Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.06 You Save: $5.94 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.71 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Cloud Atlas: A Novel
Book Review: A big disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
Normally, when a book goes nowhere I put it down and start reading another book. This book, however, showed great promise so I kept reading. I anxiously awaited a clever ending that would tie all the pieces together and give me the "WOW" I get at the end of a good book. Such an ending never arrived. The book "petered out" into psycho-babble. I felt like the author had five unfinished novels that he threw together to meet a contract requirement. This book was a waste of time.Book Review: A brilliant disappointment
Summary: 4 Stars
Mitchell is brilliant, certainly. The book is a Chinese box of six stories, set in different eras and locations, each in a different genre and told in a different voice. The first five are taken to their half-way point, broken off, then resumed in reverse order after the completion of the sixth. All are enjoyable, and Mitchell's versatility of style is uncanny. But the connections between the stories are trivial (less than in Joan Silber's IDEAS OF HEAVEN, say), and one looks in vain for some overarching philosophical theme to connect them, over and above the structural one. I became frustrated waiting for payoffs that never came, and it was harder to pick up the thread of each story the further one got from its opening section.
I suspect that individual readers' responses to the book will depend on their literary tastes generally. Those that admire structural ingenuity for its own sake will have few problems. But others will find themselves responding to certain genres more than others, and this will affect their perception of the rhythm of the book. I, for example, am not a fan of science fiction, and thus found the central 180 pages quite hard going; perhaps this blunted my appreciation of the outermost stories when they resumed. But the first three tales each appealed to me in different ways: the first (which few other readers seem to have liked) in much the same manner as Matthew Kneale's marvelous ENGLISH PASSENGERS; the second about an English musician and thus very close to home; and the third a splendid piece of whistle-blower political fiction. I would have enjoyed reading any of the three at normal novel length . . . and I am not sure that they would have lost much, if anything, by being removed from Mitchell's overelaborate surrounding structure.
Book Review: A challenging but rewarding book
Summary: 4 Stars
Truly original works of fiction are hard to find these days. David Mitchell has given us such a work. Most of what's out there is like candy, fun to take in and soon forgotten. Mitchell doesn't take such a low view of the reader. This is an extremely challenging work which will reward the reader willing to open his mind and take in the story on a deeper level than what's on the surface.
The book is structured like a Russian nesting doll. Each story is somehow interrelated with the story after it. There are six stories total here. Mitchell ends stories one through five abruptly, and then tells all of story six, and tells the ends of the rest of the stories five to one. It's a very unique structure, and it says something about Mitchell's abilities that he's able to make it work.
Each story is also totally different in terms of style. We begin with a Melvillean tale of the sea, proceed to an English rogue's story, then a hardboiled 70s pulp mystery, then the story of a contemporary degenerate English book publisher, forwarded to a dystopian scifi tale set in the near future, and finally a halting, odd narrative of a man living in a post apocalyptic Hawaii. Each story has a distinct narrative style and has little in common with the preceding story, save the link.
This book gets the reader thinking about many themes. The main theme is breaking free of the shackles life puts on us. Each narrator is somehow constrained, either by society or the government. It also explores the effect rules for the society have on the individual. There are a few other minor themes, but you really should read the book to find out what they are.
My only quibble with this was the sixth story. The narration was so stilted and disjointed that I found it tough to finish it. I ultimately did not, because it was so tough to get through. This is my own failing, and I will have to read it at some point in the near future. It's one of the many challenges Mitchell puts to the reader.
This is a masterful work, which is sure to reveal new truths with each reading.
Book Review: A challenging but rewarding novel
Summary: 5 Stars
An intricate series of somewhat connected stories that begins on a 17th-century ship and culminates in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, Cloud Atlas is a precisely crafted and challenging novel. Each story ends abruptly, wrenching into the next, moving forward in time like progressive notes on a scale, and then descending back to the beginning.
During the upward run, it's difficult to grasp the connections between, say, the South Pacific schooner and a composer's mansion in 1920s Germany, or between 1970s California and a near-future Japan where our clones are our servants. Although the physical connections are apparent--one character in each story experiences in some way the story that came before, such as through discovering and reading a lost manuscript or watching a computer-projected hologram. And it's implied that one character in each story is the reincarnated version of someone who came before. But the theme that connects all the stories--of apocalypse and annihilation of the "other"--does not become clear until the reader is descending backward in time.
Book Review: A complex book --will probably be a classic later
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a VERY long book. Mostly because it is several books in one. One of the professional reviewers compared it to a Russian nesting doll -- a very accurate comparison. I enjoyed this book and intend to read it again in the future. It's difficult to even answer the question, "so what is this book about?" It's easier to describe the psychology, philosophy, and themes of the book than it is to describe the plot. I will do my best. The book follows several characters as time moves from the 19th century to a futuristic dystopian world with clones and all. It's like Roots meets Erin Brockovich meets Logan's Run meets Planet of the Apes. Needless to say there are a lot of Archetypes in this book. The different stories are woven together very intricately both in a six degrees of separation kind of way and through deeper connections. Mitchell's greatest talent is being able to switch personas so adeptly. Each section of the novel is told in varying dialects of the English language.
My one hesitancy is recommending this book is that each story present its own liguistic challenges for the reader, especially intensified by the manner in which Mitchell throws the reader into a story in the middle of the action. The reader is forced to solve a mini-mystery just to be able to figure out what's going on, who's who, and how this odd dialect can be deciphered. The book definitely moves along. It is fairly well paced, full of action and suspense, and intellectually stimulating (makes suduko look like tiddly winks).
The book's exploration of themes such as power, greed, repression, suffering, atonement, grace, and rebirth provide the backbone for this perhaps overly complex set of tales. The book is mythological, allegorical, spiritual. Stepping back, it does seem that it would be necessary to use several inter-related tales to fully explore these themes. The novellas become a tapestry of parables.
For those who don't like gimmics -- well, there is a fair amount of artistic gymnastics on display in this book. I don't know about you, but part of why I like watching Robin Williams is because he can switch character so effortlessly. David Mitchell shows precisely this sort of effortless perspective/persona/dialetic/plot shifting. Look, I'm not going to pull any punches. This book was a lot of work. I was exhausted after I finished reading it. That's why a second read will be rewarding. I will have worked out the logistics of the book and I will be able to concentrate on the rich themes, the beautifully drawn characters, and the philosophical questions posed. Most of my favorite works of "great" literature need to be read several times, after all. Any place worth staying to explore usually requires that you get the lay of the land first.
Going back to the standard questions I ask myself when I'm done reading a book: Was it worth reading? Yes. This book is worth reading -- probably several times. Was it life changing? Probably. It made me look at how people's lives fit together, and it made me think about cycles of political power and social dynamics. I'm fairly certain the life-changes will be more profound when I read it again. Will it change the way I live? Maybe. I think it made me more environmentally aware and conscious. Whether I take steps to do anything about it is still up in the air. It may help me to understand human behavior a little better and therefore help me to react to situations involving power/greed/repression with a more deconstructed calm, intelligent, awareness rather than volatile emotion. Who would I recommend this book to? Those who like to read and don't mind working at it. Those who like artistic gymnastics. Those who like books and discussions involving philosophical and moral issues.