Cloud Atlas in 2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge

Dec 14, 2012 Kristi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reading-challenge-2012, 1001-books

I really enjoyed this book and devoured it in just a couple of days. Mitchell's novel is a set of six nested stories ranging in time period from the mid-1800s to a post-apocalyptic world far in the future. A notary in the South Pacific, a musical wunderkind, a young journalist, an elderly publisher, an artificial life form with human-like intelligence and a village goatherd are somehow (maybe) connected over space and time. And the most impressive thing is that this novel, despite all of its com I really enjoyed this book and devoured it in just a couple of days. Mitchell's novel is a set of six nested stories ranging in time period from the mid-1800s to a post-apocalyptic world far in the future. A notary in the South Pacific, a musical wunderkind, a young journalist, an elderly publisher, an artificial life form with human-like intelligence and a village goatherd are somehow (maybe) connected over space and time. And the most impressive thing is that this novel, despite all of its complexity and use of clever literary devices, is minimally pretentious; Mitchell is a good enough storyteller to really make you care about each set of characters, even when you feel like you don't really know what's going on. Content triumphs over artifice.

Human nature is a major theme, with respect to both the individual and society; all of the stories comment in some fashion on the desires that drive people to greatness and power and simultaneously threaten to bring about their own ruin. We see these themes played out in small ways among specific characters and in larger ways as we indirectly observe the progress of human civilization from the 1850s to the distant future. Another, more complicated theme, involves the idea that characters in the various narratives may in fact be reincarnations of the same soul. This is suggested most explicitly by the fact that characters in multiple stories have the same distinctive birthmark; in the tale of Luisa Rey in particular, the main character seems to experience a sense of deja vu that suggests that she has lived multiple lives. However, upon closer examination, it's unclear to me how literally you can interpret the birthmarks and how closely the stories are in fact linked. Even in the most literal reading (i.e. that all of the characters with birthmarks are in fact the same soul), it is unclear what "lessons" one is supposed to glean from the multiple lives. But for me, at least, that makes it more fun to think about.

I would recommend this book to just about everyone. A good read indeed. ...more

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