DAVID MITCHELL Black Swan Green **

I really enjoyed his previous book, Cloud Atlas, but gave up half-way through this one.

It's about a young boy growing up in the country in the 1980s and having to cope with a stammer.

I was annoyed by its ungainly swerves from one style to another and with some self-indulgent bits of dialogue, which David Mitchell obviously enjoyed writing but went on too long. I get the impression books aren't edited as rigorously as they used to be - especially if the author's last book was a hit.

But maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. Anybody read it and enjoyed it?