Constant Reader discussion
Reading List
>
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Thanks for starting the thread, Sherry. I was torn between 3 and 4 stars. I liked it a lot, but I wasn't crazy about it. After I realized what was going on in terms of structure, I kept asking myself why he did this. What advantage did he gain? What keeps it from being just a gimmick?
There are some excellent reviews of Cloud Atlas here at GR, but I'm very glad I waited until after I'd finished the book before I read them. I like one reviewer's (Ken-ichi) comment, "I kept wishing Lousia or Cavendish or someone one would say 'Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!'"A very neat trick throughout the book is how each story is somehow "read" inside the next story. The lines of continuity also exist in themes, and in actuality in an unexplained birthmark on each main character. These links are tenuous, however, and become interestingly coincidental or synchronistic, but it seems to me it is left up to us to make something of it (or not).
The only real problem I have with the book is at the center -- the section called Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After. I lived in Hawaii for many years, and it is very difficult to paste these characters (Zachry etc) and this narrative onto the islands that I know... the fact that there is no Hawaiian pidgin evident, but instead some sort of southern hill folk dialect, is really hard to swallow. It's simply not believable.
That said, I was sad to bid farewell to Zachry... I became invested anyway, despite what seemed like drastic geographic, archeological, sociological, & anthropological errors regarding the Big Island.
What an interesting journey this book has been. I suggest reading the GR review by BOnnie, she does a good job of tracing the literary sources Mitchell uses and sometimes refers to throughout the book. For instance, Luisa Rey's father Lester Rey is in fact an homage to Lester Del Rey, publisher of Del Rey books and a science fiction writer himself.
I'm glad I did not dig for clues like this while I was reading the book... I just read it as a novel with a unique-ish format. This extraneous information is interesting and amusing, but I don't think it's vital to the story. In fact, if the characters' stories weren't so well-written, it could almost seem at times the book bordered on gimmicky.
However, in the end, the message is made clear... Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!
Janice,I read this book twice - once when it first came out and once this month. The first time I sped through it, naively expecting that there would be a grand finale somehow tying it all together. Boy was I wrong!
I was surprised that I remembered so little from the first read. I think my usual memory problems were compounded by the leaps backwards and forwards in time, including the fact that the mini-novels were concluded in reverse order. This time I noticed the connections, but they are not nearly as tight as I had once expected. More on those later.
Janice, I had a lot of trouble with the Hawaii chapter because of the pidgin dialect that Mitchell himself invented. I almost had to read it aloud at first to try to understand it. Gradually, I came to really appreciate his inventiveness with language and even got drawn into this part of the story.
Why did Mitchell write the book like this? I think he wanted to see if he could. The man is brilliant, but he demands a lot of his readers.
Ann wrote: "Why did Mitchell write the book like this? I think he wanted to see if he could. "I'm hoping someone will disabuse me of this idea. There must be more. Just because he could is not a valid premise. It's got to add something to the book. But what? I am at a loss.
That is what makes him an excellent writer, he makes us work . I don't really think we have even scratched the surface of his writing potential. The best is yet to come in my opinion. Don't you think he was playing with a non-conventinal style ,just to see how it was accepted by the masses? I haven't found my copy yet, so I can't comment until something triggers the old memory. I know when I read it I was dumb-struck at the brillance of the author.I have since read other books by him that are wonderful in their own right.
I too agree, I can't see how the movie will parley into even being close to the book.
Carol wrote: "Don't you think he was playing with a non-conventinal style ,just to see how it was accepted by the masses? ..."Well, then pooh on him.
It's not gonna work with me unless I can see that it gives something to the story that telling it in the usual sequential manner wouldn't.
I'm adventurous and for whatever reason this format worked for me. I felt like a kid with a new toy.
I understand your point, Ruth. You might be interested in the following interview with David Mitchell from The Washington Post Book World: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...He talks about his inspirations for the novel, why he wrote it the way he did, and what he learned from it. He said he learned that characterization and language are the most important things in a book and "I learned that maybe I should have a go at a linear narrative next time!"
The transitions in this book remind me of moving the tuning dial of an AM radio, and the static between the stations. The stations, of course, are of vastly different formats: some classical, some sports, some all talk.
I really liked this quotation from the book. It is made by the young composer Frobisher who is describing his composition, itself called "Cloud Atlas," to his friend Sixsmith ("Six" is an important number in this book). I think it also describes the structure of the book and Mitchell's own preoccupation with it.Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year's fragments int a "sextet for overlapping soloists": piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it'll be too late, but it's the first think I think of when I wake, and the last thing I think of before I fall asleep..." p. 445
Like the book, the musical composition is in 6 parts, with different instruments or "characters." Each part has a completely different style and all are interrupted and then eventually continued.
Mary Anne,Great analogy regarding the transitions to the very different parts of the book!
I loved Frobisher. My favorite character in the novel. What an interesting voice.
Ann wrote: "I understand your point, Ruth. You might be interested in the following interview with David Mitchell from The Washington Post Book World: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/......"Thanks, Ann. Interesting. Makes me understand where/how he got the idea. But I'm still left wondering what it adds to the book.
Ruth said: I loved Frobisher. My favorite character in the novel. (...)But I'm still left wondering what it adds to the book.
Agreed, Frobisher was great and Cavendish wasn't bad either; lots of sly bits of wit.
IMO, the only real advantages of the novel's circular structure were 1)to get the reader into the mindset of trying to find links (and to keep reading to the end the end to see how he ties it all together) 2)to evoke the rise and fall (and subsequent rise, perhaps, as suggested in Sloosha's Crossing ) of civilisation(s); and finally 3) to have fun (or show off, or both!) by using such a range of styles and voices.
I really enjoyed the first part of the novel, up to the Sloosha apex, then felt a bit let down going back to Somni -the transition was kind of awkward and I thought that all the built-up of anticipation would give way to a lot of repetition. (Half the fun of the first half of the novel was discovering the different characters' lives and voices) But I'm glad that i read on. Although there was naturally less novelty in the second part, i appreciated the reflections on human nature: greed and selfishness playing off empathy and mutual aid, all part of survival. That's us!
Excellent observations, Andrea. The first time I read the book the structure was one of the things that hooked me. I had to keep reading to figure out how it all fit together. When the stories kept their very separate trajectories, I felt somewhat letdown. I prefer Mitchell's other books, although I still think this one is a masterpiece of sorts.This time I spent a lot of time looking for common themes in these very different stories:
a 19th century attempted murder on the high seas, an ironic story about an immoral manipulator who somehow creates beautiful music which hardly anyone will ever hear again, a hard-boiled thriller with the feisty heroine repeatedly surviving incredible attacks by greedy capitalists, a farce about an aging literary conman, a futuristic dystopian story about a world served by cloned slaves, and a post-apocalyptic tale showing the regression of human beings after they have managed to destroy civilization.
In just about all of these stories, Mitchell sees human beings as innately self-centered and greedy, willing to step on anyone to get ahead. (Luisa Rey, you are the exception, but so broadly drawn that you are not that credible). Particularly in the Luisa Rey, Sonmi, and Hawaii stories, we also see the horrors of environmental destruction which will result from unbridled development.
This dark view of human nature in the aggregate is a unifying theme in most of these stories. In the conclusion, even Adam Ewing foresees a world where "one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself...In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction." Human beings can struggle against the "many-head hydra of human nature," but it is a very uphill battle.
It is hard for me to see how the Frobisher an Cavendish stories fit in, but they were fun anyway.
Anyone else see other unifying themes?
I haven't yet quite finished the novel but I am enjoying it. I too had difficulty with the pidgen English of the Hawaii segment but didn't even think of it as a form of speech that would have existed before the "Fall". To me it seemed more a degeneration of language that occurred as time passed and civilization deteriorated. Why would language remain the same when everything else was so changed.As for the structure of the novel, I've decided to trust Mitchell and go with it, enjoying the slight obvious connections and the larger ones related to human relationships with each other and the earth.
Ann wrote: "I really liked this quotation from the book. It is made by the young composer Frobisher who is describing his composition, itself called "Cloud Atlas," to his friend Sixsmith ("Six" is an important..."Anne,
I was going to post the same passage that you did, because I think that it explains the structure of the book. I was also wondering about the cloud formations at the top of each page, and I noticed that each person had his or her own cloud formation. Timothy Cavendish also mentions the cloud atlas on p. 373.
Three or four times only in my youth did I glimpse the Joyous Isles, before they were lost to the fogs, depressions, cold fronts, ills winds, and contrary tides...I mistook them for adulthood. Assuming they were a fixed feature in my life's voyage, I neglected to record their latitude, their longitude, their approach. Young ruddy fool. What wouldn't I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.
I was also trying to follow the birthmark that kept popping up in the stories and I decided that these people are all reincarnated from the earlier person. My proof is flimsy. It is Luisa Rey swearing that the Cloud Atlas Sextet is "intimately familiar".
Sue wrote: "As for the structure of the novel, I've decided to trust Mitchell and go with it, enjoying the slight obvious connections and the larger ones related to human relationships with each other and the earth. ..."
The book is worth reading if only for each characters' story, which are all entertaining and emotionally engaging.
The structure seems to me to be much like real life -- we have no real experience of the people who have existed in the past before we are born, and we have no knowledge at all of those who will exist in the future after we are gone.
We expect a novel to gel and resolve, and it is a little unsettling to be plopped into and yanked out of lifetimes that are not correlated for us. But then, the same thing happens when we meet a person for the first time in real life, spend some time with them, and then they disappear, whether abruptly through death or dwindling away through time.
I usually prefer a novel to pull its bits & pieces together by the end, but in the end I have to admire Mitchell for his ingenuity. It is like he had written several short stories and then realized that the 'hues' all complemented each other, so he strung them together on a fragile silken thread to make a very provocative necklace of beads of time.
I don't, however, think I want to read too many more novels with this structure :)
Janice..I agree. This is not a format I would want to tackle all the time and not if written by one without Mitchell's skills.
Jane,I thought the reincarnation theme was very interesting, even though I have never understood the attraction of multiple lives if you can't remember them.
Good catch on the different clouds for different characters. I hadn't noticed that. I recall 3 characters in the book having the comet shaped birthmark: Frobisher, Luisa, and Meronym. Am I missing anyone? As you said, Jane, Luisa's uncanny familiarity with Frobisher's Cloud Atlas was a hint that she was possibly his reincarnation. Also, on page 430, "Luisa's birthmark throbs" and she feels a strong pull towards the historical ship the Prophetess (Ewing's ship) as she searches for Sixsmith's yacht. Was there also a reincarnation link to Ewing or (horrors!) Dr. Goose?
The strongest theme of reincarnation is in the Sloosha's Crossin" section, wherein Sonmi has been turned into a Christ-like figure and is considered responsible for helping the soul find another human carrier after death.
The following description of Zachary's thoughts as he traveled to Maui was beautiful; it also ties into the idea of a Cloud Atlas:
I watched clouds awobbly from the floor o' that kayak. Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor 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? Only Sonmi the east an' the west an' the compass an' the atlas, yay only the atlas o'clouds.
Jane and Janice,I definitely would not be attracted to such a complicated structure again, but it does make it a lot more interesting to discuss as a group, doesn't it? :-)
I was trying to remember what some of surface links of fate and circumstances between the characters were, and i recall: Fobisher found Ewing's journal, Louisa Rey comes into Frobisher's letters via her contact with Sixsmith, Cavendish comes across the Louisa Rey Half-lives manscript written by a certain Hilary Hush, Somni views the film The Ghastly Ordeal of T ... and finally Zachry's clan holds Somni up as a deity (presumably because she led them to the hills before the fall?? ), and of course the birthmarks and references to a cloud atlas....But who in the world is Hillary Hush? I seem to remember him (her?) being described by Cavendish as a fat man, and presuming H. Hush is a 'pen name'; who could it be? I think I missed something. Anyone have any ideas?
Ruth asked whether the structure of Cloud Atlas is somehow thematically meaningful, or whether it is just a gimmick. I believe it is the former, although I recognize that my analysis (some of which I have already contributed to another discussion board here on GR) may sound somewhat post hoc or contrived.In my reading, Cloud Atlas is six very distinct retellings of the very same story in which a narrator who subscribes to some form of Kantian ethos must face and, to varying extents, overcome the Nietzschean nihilism of his (or her) fellow humans.
(By "Kantian ethos," I mean the sentiment expressed in the second formulation of Kant's categorical imperative: "So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only." By "Nietzschean nihilism," I mean Nietzsche's belief, as articulated in Beyond Good and Evil, that the masses "must be suppressed and reduced to ... slaves and instruments" so that "a select class of beings may be able to elevate themselves ... to a higher existence," or, in Mitchell's words, that "[t]he weak are meat the strong do eat.")
In Ken-ichi's review of the novel, which Janice references above, he pithily describes Cloud Atlas as "the anti-Fountainhead," a description which is fully consistent with my own view of the novel, and which I quite like (particularly given how au courant Ayn Rand has regrettably become again in American political discourse).
By telling his six different stories over very different time periods, and in various different genres, Mitchell intends to set up the novel's central conflict (i.e., ethical universalism v. nihilistic self-aggrandizement) as the fundamental underlying conflict of humanity. Same story, over and over and over again, just different "scenery," if you will; hence the birthmark repeated on each of the narrators, and the interconnection of each of the narrations themselves, no matter the format that they take.
Mitchell himself has reportedly confirmed that this was his intent, stating: "Literally all of the main characters, except one, are reincarnations of the same soul in different bodies throughout the novel identified by a birthmark...that's just a symbol really of the universality of human nature. The title itself Cloud Atlas, the cloud refers to the ever changing manifestations of the Atlas, which is the fixed human nature which is always thus and ever shall be. So the book's theme is predacity, the way individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes. So I just take this theme and in a sense reincarnate that theme in another context..."
By "nesting" the narratives in the manner that he did, rather than simply telling his six stories sequentially, I believe Mitchell accomplishes two separate things:
(1) He makes the interconnectedness of the very disparate stories far, far more structurally explicit (and jarring), hence highlighting the thematic importance in the novel of interconnectedness and underscoring how the same basic plot can play out in various different circumstances and with myriad external dressings.
(2) He ends the novel at the very beginning, with the hopeful conclusion of Adam Ewing's story in the mid-nineteenth century, even though the reader already knows all that is yet to come (much of it tragic). This, I believe, is Mitchell's way of suggesting that humanity's battle against nihilism is never-ending, and that we must be constantly vigilant in our struggle against the inner demons of our nature, with absolutely no guarantee of a happy ending.
By the way, this is my absolutely favorite novel by my absolutely favorite author, so I'm not exactly impartial or dispassionate when it comes to Cloud Atlas. I have never before read a novel that has so moved me both in equal measure by its lyrical beauty and its thematic meaning. I recognize, however, that Cloud Atlas appeals to a very particular type of reader--one who prizes intellectual over emotional engagement with a novel--so I appreciate that many others have very different reactions to it.
NEW TOPIC: I know that CR recently read Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. (This is indeed how I came across your reading community, which I very much enjoy, in the first place.) In my view, The Thousand Autumns could easily be read as a prequel to Cloud Atlas, with the same theme developed in a more traditional, sequentially told, and somewhat less "cartoonish" narrative (to borrow from the Daily Telegraph review's description of Cloud Atlas).
For those of you who have read both novels, I wonder whether you agree with my assessment. And for those who did not particularly like Cloud Atlas, I wonder whether your reaction to The Thousand Autumns was more positive, particularly insofar as it eschews the post-modernist "puzzle book" structure of Cloud Atlas, develops its primary characters far more deeply (and hence permits greater emotional engagement with the plot), and admits for much greater ambiguity in its central construct of ethicism v. nihilism.
Andrea,I wondered about the Hillary Hush also. He was the reputed author of the Luisa story. I thought I had run into that name before. If anyone has the Kindle version, maybe you can do a search to see if the name appears elsewhere.
Wow, Chad. I'm bowled over by your analysis. After reading it, what I think is that what contributes most toward the theme (and I hadn't thought of it before) is the circular nature of the novel. Before reading your note I'd thought of it kind of as springing out in both directions from the center. Now I see it as circular, and therefore cyclical.
Chad,Thank you very much for your very thoughtful and interesting analysis of this book. I can definitely see the Nietzschean nihilism/superman themes in every story. Didn't Frobisher keep borrowing Nietzsche's book from Ayers? And Mitchell said the theme of the novel is how human beings prey on each other, which definitely fits in with this.
However, I am having trouble finding the "Kantian ethos" - treat people as an end rather than a means - in the Cavendish and Frobishier stories. Can you expand more on the theme in these two stories?
I only found the birthmarks on Frobisher, Luisa, and Meronym. What did I miss it?
I did like The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and , especially Black Swan Green better than CLOUD ATLAS, probably because the structures allowed for more emotional connection with the characters (as you pointed out). However, I am tremendously impressed by Mitchell's ability to switch to completely different genres in his different books. He has an amazing talent.
I am just about finished with Cloud Atlas and enjoying the discussion. Thanks for the analysis Chad. This gives me more to ponder and definitely seems to describe much of what I am experiencing. I think I am in agreement with Ann's last paragraph above (though I have yet to read Black Swan Green). I plan to continue reading Mitchell (and probably re-reading)!
Chad wrote: "Ruth asked whether the structure of Cloud Atlas is somehow thematically meaningful, or whether it is just a gimmick. I believe it is the former, although I recognize that my analysis (some of which..."Yeah, like ^ he ^ said :)
It's been a long time since I read Nietzche or Kant, but what you describe could also be the formula prescribed by Buddhism, the Sufis, Hinduism, and Christ -- we humans are full of egoic desires & fears which drive us into torments that damage & destroy ourselves and others (from individuals to nations), and we must constantly self-reflect and self-examine and take the high road in order to wake the spirit and the divine within... and it can take many lifetimes to achieve some sort of prevailing goodness.
Somni (who also had a birthmark) finally managed it by becoming fully human, evolved from a programmed slave who is a sleeping soul... and thus became an archetype of enlightenment and heroic myth for future generations to aspire to.
And yes, for some reason it seems each individual throughout each life has to learn it all, all over again. Species memories or maybe Jung's collective unconscious were hinted at with Luisa's responses to the Cloud Atlas sextet and to Ewing's ship The Prophetess.
My mind always wandered in philosophy class, so your analysis would never have occurred to me, Chad. I know I liked this book, but now I feel that I need to read it again with this new perspective. Thank you for posting!
Ann wrote: "I really liked this quotation from the book. It is made by the young composer Frobisher who is describing his composition, itself called "Cloud Atlas," to his friend Sixsmith ("Six" is an important..." Yes, I thought the book was Frobisher's musical composition.
Mary Anne wrote: "The transitions in this book remind me of moving the tuning dial of an AM radio, and the static between the stations. The stations, of course, are of vastly different formats: some classical, some ..." I like that image
A few thoughts on Cloud Atlas:Because of Ewing, Autua makes it to Hawaii. Did he bring his Moriori culture with him? Were the Valleysmen his descendants?
Was the Fall the only future for mankind or by ending on Adam Ewing, was Mitchell implying that like the Eastern soul, mankind will have multiple chances to ascend?
Lots of lizards - Satan? The souls of those who don't ascend? The inheritors of the earth?
If the soul is a drop of water returning to the sea, and the sea evaporates to form the clouds, and the clouds condense to form more drops, is the reincarnated soul in the book identical to the previous
incarnation or do they merely share a few elements?
One thought that came to me during the second half of the book was the idea of fate or immutability of time and history. Is time (in this novel) in one direction? After reading the second half of Luisa's story, I realized that my early thoughts were too simplistic. Is man inevitably going to be destructive or is the second half of Cloud Atlas, the "redemptive" episodes, an indication that the Fall doesn't have to happen.I'm posing the same thoughts as Rannie I suppose...now that I have them out of my mind and in print.
Wow, what an incredible discussion. Thank you, Chad, for giving your definition of the philosophies that seem to be at war with one another via mankind. I loved this book, and I should really read it again.
Janice,Thank you for reminding me that Sonmi had the comet shaped birthmark. It was particularly strange because she was genetically engineered. Incidentally, the Sonmi chapters were my favorite, even though I am not a sci-fi fan. Ironically, she was the most "human" character.
Rannie and Sue,Very interesting questions about the inevitability of the Fall. Sue, you are right about the second part of the stories all being "redemptive." I hadn't even thought about that because I was so focused on the pessimistic emphasis on the greed and selfishness of mankind as a whole.
Maybe Mitchell sees time as circular after all. Or maybe he is just saying that it is still meaningful, and even heroic, for individuals to fight against the inevitable destruction of our civilization.
Rannie, I loved the description of souls being drops of water in the sea, being reconstituted into clouds. The idea that part of us lives on after death is appealing, although reincarnation itself has never attracted me. What good is it if I have no real awareness of previous lives?
What's hilarious and kind of scary to me is that I read Cloud Atlas maybe six months ago and remember feeling it was, though not always easy to get through, a wonderful and somewhat profound book. The hilarious part is that I don't remember why I thought so, except that I really liked the ending and final phrases of the book, which now completely elude me (and I read a library copy). (I tried the other Mitchell book, Autumns of Jacob, but couldn't get into it.)
Its been a while since I reread this book (it took me three tries to just get started, but once I did it turned into a favorite I've read several times). Excellent discussion; Chad, your commments gave me much to think about.I loved the description of souls being drops of water in the sea, being reconstituted into clouds. The idea that part of us lives on after death is appealing, although reincarnation itself has never attracted me. What good is it if I have no real awareness of previous lives?
How do you know we don't? To me reincarnation explains what we become - where our interests lie, what our passions are; The feeling that you know someone, the feeling that you've been someplace before; The attraction of a certain place. I think our soul does know and remember, but our mind is blank until it starts to experiment and discover connections it didn't know it had. Does that make sense?
Anyone seen the movie yet? Im a bit hesitant to do so because Im afraid I'll be disappointed. But my DH did and he loved it (he hadn't read the book so had nothing to compare it to).
I just finished the book this morning. My first reaction was simply "Wow." I honestly don't think Mitchell could have conveyed the meaning that I got from it in a more conventional form. In each section, the will to dominate exists, almost always in some disastrous form. Sometimes, it's in wars, but sometimes it is just in human interaction. It felt to me like an apocalyptic novel (or novels) even though Adam Ewing leaves us with a crumb of hope in the end.Chad, thank you for reminding me about the possibility of Jacob de Zoet being a prequel for Cloud Atlas. I had read that elsewhere and forgotten it. It certainly has many of the same themes. I'm wondering if it simply sent Mitchell off in a more complex direction rather than building on it in any conventional way. Have you read any comment from Mitchell on the question? I'm off to read all of the links shared here.
I liked deZoet very much and Cloud Atlas too. They are so different in many ways that I can't choose one over the other. Excellent writing is the big commonality.
Barbara wrote: "I just finished the book this morning. My first reaction was simply "Wow." I honestly don't think Mitchell could have conveyed the meaning that I got from it in a more conventional form. In each..."I think you've said it so well Barbara. The form really has fit the subject. And Mitchell is an excellent writer. Now I will read his other works.
Has anyone seen the movie? This is the review in my paper:Maybe if you're 20 years old and high in your dorm room with your friends, the platitudes presented here might seem profound. Anyone else in his or her right mind should recognize it for what it is: a bloated, pseudo-intellectual, self-indulgent slog through some notions that are really rather facile. Ooh, we're all interconnected and our souls keep meeting up with each other over the centuries, regardless of race, gender or geography. We're individual drops of water but we're all part of the same ocean. That is deep, man. Perhaps it all worked better on the page. Rated R. 1 and 1/2 stars out of four.
That same review was in my paper, Emily. Times like these are when I long for the days of having our own local reviewers. Hopefully, the New Yorker will review it and I'll at least get one more opinion. I've wondered how they could make an effective movie out of this from the beginning though. It requires too many changes for the average moviegoer, even if they did a good job of it.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movie...This is a link to the full review by Ty Burr in the Boston Globe. He does mention differences between the book and film and where he finds it's specific failings.
I can imagine that the subtleties of the book could be "hit-you-over-the head" issues in the movie. I liked the idea in the book of connections over time, but in a movie I can't imagine how to get those subtleties across. I can imagine how the whole thing could come across as trite. But I certainly didn't think the book was trite.
Hollywood hit people over the head with a message instead of being subtle? Surely you jest! ;)
I didn't see the movie, I'm only guessing.
I haven't seen the movie either, but I get the idea from the review that the concept of gender fluidity which was used in the film became somewhat gimmicky over the course of the story. Actors played both male and female roles as well as a variety of ethnic identities. Sort of the ultimate ethnic mix.
Constant Reader
Books mentioned in this topic
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (other topics)The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (other topics)
Black Swan Green (other topics)
Cloud Atlas (other topics)
Cloud Atlas