Mistaken

( 5 )

Overview

“I had been mistaken for him so many times that when I heard he had died it was as if part of myself had died too.” So begins Mistaken, the new bestselling novel from the master of gothic fiction, Neil Jordan.
Kevin and Gerald were two boys growing up on opposite sides of the Dublin economic divide. Though they had never met, they shared a growing awareness of each other through episodes of mistaken identity. Yet Kevin was doubly haunted, living next door to the one-time ...

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Mistaken

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More About This Book

Overview

“I had been mistaken for him so many times that when I heard he had died it was as if part of myself had died too.” So begins Mistaken, the new bestselling novel from the master of gothic fiction, Neil Jordan.
Kevin and Gerald were two boys growing up on opposite sides of the Dublin economic divide. Though they had never met, they shared a growing awareness of each other through episodes of mistaken identity. Yet Kevin was doubly haunted, living next door to the one-time residence of Bram Stoker, and the shadow of both a vampire and Gerald stretch far across his early years. For a time, the boys’ doppelganger paths would cross innocently enough—one stealing the other’s unwitting girlfriend, or being called out to in the street–until a family tragedy sends them both down a much darker path.
“Mistaken comes complete with a plot as precise and as crafted as that of the finest thriller, filtered through an insistent narrative voice that holds the stricken reader as if at gunpoint. For all the revelation and the anger, it is the writing, the linguistic artistry that ultimately leaves one gasping. Be warned: this is a great international novel, a great Irish novel and, most of all, a great Dublin novel that thoughtfully heeds Joyce and then breaks free the way a child eventually shrugs off even the most loving and beloved of parents.” ¬–Irish Times

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
A case of mistaken identity sets the plot in motion in this meticulous, well-crafted novel from author and filmmaker Jordan (Interview with the Vampire). Kevin is growing up in working class North Dublin when unexplainable things begin to happen: strange girls press their hips against his in the dance club—asking him why he hasn’t called—and men offer him cigarettes, despite his never having smoked. Eventually, it becomes clear that Kevin is being mistaken for another, a boy named Gerry from the wealthier side of town, who attends a posh school. Initially frightened, Kevin begins little by little to take advantage of these bizarre circumstances. Having led a young woman who insists they know one another down to a grassy section of the dunes, he’s momentarily stumped, then lets “the imagined him”—the other—“take over.” Kevin and Gerry meet as adolescents, and so begins a lifetime’s worth of chance encounters, misunderstandings, and intermittent life-swapping, culminating in a “shared” crime, that, as Kevin says, Gerald “wanted” but he (Kevin) “executed.” As one might expect from a seasoned filmmaker, the novel is well plotted and mysteries are revealed at a tantalizing pace. Nor is Jordan a slouch on the sentence level; the language is precise and evocative, with Dublin itself lovingly rendered in all its gray complexity. (Jan.)
Kirkus Reviews
The Irish filmmaker offers a doppelgänger novel about the entwined lives of two Dubliners, as his sixth work of fiction (Shade, 2004, etc.). They're the same age. They look almost the same. Yet their backgrounds are strikingly different. Kevin Thunder, the narrator, lives on Dublin's impoverished northside, while Gerry Spain is from the well-heeled southside; the class antagonisms are raw. Kevin's father is a bookie; Jerry's is a lawyer, later a judge. Kevin's rough-and-tumble schooling is far inferior to Jerry's fancy private school. Their lives, however, will overlap for some 40 years, from their adolescence in the 1960s to Jerry's death in his mid 50s (his funeral opens and closes the novel). Kevin finds himself being mistaken for Gerry: ejected from a store for shoplifting, approached invitingly by a girlfriend. Amid the confusion he has one dependable ally: his beloved mother, the caretaker of their building's apartments. His father is often away, and Kevin is happy to replace him (there are Oedipal overtones). Mother and son go swimming together until one day, alone, she drowns. Jordan is at his best depicting their tender solicitude and Kevin's coming-of-age encounters with Gerry's girls. His touch is less sure with Kevin/Gerry. They eventually meet in a series of edgy encounters. By now Gerry is an undergraduate at well-manicured Trinity, while Kevin's at a trade school; Gerry, shy and insecure, uses Kevin's name for his published stories. The ladies still get them confused. "Were we…the light and shade of the same person?" It's the classic dilemma posed by the genre. Jordan plays with it, offsetting Kevin's weak light against the increasingly dark, addicted, adulterous Jerry, but years pass before he ratchets up the tension. The climax, flashy and camera-ready, involves impersonation and murder in Manhattan, but it seems less ordained than arbitrary. An uneven work that is at its most authentic in its evocation of a time when Dublin was more large village than city.
Caryn James
…beautifully enimgatic…shines with a darkly luminous glow.
—The New York Times Book Review
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781593764333
  • Publisher: Soft Skull Press, Inc.
  • Publication date: 12/20/2011
  • Pages: 320
  • Sales rank: 932,352
  • Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Customer Reviews

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Sort by: Showing all of 5 Customer Reviews

  • Posted November 28, 2011

    WARNING THE LINK TO THE NOOK BOOK IS WRONG

    If you click to purchase this NOOK book you will NOT get Neil Jordans book but rather a book by BRANDY Jordan. When you contact BN customer service they tell you tough luck no refunds. So do yourself a favor and don't buy this you will be out your money and stuck with a book you've never heard of. HORRIBLE customer service. Would be nice if you AT LEAST fixed this issue BN! Since I know at least I have made you aware of it.
    BN member since 1998 will certainly be rethinking that upon renewal time.

    20 out of 25 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 20, 2012

    Link worked for me

    Just wanted to let others know that the link for Mistaken worked when I purchased the book. Haven't read it yet!

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 6, 2012

    Engaging Literary Fiction

    I loved this novel - an engaging and compelling story of two boys who grow up together in Dublin. The writing really draws you into another world. I only knew of the author's film work, and now I want to go check out his other novels!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted February 25, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    I got the wrong book, too.

    I was luckier that the first reviewer, though. I contacted Customer Service using online chat and was given a refund.

    I appears that the book you get depends on the page from which you order.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 21, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

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