Utopia Avenue

Praise

“[Mitchell]’s work has been compared to that of Haruki Murakami, Thomas Pynchon and Anthony Burgess. But he occupies a field of his own. His eight novels are experimental but approachable. His sentences can be lyrical, but his prose is propulsive. Beneath the layers of references and unconventional structures lie lucid narratives. Mitchell’s obsessions–beyond the fictional meta-universe he has created–are with human voyages of self-actualization; the process of figuring out who we are, and how we connect, in the brief time we have.”—Time
 
“In 2020, there is something utopian about the idea of people gathering together to make and record and play music, to create a scenius together. We’ll get back to the garden someday.”—Los Angeles Times

“Mitchell, whose novels range through different modes and genres with extraordinary facility, has a lucid, kinetic style at all times, but he is never more impressive than when writing in close third person about characters in altered mental states—captivity, physical pain, madness. . . . A conventional story of a band’s rise turns into a book on another plane entirely.”—The New Yorker

“For his first novel in five years, the author explores the universal language of music. . . . It’s Daisy Jones & the Six on acid.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“For his first novel in five years, the author explores the universal language of music . . . it’s Daisy Jones & the Six on acid.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“The British pop-folk-rock band Utopia Avenue this novel focuses on seems so true to life, at least one reviewer (who shall not be named) may have Googled them just to confirm that they were a figment of the author’s imagination.”—AARP

“Utopia Avenue’s got all the sex, drugs, and broken dreams you want in a rock novel, plus guest appearances by Jagger, Jerry, Janis, and Jim (Morrison).”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Mitchell continues to use the rhythms of surface reality to dig much deeper, but without ever losing the beat.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Mitchell unspools at least a dozen original song lyrics and descriptions of performances that are just as fiery and infectious as his narratives. This is Mitchell at his best.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Those whose musical tastes end in the early 1970s—and literary tastes are up to the minute—will especially enjoy Mitchell’s yarn.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)