Cloud Atlas in Reading with Style

Jul 16, 2012 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, short-stories, technology, life-and-death, culture, experimental, 1001-read-all-editions, war, history, literary

"Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nore size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow?"

So it is for the souls in Cloud Atlas, a novel of nested stories. The time period and characters are different in each story, but it's clear that many of them share souls with each other - they ARE each other, reborn. The first story takes place in the late 1800s and we enter it li "Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nore size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow?"

So it is for the souls in Cloud Atlas, a novel of nested stories. The time period and characters are different in each story, but it's clear that many of them share souls with each other - they ARE each other, reborn. The first story takes place in the late 1800s and we enter it like a powerful drill digging into the crust of the earth. Each story - there are six - takes our drill deeper, and forward in time, until we reach the core, a story set several hundred years in the future. We don't stop there, but on the other side of the core we continue on through the same layers in reverse, until we arrive back at the surface, in the 1800s, where we started.

The six stories are connected in many ways. Not only do the characters share souls, but each protagonist reads or hears the story of the one who came before them. Additionally, the stories together serve as a history of human greed and desire for power, ultimately leading to the end of civilization as we know it. One character writes: "In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction. Is this the doom written within our nature?"

I was fascinated by this novel. It wasn't the individual stories exactly - they are strong and well-written, but not mind-blowing - it was the interconnection between them. Mitchell captures and builds his themes in these very, very different stories in an astounding way. I can honestly say he does this better than any other novel in stories I've read before. The threads are woven beautifully and almost magically - the book IS the fictional symphony (one character composes a musical masterpiece called Cloud Atlas Sextet) that gives it its name. His experiment absolutely succeeds.

I also enjoyed the thread of repeated events or experiences - as one character says, "we cross, crisscross, and recross our old tracks like figure skaters." - coupled with the ongoing revelation that there really are no patterns. It's so easy to find patterns in history and turn them into theories and laws after the fact, but that can never ensure a certain outcome in the future. ("History admits no rules; only outcomes.") This reminds me of Tolstoy's discussion about how we view history in War and Peace.

"Souls cross the skies o' time... like clouds crossin' skies o' the world."

Themes: clouds, souls, technology, history, time, "corpocracy," human greed, selfishness, war, short story, connections with others, repetition and patterns, randomness, music ...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Chinook rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1-kindle, asia, 1001, korea, dystopia, apocalyptic

So, this book blew my mind. That first chapter, I wasn't too impressed. It was sort of meh, and I wondered what everyone was raving about and then it ended really abruptly and I was confused. The second chapter, still kind of meh, though it interested me that there was a connection between the two. And then by part three, I was completely and utterly hooked. It's the language, the technique, the fascinating way each connects with the other and how the things that you accept as fact turn out to b ...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Jama rated it it was amazing

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, favorites

I was absolutely blown away by this book. Every narrative is compelling. The structure is very successful and intriguing. The themes are thought provoking.
Excellent, excellent novel!

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Nov 30, 2012 d rated it it was ok

There is no doubt that Mitchell is able to write in distinct styles and voices, and that in itself is interesting and intellectually appealing. To me, this book was a bit like listening to Wagner: more than half the intellectual porn of it is analyzing the writing and how impressively he's created this epic story line.

Parts of the story held me and others felt dragged out and tedious. Some of it was quite excellent - especially the first part of Sonmi~451. I don't feel like this was a life-chan ...more

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