CLOUD ATLAS

[TonyWilson]

Has anyone read this?
Brilliant brilliant book, probably one of the most ambitious things I've read.

Here's anyone's chance to comment on it.

[burlivesleftnut]

Care to give a snynopsis or a review? I like the title, but am too lazy to look it up.

[TonyWilson]

Ok Burl, you asked for it.

The book tells six different stories set in different time periods and in different genres. A historical seafaring journal from the 18th century.
A epistolatory tale from the 1930's about a disgraced but talented young composer living in Europe,
A 1970's set conspiracy thriller set in Buenas Yerbas.
A modern day comic take on the publishing world of England
A futuristic dystopian story of cloning and fredom fighters
And one I won't giveaway.

All are masterfully written and contain themes and motifs echoed throughout the other stories.


*******SPOILER WARNIN|G********

The Review

The different stories all stop halfway through and we are plunged into the next story and the next and so on until we reach the 6th one. This tale actually continues uncut til the end. The stories then continue in reverse order until we arrive at the end of the first story (the seafaring journal).
It's a lyrical, musical book which while not being out and out self referential certianly has some post modern spins in it.
I won't ruin the plots but be prepared to really really laugh and really really cry. The use of language is astounding and with the two futuristic tales Mitchell rivals Anthony Burgess in terms of language evolution and even how it affects out ability to think.
What's more the stories are warm and emotional not inellectually distant. And you find yourself so engrossed in the characters dilemmas that it's only on a second read do you glean so much more from it.
If I had one criticism it would be that the birth mark was a bit too obvious but it does nothing to diminsh the power and emotion of the book.

Definitely worth reading and then re reading a number of times.

[burlivesleftnut]

I am going to pick up a copy today. Sounds like you might like Specimen Days. I just finished. Quite brilliant and beautifully written story about 3 characters, in three different time periods.

[DinoDeLaurentiis]

Tony, it sounds a like a the good read! Dino gonna check it out.

[TonyWilson]

Has anyone had a chance to read this yet? Hell I might put it in the shameless promotion! And I believe marketing and advetising are the tools of satan

[burlivesleftnut]

Man I think I am going to have to wait until after Sept 22 (GRADUATION DAY!). So piss off, impatient fuck.

[Bean]

Hey this sounds like my kind of book, but I think I should get on the summer reading books

[TonyWilson]

September 22nd???

Jeez Burl, are you in the "s-l-o-w-r-e-a-d-e-r-s g-r-o-u-p" or something?

Get a bloody move on!

[sandyboy]

it is good, but it is a self confessed rip off of If On A Winters Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino

so if you liked Cloud Atlas grab the Calvino original, it is superior in every way

[dark wesley]

i thought it was a bit more than that actually, i loved cloud atlas, its a great disorientating read that seems to warn and celebrate the power of human will. and i thought it was an amazing book in its own right, im not saying that it doesnt owe debts to other writers, but it is really very much a great read.

[Ribbons]

I was sifting around on my trusty ol' website Videosift the other day when I stumbled upon this bloggy thing from someone who listed their five favorite books OF ALL-TIME. I remembered that Cloud Atlas had come highly recommended by Tony, so I thought he (and some of you... and some of me as well) might be interested to see that this (admittedly random) dude said Cloud Atlas was his favorite book ever.

[The Vicar]

Jeebus, Ribbons, you went deep into the vault for this gem.
And a good thing - sounds more than interesting enough.

[TonyWilson]

I was sifting around on my trusty ol' website Videosift the other day when I stumbled upon this bloggy thing from someone who listed their five favorite books OF ALL-TIME. I remembered that Cloud Atlas had come highly recommended by Tony, so I thought he (and some of you... and some of me as well) might be interested to see that this (admittedly random) dude said Cloud Atlas was his favorite book ever.

Cheers man, you should check out Cloud Atlas.

[stereosforgeeks]

Just finished reading it this evening and its pretty damn impressive. After starting the book with the seafaring adventure I wasnt even sure I was going to finish it because it bored me but I stuck with it and halfway through the second story it clicked and I understood what he was trying to do.

Cloud Atlas is about the ways we communicate and its power. How what we leave behind matters and connects us.

The 1st and he 4th stories are by far the worst though the second half of the first story was way better than the first and really worked well as the ending of the novel. The publishing satire I felt was boring and didnt really further the novel in any major way imho.

I am really curios how this will be turned into a movie at all. Part of the power of the novel is its structure and how each story is told in a different manner (each its own way of communication). Im not sure an audience will be willing to go with this broken narrative and fractured stories.

[Ribbons]

How many stories are there? Maybe they could get a different writer/director to do each one; kind of like a Four Rooms deal (only hopefully better)

[stereosforgeeks]

How many stories are there? Maybe they could get a different writer/director to do each one; kind of like a Four Rooms deal (only hopefully better)

6 stories. and yeah a different director/style for each one would work but it doesnt solve the problem that movies featuring separate individual stories are a hard sell to an audience.

[Ribbons]

Okay I just started reading CLOUD ATLAS!!! Tell me what I should be paying attention to as the book goes on, youse clods!

[TonyWilson]

Good god man, it's been FIVE YEARS!!!!
It's just crazy (and brilliant) The Zone's been going for that long.
Just go with it for the first part of the first story, it's very slow but pays off amazingly on the other side. Keep in mind the "will to power" as you read.

[TonyWilson]

How many stories are there? Maybe they could get a different writer/director to do each one; kind of like a Four Rooms deal (only hopefully better)

6 stories. and yeah a different director/style for each one would work but it doesnt solve the problem that movies featuring separate individual stories are a hard sell to an audience.

You could always go the Orlando route and have the same actor portraying everyone, it would be a challenge but very cool.

[Lord Voldemoo]

5 years later....

I never noticed this thread until now, but now I'm intrigued. I need to pick up a new book and was just pondering last night what I should get. I think I might give this a whirl.

[Ribbons]

Do eeet. We can be book buddies

[Ribbons]

So I still basically just started, but already I think I see what Tony was getting at about noticing more the second time around. There was this one paragraph in the first story, the diary:

As many truths as men. Occasionally, I glimpse a truer Truth, hiding in imperfect simulacrums of itself, but as I approach, it bestirs & moves itself deeper into the thorny swamp of dissent.

That I probably would have assumed was about the Maori and Moriori conflict, but since I've read most of this thread, it almost seems to be hinting at future installments in the novel. Anyway, pretty interesting stuff so far.

[Ribbons]

I just got to the start of the fourth 'book,' "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish." The fact that the stories seem to be bleeding into each other is intriguing, although I don't know what Mitchell's angle is quite yet. It's weird because the third book (Half-Lives) is obviously fiction, or at least structured like a fiction book, but it exists in the same universe as Letters from Zedelghem. And are the characters from Adam Ewing's part of that universe too, or is the diary a fake? Ribbons confused!!!

I will say, even taken at face value, I found myself getting sucked into the Luisa Rey mystery. Mitchell's done an impressive job so far of switching genres and making them all fairly compelling.

[Ribbons]

How many stories are there? Maybe they could get a different writer/director to do each one; kind of like a Four Rooms deal (only hopefully better)

6 stories. and yeah a different director/style for each one would work but it doesnt solve the problem that movies featuring separate individual stories are a hard sell to an audience.

You could always go the Orlando route and have the same actor portraying everyone, it would be a challenge but very cool.

I still haven't finished the novel so there's probably some stuff in play that I don't completely understand, but I'm not sure that would work, since most of the main characters seem too different. Young man, young woman, old man, Korean facescaped clone-thing, etc. Certainly the characters with the comet tattoo couldn't be the same each time. Although it might be cool if supporting characters recur, or take on lead roles as the stories change. Vyvyan Ayrs's daughter in Letters to Zedelghem, Madame Eva, could become Luisa Rey in Half-Lives, and Fay Li, who interrogates Luisa Rey at the power plant, could become Sonmi~451 in the clone story. Eh? Eh?

Anyway I just got to Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin' After, so I look forward to learning what the fuck is going on!

[TonyWilson]

Possible Kinda Vague Spoilers

Eeesh, I suspect there maybe a touch of disappointment ahead Ribbons old buddy old pal. Not wanting to spoil anything specificallly but, um, resolution wise things don't quite fall into place too neatly. However you are in for some amazing finales and thematically the whole thing will coalesce very nicely indeed.

End Possible Kinda Vague Spoilers


I like your idea of the way characters would recur, better than my Orlando route certainly.
I'm gonna have to give this a re-read soon.

[Ribbons]

Possible Kinda Vague Spoilers

Eeesh, I suspect there maybe a touch of disappointment ahead Ribbons old buddy old pal. Not wanting to spoil anything specificallly but, um, resolution wise things don't quite fall into place too neatly. However you are in for some amazing finales and thematically the whole thing will coalesce very nicely indeed.

Yeah, you were right to a certain extent. I was half-expecting Sloosha's to be some trippy meta tale about the creation of all 5 other books. Although once I realized that wasn't going to happen, I enjoyed it. Themes that kept popping up throughout the different stories (like belonging to different tribes and the "will to power" as you mentioned earlier) were summarized and clarified in a way that helped me make sense of the rest of the book (and the title), just not in the way I thought.

I'm still only on the second half of An Orison of Sonmi~451 so this might end up making more sense at the end of the book, but one of the things Mitchell keeps talking about that still has me scratching my head is the concept of "truer Truths." It's been mentioned several times in each story and I still don't understand what he's trying to say.

[Ribbons]

I'm still only on the second half of An Orison of Sonmi~451 so this might end up making more sense at the end of the book, but one of the things Mitchell keeps talking about that still has me scratching my head is the concept of "truer Truths." It's been mentioned several times in each story and I still don't understand what he's trying to say.

About this, there was a passage in the second half of Letters from Zedelghem that sounds like it's about the same thing. Spoily-texted just to play it safe:

Certainties. Strip back the beliefs pasted on by governesses, schools, and states, you find indelible truths at one's core. Rome'll decline and fall again, Cortes'll lay Tenochtitlan to waste again, and later, Ewing will sail again, Adrian'll be blown to pieces again, you and I'll sleep under Corsican stars again, I'll come to Bruges again, fall in and out of love with Eva again, you'll read this letter again, the sun'll grow cold again. Nietzsche's gramophone record. When it ends, the Old One plays it again, for an eternity of eternities.

Time cannot permeate this sabbatical. We do not stay dead long. Once my Luger lets me go, my birth, next time around, will be upon me in a heartbeat. Thirteen years from now we'll meet again at Gresham, ten years later I'll be back in this same room, holding this same gun, composing this same letter, my resolution as perfect as my many-headed sextet. Such elegant certainties comfort me in this quiet hour.

[so sorry]

I'd love to hear Confused Pete's take on this novel. winky.

[TonyWilson]

Great passage to quote (I really got read this again and soon), Ribs. I think it gets to the backbone of the themes, that no matter what physical or temporal structures we indulge there are basics that can't be suppressed or changed. And furthermore, by tackling those basics we can, in fact, change our circumstances by recognising the deeper truths underpinning them.

[Ribbons]

Just finished. 'Twas a very cool yarn indeed. Some interesting philosophical ponderings therein, but I think the most impressive aspect of this book is how Mitchell manages to change genres, settings, and dialects so easily. He's got a command of his language that's pretty hard to replicate. The added bonus is that there's a good chance you'll like at least one of the stories on display . Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for the recommendation Tony (and random Videosift guy)!

And so sorry, Confused Pete would totally give Cloud Atlas a hearty 27!

[minstrel]

FYI, the Summer 2010 issue of The Paris Review (issue 193) has an extensive interview with David Mitchell. My copy arrived yesterday but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

(Also, this issue has an interview with R. Crumb. This is the first time the Paris Review has interviewed a comic artist.)

[Pacino86845]

I just started this... will agree that the first story is hard to get through, but once the book moves to *flips to chapter 2* Zedelghem things start to get interesting (and begin to make some sense too).

So far the book's greatest achievement is as a feat of writing derring-do. Makes it tough to read sometimes, you basically have to always be paying attention to each word that was put to print, and recognize that a lot of things are said/implied tangentially through the use of metaphor and/or jargon. /has-just-revealed-pitiful-level-of-attention-span

But I like it so far, props to Neal Stephenson for getting me interested in historical fiction in the first place. Speaking of historical fiction, any of youse ever read Stephen Fry's Making History? Granted it's got a pretty obvious premise: "OMG what if Hitler never existed LOL WTF?!" But still it was an entertaining and stimulating read, on the light side to be sure, yet packs a certain poignant punch.

Back to Cloud Atlast, I'd picked this up for $3 at a book sale, an awesome book sale that often has terrific titles at ridiculously low prices (it is all done via donation to raise money for the library); the average cost of a book is $2-3. If I listed some of the titles I'd been getting over the past couple of years you all would be DROOLING with envy! /includes-first-editions-of-old-geek-oriented-books-too

One thing though, I haven't been reading through this thread too much for fear of spoilers, but is there any science fiction to this novel? For some reason I thought there would be an element of sci fi, but I could be mistaken. /has-just-highlighted-sci-fi-nerdiness

[Ribbons]

Yep! There is at least one story in the book that's hardcore sci-fi.

[Pacino86845]

S.W.E.E.T.

[TonyWilson]

Still need to re-read this but I'm stoked a thread I started back in '05 with a rave review is still getting love 5 years down the line

[Ribbons]

Hey Pacino, did you finish this book? And if so did you like it or throw it in the birdcage?

[Pacino86845]

I'm nearly done! I'd put the book down for a couple of weeks for lots of reasons, but I'll pick it up again soon! My favorite story is probably the "last" one, the one that isn't split in two (at least, I don't *think* it is...)