in reading about some fictional psychedelic rock band roaring to fame in the late 1960s, I immediately bought the book.

I never expected it to reach the heights that Cloud Atlas attained — and, of course, how could it? — but I loved Utopia Avenue regardless! Such a great novel!

It’s about a rock band in 1967 called Utopia Avenue and this is the story of their unlikely origins, rise, “staggerings,” and eventual…well, read the book! In fact, Mitchell is just such a master that several times while I was reading it I wasn’t quite sure that this band didn’t actually exist.

In my mind, they still kinda do. Vividly.

Mitchell has the band getting rocked by music industry intrigue, going to prison in Rome, meeting and partying with other famous rock stars (and again, they’re brought to life so vividly by David Mitchell that it’s like these interactions could easily be found in some biography somewhere), struggling…