Cloud Atlas

It’s taken me some time to sit down to write a review of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, a novel I finished reading at the end of last year.  This is partly because unlike Mrs. I don’t write a review the second I’ve finished a book, but mostly because trying to describe Cloud Atlas is a challenge I wasn’t sure how to tackle.  But here goes.  The novel consists of six (very) loosely connected stories, with each cutting off suddenly and then the next chapter beginning a new story.  After the sixth story (told to completion) the book reverses course and picks up by finishing each story, ending with the novel’s original story.  A “quick” synopsis of the six stories:

Part I – told through journal entries by Adam Ewing, a San Francisco lawyer in 1850, whose ship is being repaired on a Pacific Island, where it's been marooned.

Part II – told through letters from Robert Frobisher, an English musician working as an assistant to a famous composer in 1930's Belgium, to his male lover Rufus Sixsmith.

Part III – the story of Luisa Rey, an investigative reporter in 1970's California researching a story on an unsafe nuclear power plant, being helped by a scientist whose own research uncovered the dangers of the plant, and being chased by an assassin from the plant.

Part IV – the story of Timothy Cavendish, an elderly book publisher in modern day Britain tricked by his brother into entering a nursing home and confined there by the nurses against his will.

Part V – told through the video confession of Somni-451, a human clone many years in the future in a country that used to be Korea, where humans are cloned and forced to work menial jobs.  Somni-451 is freed and educated by abolitionists that want to end the slavery of the clones, but eventually arrested and sentenced to be executed.   

Part VI – the story of Zachry, a primitive farmer in Hawaii many years after a nuclear apocalypse that occurred generations after the last section, and Meronym, a Prescient (more technologically sophisticated people), who arrives on the island to scout the viability of it as a home for her people.

The Good:  Cloud Atlas is incredibly original and beautifully imagined.  All of the stories (with the exception of one – see the next section below) were fascinating and when the first one cut off I was upset I wouldn’t know how it ended (I didn’t realize the story structure at first).  In particular the story of Somni-451 & that of Zachry and Meronym were my favorites, and I would gladly read an entire novel revolving simply around those worlds.  Although the stories themselves are only loosely connected, the themes are similar throughout, including the idea of slavery, oppression of groups of people, and searching for meaning in a harsh and brutal world.

The Bad:  I have several items to include here, but it’s not because I didn’t enjoy the novel.  But I really wanted to love this book and I’m not sure if I did.  A good book - yes.  But one of my all-time favorites?  Probably not.  What I wonder is if Mitchell had ideas for all of these different novels and instead just made them short stories and put them all in this one book, trying to roughly tie the characters together.  I mean, are they really all connected or is that forced?  It feels a bit forced to me.  I also mentioned that one section didn’t work for me and that was the part with Cavendish in the nursing home.  It just felt different in tone and didn’t fit with the rest of the book.  And finally, this really isn’t an optimistic book by any means.  The reader is transported from 1850 to thousands of years in the future and has anything really changed?  No, the world just keeps destroying itself with greed and oppression.  Oh well I guess. 

The Verdict:  Anything that makes me think about it like this is worth checking out (see my The Tree of Life review).  I know it’s not for everyone.  But I would highly recommend it as an incredibly original and creative work.

Next up:  Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo