Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The novel is a concatenation of six stories which span a huge period of time from the 19th century to way in the future. However, each story is a cliff-hanger, ending abruptly before passing on to the next. Initially, I found this disconcerting and slightly annoying, as you’re plunged into another time period with an entirely new set of characters and you have to find your feet again. But as the book progresses, you start to recognise the subtle resonances and reverberations that thread the stories together, and the jump to a new time becomes an adventure. About three-quarters of the way through the book, it reaches a climax, and you cascade back through the lives of the six characters again, finding out how they ended (or how it all began, depending on your viewpoint).
Mitchell has an amazing facility for writing in a very natural way in a huge diversity of styles. The first story—-the sea journal of Adam Ewing—-is written in a fastidious and slightly prissy voice, which sounds (to me at least) totally authentic, then there’s the dry wit of a composer in the 1930s and so on. At one point (and I really don’t want to give anything away here), he invents an entirely new dialect, which seems to be have a consistent grammar and vocabulary. Despite these slightly virtuoso touches, he never gets too clever. The links between the stories could be too complete and perfect to be believable, but they’re not.
It’s one of those books that you desperately want to describe and explain in detail to others, but at the same time, you don’t want to spoil their excitement when they read it for the first time. All I’ll say is that it’s broadly about the dangers of greed and the lust for power, and the havoc they can wreak. One phrase—-spoken by one of the characters—-has stuck with me: “Before The Fall was tripped”. Falls (with a capital ‘f’) are rarely entirely accidental, and usually someone has stuck a metaphorical foot out to precipitate it. This book can be seen as a parable about how we humans can avoid tripping.
P.S. I think that this is one of those books that polarises opinion: you’ll love it or hate it passionately. Obviously, I’m in the former camp.
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This one is on my holiday list (three weeks and counting). I highly recommended Ghostwritten as well, he's fast becoming one of my favourite authors.
by Gordon @ 14/06/2005 2:06 pm • Permalink •
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I also just finished this. Pretty good, I thought. A bit of an emotional rollercoaster, and I tend to be cagey about such things as I'm rather inclined to get too far into my reading, but there's not a lot one can read that isn't going to have its ups and downs. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone.----- I read the second half of the book, hoping that one of the stories would have an optimistic conclusion. I ended up a bit depressed.
I agree that the writing was great and it did really feel like an athology. I just think all the virtual writers could do with a holiday sitting on a beach with a long drink.
by Devoid @ 14/06/2005 2:06 pm • Permalink •
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I finished this over the weekend and also absolutely loved it - and like you, was impressed with the way Mitchell managed to write so convincingly and evocatively in six completely different styles. I also enjoyed the fact that the structure of the book itself echoed (or was echoed by)... er... to not give too much away, the thing within the book after which it's named. It's one of those books which is vast in scope but planted with hundreds of neat little details - will definitely have to get hold of his other works!
by Cat @ 15/06/2005 8:07 am • Permalink •
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I don't know why but I got the impression you are Italian and have been living in England for ages! Am I wrong? Were u born in England or in Italy? I tried to look into the blog but I haven't found anything explicitly declaring your nationality ... I don't even know why I sometimes ask such foolish questions! Well anyway feel free not to answer ... nationality has never been a problem to me.
ciao
by nourdine @ 15/06/2005 9:07 am • Permalink •
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jim w: Yes, it's not an easy read emotionally.
Devoid: You see, I thought it was quite optimistic in the end. But then I did think that American Beauty also had a happy ending, to which Mr. Bsag retorted, "But everyone dies!" So I may not be the best judge
I think that the optimistic part is that even though really Bad Things happen throughout time, there are always at least a few people who try to put things right, despite huge odds.
Gordon: Yes, Ghostwritten is now on my library list.
Cat: Yes, it's very neat. But not too neat, which would be annoying
. I'd actually like to read it again after a bit of an interval, because I think that I would still get something out of it that I hadn't noticed first time around.
nourdine: Nope, I'm English, with no link to Italy other than working there for a couple of summers during my PhD. Love the place, though
. I'm curious, what made you think I was Italian? Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered. When I worked there, I used to get a bit depressed by the way that people would know I was English before I even opened my mouth :-D
by bsag @ 15/06/2005 3:07 pm • Permalink •
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Yes, I thought the same - there's so much in there that I suspect a re-read would throw up lots of 'ohhh! that relates to that' moments.
But thankfully, as you suggest it's not a book which ends up so neatly trussed up you'd think the Friends scriptwriters had been involved - there's something incredibly disappointing about a book which doesn't leave you anything to speculate about!
One thing that did cross my mind - personally, I found the Adam Ewing bits the hardest to get along with of all the different viewpoints (probably that slightly prissy style!) so if anyone is put off by the first bit it's well worth persevering through him to reach the other perspectives.
by Cat @ 15/06/2005 5:06 pm • Permalink •
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if the made-up dialect that you are referring to pertains to a certain section that takes place on a certain archipelago, it isn't really made-up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Pidgin http://www.pidginbible.org/
by candace @ 16/06/2005 5:06 pm • Permalink •
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Cat: I agree, though I warmed to Adam in the second part of his story.
candace: Wow! That's great. Though at least to my eyes, the dialect in the book doesn't look very much like that particular pidgin, though it must be based on it. Cool.
by bsag @ 17/06/2005 3:07 pm • Permalink •
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In the first section of Cloud Atlas I came across a footnote from JE referring to the introduction - there wasn't one in my copy. At the end of the same section Adam E's diary stopped mid-sentence whilst referring to meeting Raphael. Is this correct or have I got a mis-print?
by L Wilkins @ 23/06/2005 11:06 am • Permalink •
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Hmmm, must obtain.
It sounds a (very) little like Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, in which each chapter ends with a cliffhanger; the following chapter being an account of the Reader's efforts to locate the rest of the missing book... only to find another book whose first chapter ends in a cliffhanger etc etc.
Certainly blew my mind when I read it as a kid. My first brush with postmodernism...
by Alan @ 23/06/2005 9:07 pm • Permalink •
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Interesting as the author David Witchell suggests Calvino's book inspired him here...
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,1221892,00.html
Cheers, Tim
by TimDJ @ 01/07/2005 3:07 pm • Permalink •
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