Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cloud Atlas: A Novel
Book Review: A technical tour-de-force that's also emotionally powerful
Summary: 5 Stars
Cloud Atlas is a fascinating novel, both technically adept and interesting (rather a tour-de-force, indeed) and emotionally involving. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in the UK, and indeed was the betting favorite, though it did not win. I thought it quite wonderful -- I would say teetering on the edge of greatness but falling just short.
It opens with a section called "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing". This is about an American travelling in the South Seas in about 1850. This stops abruptly, and the novel continues with "Letters from Zedelghem", about a bisexual Englishman, Robert Frobisher, a composer, who flees to Belgium to escape creditors, and inveigles his way to a job with the great composer Vyvyan Ayrs. Frobisher's letters are to his lover, physicist Rupert Sixsmith: and the next section, "Half Lives: the First Luisa Rey Mystery", purports to be a thriller, in which journalist Luisa Rey meets the aging Rupert Sixsmith, who has written a suppressed report concerning the flaws in the design of a new nuclear reactor. This "novel" stops literally with Luisa in midair, and we jump to "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish", in which Cavendish, a vanity press publisher, lucks into a bestselling mobster's memoir, only to run into trouble when his family demands a cut, by force. Cavendish flees but somehow is committed to a strange geriatric home. But before we learn how his story comes out, we proceed to "An Orison of Sonmi-451", set in a future Korea, in which Sonmi-451, a "fabricant", one of many enslaved by the Unanimity government, dictates her memories to an archivist before her execution. Finally, the center of the novel is taken up with "Sloosha's Crossin' and Ev'rythin' After", in which Zachry, a resident of Hawaii after technological civilization has collapsed, part of a bucolic society that worships Sonmi, tells of the visit of a "Prescient" woman (from an island which has managed to retain some technological knowledge), and the terrible changes coming to his people. From there the novel cascades down through the first five sections in reverse order, completing each half-finished narrative. There are cunning links between each section, and an overall thematic pattern.
As I said, I liked it a great deal. The main weakness is some plot missteps, particularly in the Luisa Rey and Sonmi-451 segments. The middle section drags a bit (and it is written in a dialect that is well done but that makes reading a bit difficult), and the first/last section (the Adam Ewing stuff) is also less involving than the rest. The SFnal ideas are not precisely new, but they are well-handled, particularly the Sonmi-451 stuff, especially the revelations of Sonmi-451's nature (which does have some nice original touches).
Book Review: A virtuosic achievement - and great stories!
Summary: 5 Stars
I started reading this book right after finishing Cunningham's recent Specimen Days. The two have several things in common, most obviously the interweaving of several separate stories into a (supposedly) larger whole. This kind of clever constructions are usually not my cup of tea (I share my misgivings about them with some of Mitchell's own characters) - far too often they merely mask a lack of sustained narrative invention. In fact I was deeply disappointed by the Cunningham, and thus approached this bulky novel with some trepidation. No need for that, as it turned out - on the contrary. This book is in a totally different league than Specimen Days. In fact, it is one of the most engrossing things I have read in a long time - the kind of book that makes you put out your bedside lamp far too late on weekday nights, and whose characters and themes mull about in your head while you are trying to work.
Cloud Atlas consists of six separate stories, no less, which open up one out of the other, only to fold back in on themselves again in reverse order. "A gimmick?", the author himself wonders with supreme irony by mouth of composer Roger Frobisher, who is writing a sextet that is constructed in precisely the same way as this novel (with which it also shares the name). In this case, definitely not. The six stories are cleverly and meaningfully interwoven in a way that so eluded Cunningham in his similar attempt. Yet each on their own they are fully developed, unhurried, and in turn moving, inspiring and thrilling. They all center around the theme of the human will to power and domination, and the destruction inherent in it. Jalousie de métier, corporate corruption and greed, predatory survivalism, slavery, consumerism and whatnot drift in and out of focus as we cross the ages from the 19th century Pacific, via early 20th century Belgium, 70s California, and present-day Britain, to a horrific view of a future ruled by Asian corporations, and a future beyond that again when civilization has collapsed completely, but the saddening cycle of human inhumanity is starting all over again nonetheless. Mitchell's versatility of style and genre is dazzling to say the least. Cloud Atlas encompasses a diary, a correspondence, a kafkaesque farce, a racy thriller, a sci-fi interview, and a history written down in the vernacular from an oral narrative. This may look awfully farfetched in theory, but in fact this diversity succeeds in enhancing the message of the book and the pleasure of reading, rather than getting in the way of them. Better still, you get both happy endings and sad endings in a single book, as well as a message, or rather a question, that reverberates through all of the stories and may haunt you for quite a while after leaving Adam Ewing in Honolulu on the final page. Mandatory reading for all lovers of great literature!
Book Review: A whirring literary Interplay
Summary: 5 Stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this dizzying wonder and praise its author for going out on a "literary" limb. As part of a reading group (see our Listmania list here at Amazon!), this selection was wisely chosen and without going into comparisons to writers like Thomas Pynchon and the like, this author delights and enchants as rarely an author does these days. For its sheer inventiveness, I would so recommend. You won't see many works like this!
Also recommend: "Life of Pi", and the unusual "The Autobiography of God" among others.
Book Review: Am I Smart Enough to Review this Book?
Summary: 4 Stars
Cloud Atlas is a complex and intriguing book. I titled my review, "Am I Smart Enough to Review this Book?" becuase there are so many levels, I am unsure where to begin a review. I, therefore, will keep my review basic.
This novel is constructed of six narratives who's characters are connected. Each narrative is begun and then cut off at a critical point. Mitchell builds the six stories from the time of Melville into the distant future and then completes each narrative closing the book where the first short would have ended. Each story is connected not just by the characters themselves but by the themes.
Mitchell is exploring our past, present and future through universal themes of what it means to be human and have humanity. He has a strong use of voice and the stories strongly hold your attention. The first time there is a break in the narrative you are very annoyed!!!
I think there is so much more that could be discussed with this novel. You could approach this novel to analyze: the comet tattoo, the theme of slavery, the structure of the novel as a muscial piece! There are so many opportunities for thought and exploration that again i don't know where to end or begin.
I personally enjoyed this book for its strength of narrative even though the first two narratives sounded very simliar for the most part and the future sections had a lot of sci-fi conventions. Mitchell can be forgiven for these small slips, if you can even call them that just simply for having the skills of creation. I even found I had to slow down and really read given the complex and consistent vernacular used in each separate narrative. I would not recommnd this novels for everyone. You have to really want to explore. If you are up to the challenge. Enjoy!
Book Review: Amazing weird book
Summary: 3 Stars
This was an unusual novel in that it really wasn't a novel but more of a series of essays ,written in different styles,and at the end difficult to conclude that there was a coherent theme. On the other hand, some of the writing was quite insightful and thought provoking.