A Book & A Beer – Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

Utopia Avenue is the latest from David Mitchell. I have liked his genre busting switches from coming of age to time travel to ancient Japan and how he has woven in characters across books.

The latest is an Almost Famous tale of a band from their formation through success and the tragedies minor and major along the way. There is also a side story about a ghost that haunts one of the players.

Overall, I found it to be a good set of people to ride along with but that the journey itself was kind of caught between doing a standard rock novel but just with flourishes added to it. On the plus side, when the songs were described, they sounded real and of the time. Not some fake tune that you would never believe was a top ten hit. Your mileage may vary on the celebrity cameos as well. I found them a bit annoying.

Since the band starts in England and then conquers the world. I would suggest having a beer corresponding to where they are in the world. Start with a proper pint of bitter, move on to some European pilsner, have some New York craft beer and then finish with beers from L.A. and San Francisco.