The trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxCQ0-...

I couldn't contain my excitement. This looks epic. Yesterday Life of Pi trailer and today Cloud Atlas.

Thanks for alerting me to the trailer. It's amazing. I hope the whole film is as good as the trailer. [P.S., I have a number of your reviews to catch up on.]

Pleasure all mine and anytime Ian. I haven't written many, only 9 in all. Your comments are always encouraging so thanks!

Thanks for posting the link to the trailer, Ian. That particular one was blocked (here in the US, at least) but here's another link that works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G2wVG...

Fans of the book will be hard to satisfy, but I have to say this looks pretty good!

The Wachowskis’ ‘Cloud Atlas’ Wows Toronto International Film Festival:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...

Wachowskis open up their 'Cloud Atlas' at last:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/...

Toronto International Film Festival 2012: Cloud Atlas


http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/20...

Very negative review.

I was ready to renounce film criticism altogether and take up a less emotionally or psychologically taxing occupation, like the operator of an emergency suicide hotline
Negative and hilarious.

We can have a discussion group about the movie too once it is released. It can be interesting, "Of Novels and Cinema" :P

Why 3 stars? :|

I wasn't enthusiastic when I first read it, but I've just started to re-read it to re-assess my reaction and write a review.

I hope to start with CM in about a week. Two of you (Kris in Penn is the other one) are re-reading this. I am so curious about it and Mitchell. No talk of the film in Spain yet.

I just watched a five-minute trailer posted on Amazon; not sure if it's one of the ones others have posted here. And here's the story that appeared in The New Yorker that turned me on to the imminent release of this movie. (Note the author. Impressive.) http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...

Kalliope, I really loved Cloud Atlas the first time I read it. I'm interested to see if it holds up under a second reading.

Welcome, Lana Wachowski.

"I’ve just found out there is more of you": Lynne Wachowski

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...

Thanks, Ian.

The Luisa Rey story is set in Buenas Yerbas. The original name of San Francisco was Yerba Buena:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_Bu...

It means "good herb", which is the name of a plant in the region:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_buena

How far along are you atm? I am up to the Slooshi chapter - I decided I needed my sleep before reading it, although I remember loving the story in it before.

I'm interested in hearing about how your second reading compares to your first -- will you write about this in your review? Any tidbits to share first?

Sloosha, not Slooshi. Sigh.

I've made a lot of progress in the last few days and think I'm around page 360.

The Sloosha chapter was probably the one that annoyed me the first read, and I might even have skipped some pages. I read it more attentively this time.

Worryingly, I have no idea yet what I'm going to say in my review. It might be a short one that I can dedicate to MJ.

Are you liking it more as a whole than first time through?

I'll prob finish tonight unless I write instead . Need to finish TM&M. Any votes on which I should prioritize?

Finish your review first. I can't keep a review in my head, when I've started on a new project. I don't know how you do it. Of course, as in the case of Socrates, I do the review too quickly, so I can start the next book. But I suppose that's what the edit function is for.

I'm working on it in my head and on paper. The more complex or personally important to me, the longer I have to devote to developing it. Once I'm ready, writing goes quickly. I did Ghostwritten in one take.

Btw you have to listen to new Beth Orton . Stunning album.

I'm starting to think of approaches to Socrates too.

Kris wrote: "Btw you have to listen to new Beth Orton . Stunning album. "

I was just thinking yesterday that I should give it a listen.

Kris wrote: "I'm starting to think of approaches to Socrates too."

It definitely needs a considered approach. Mine probably needed a project manager, but I just jumped in and blurted it out. Many would think the discourse on love was irrelevant to the text.

Please do and post to let me know what you think. I can't stop listening to it.

It's complicated when you read something and start to develop a framework to address what is missing. Maybe start to work it through under your writings? It's bigger than Lavine, but she served as a springboard for you. The question is how you develop it going forward. She helped you to identify one of your big questions.

Very true.

So, have you listened yet? :)

Tomorrow, promise.

OK -- I was going to give you an extension.

BTW, is it OK for me to post a bunch of new music links on your rec pages? I don't want to inundate you, but there's a lot of great new music I'd like to get your feedback on.

Of course.

Will do. Probably some after work, and some tomorrow. Please let me know what you think when you have a chance to listen, OK?

BTW did you see the probable setlist for when I see the Raveonettes tonight? http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-rav...

I just finished my re-read, and I think I have ideas about how to approach the review. I love the passage you quoted, btw, and the entire conclusion of the Ewing story moves me. I also love the Sloosha story -- I know it's not your favorite, but I find Mitchell's approach to developing his themes in the context of this oral history of another culture to be riveting.

From the Hay Festival, James Naughtie and an audience of readers talk to David Mitchell about Cloud Atlas:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mdcg

CBC interview with David Mitchell about "Cloud Atlas" from 21 November 2004.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Writer...

Great review Ian! Very insightful and shall definitely be helpful whenever I'll re-read this book. I particularly liked Choosing a Structural Metaphor and Eternal Recurrence in and of Time parts :)

I've just started reading your review, but before i forget (because there is so much in your review) i want to firstly remark that i love, love love the intro with the film theme.

Reading on... i have to say...actually, i'm not even going to try and couch my response in words.

I have no words for this. This stands head and shoulders above anything else here on Goodreads.

You take my breath away, Ian.

Will discuss more when i have regained it.

Joni Mitchell - "Both Sides Now"

I ran out of space for an extract from the lyrics to "Both Sides Now":

"I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all."

Please visit the full lyrics here:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joni+mit...



And something to make you dizzy...

Joni Mitchell - "Both Sides Now"

"Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way"

David Mitchell - "Cloud Atlas"

"...the dizzying vividness of the images of places and people that the letters have unlocked. Images so vivid she can only call them memories."

A good Cloud Atlas site:

http://www.bookdrum.com/books/cloud-a...

Joni Mitchell - "Both Sides Now"

Let me know if you have any trouble accessing the Joni Mitchell video.

This is a live performance recorded by the BBC in 1970, and there are some alternative versions available, one of which is the entire 30 minute performance.

On the latter version, it's the last song.

Not surprised you ran out of space - your review poses us with a conundrum: do we spend time reading it or just read the book instead! But not having the book nearby, I read the review and it's really good.
I have not read anything by Mitchell but the reviews of his books I've come across lately here on goodreads are more and more impressive. He must have a lot of talent if he can inspire his reviewers to this extent. Thanks for this Tuesday morning brain exercise!

I had intended to write something more about the silvery egg-shaped "orison".

Instead, here is an image of a Russian Imperial Faberge Egg:

Fionnuala wrote: "Not surprised you ran out of space - your review poses us with a conundrum: do we spend time reading it or just read the book instead!"

Thanks, Fi. The other alternative is to see the film.

Brilliant review, Ian -- the best review I have read on GR (or anywhere else), hands down. I don't have to write my own review, now -- I can just link to yours. :)

I love your attention to the role of the artist in Cloud Atlas: "Artists might live in a private world and a public world, but there is a sense in which they also live both in the present and in the future." -- such an important statement, and one that helps to unlock features of this novel.

I also think your statement about the required attentiveness of the reader is important. I think the connections across space in Ghostwritten are easier to grasp -- the connections across time are more complicated, and I laud Mitchell for taking on that challenge.

Your analysis of the power dynamics within the novel is perceptive and nuanced. The soundtrack is, of course, inspired. The image of the Faberge Egg in comment 44 is beautiful and perfect as a representation of the structure of the novel.

And I particularly love how you concluded the review:

"And isn’t this exactly what life is all about?

To be understood, to be cured, to be explored (unhurriedly), to be laughed at, to be sprayed all over, to be in love, in the soundproofed chambers of your heart.

David Mitchell, this image alone deserves five stars."

I think that is my new mantra. Thank you, Ian.

Kris wrote: "Brilliant review, Ian -- the best review I have read on GR (or anywhere else), hands down. I don't have to write my own review, now -- I can just link to yours. :)

I love your attention to the rol..."

I hardly have to say more; Kris said a lot of it already.

Often when i read people's reviews, i skim over parts of it; but this review just speaks to me as a whole and with each separate part--every single aspect of its multidimensional whole.

...and i have not even read this book once yet. (Just- just started it to try and sprint through it before the movie comes).

This is the best companion and guide to take me into and through the novel, that i could have wished for.

So, a heartfelt thank you from my direction as well.

(Now i actually can't wait to start on the novel--just wish i didn't have so much other work to get through first! :( )

Great review Ian!

Very satisfying to read your review and think of different ways to cast the kaleidoscope visions one gets from reading this book. To look at "clouds from both sides now"; and music, love, and cinema. Fertile grounds this "Cloud Atlas."

Sheesh, sometimes reading reviews keeps me more busy than reading books. With yours, Ian, they're often more interesting. Thanks, as always.