Cloud Atlas
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Cloud Atlas
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Rod
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rated it 2 stars
Dec 12, 2012 10:40AM
I've started reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (because, hey - everyone else has!), and I'm having some trouble with the storytelling style of it. Reminds me of Neal Stephenson's style - maybe half the verbiage would suffice to tell the story and half again would tell it well. I hear the style of this book changes as the timeline develops. I look forward to it - maybe I should have started at the end!
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We saw the movie and I had not read the book. It was just as complicated to follow at first, but it gets easier as the story unfolds. I'm hoping the book is the same.
Faisal wrote: "Yes, the style does change, dramatically and abruptly. In the last story, there will even be an original, invented vocabulary that Mitchell engineered for that part of the book. Now if you thought ..."Funny that I once told an agent I was chasing the same thing about the novel I was pitching; how it made more sense once you finished it. Should have seen the look I got along with the reprimand - "If I'm not hooked in the first three pages/paragraphs/words I'll never see the end."
Rod wrote: "I've started reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (because, hey - everyone else has!), and I'm having some trouble with the storytelling style of it. Reminds me of Neal Stephenson's style - maybe ..."Hi! I sugest you get used to, as it - yes - changes, but later... Plus, it's a style that will be reaproached later. Regards!
I saw the movie and enjoyed it. I have the book but haven't started it yet.
Well, I think Cloud Atlas is one of the extremely rare movies that are just as good as the books they are based on are. Even though the chronology is totally mixed in the movie, so mixed that it gets you dazzled, the harmony is absolutely natural, so it doesn't harm the story. Both are in my TOP lists of the best movies ever made and the best books ever written.
Rod wrote: "I've started reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (because, hey - everyone else has!), and I'm having some trouble with the storytelling style of it. Reminds me of Neal Stephenson's style - maybe ..."
I read the book first, and then I saw the movie. But, you know, the style changes within the stories, and there's 6 of them. But believe, when you finally finish it, it's not a book you forget.
At the beginning, I wasn't very fond of it, but I still continued because a friend lend it to me and as written in the book "A half-read book is, after all, a half-finished love-affair." But then, throughout the pages, I fell in love with this magnificent book.
(and the movie's awesome!)
I read the book first, and then I saw the movie. But, you know, the style changes within the stories, and there's 6 of them. But believe, when you finally finish it, it's not a book you forget.
At the beginning, I wasn't very fond of it, but I still continued because a friend lend it to me and as written in the book "A half-read book is, after all, a half-finished love-affair." But then, throughout the pages, I fell in love with this magnificent book.
(and the movie's awesome!)
I've read the book, haven't seen the movie yet. But the book starts somewhere in the 18th or 19th century, progresses in time until it's somewhere in the future, then goes back in time until it's back in the past again. I absolutely loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone!
I'm over halfway through the book, now. Even though it started slowly and awkwardly for me, and much of the nearly Whoovian dialect is overdone for my taste, I sense brilliance nonetheless.
It's kind of weird at first, but I looked at a couple plot summaries online, and it helped me get on track. Check out my webcomic, updates every Thursday: http://reddkaiman.blogspot.com/2013/0...
John wrote: "I greatly disliked the book."Me too, but I really enjoyed the movie. Maybe its because I saw the movie before I read the book.
Reviewed this book as part of my blog post on story structure (The Goat Rodeo blog on this site). My bottom line: story sacrificed to structure.
I think I'm the only one who loved the book and really hated the movie! The book breaks the stories up very carefully, even the structure is meaningful and broken only into two, the 5 'outer' stories were not hard to follow, while the movie just skipped so frequently, If I hadn't read the book, I think I'd have been totally lost, as were my family who were watching with me.
Watching the movie, I thought, Tom Hanks was SO miscast, he must have been one of the financial producers and insisted on being in the lead roles, because WHY else would he be in these? You just DON'T read the book and say to yourself "You know who would be perfect: Tom Hanks!" He was great as the shady doctor, not convincing, but OK as Isaac Sachs in the Luisa Rey Mystery, TERRIBLE as Zachry. In the book Zachry is only 9 when the action starts, so his inaction is very understandable, as is his relationship to 'Old Georgie' but Tom Hanks as an adult - well, it seems like Zachry must be a bit 'slow'.
The only thing I thought was perhaps superfluous in the book was the comet-shaped birthmark/the insinuation of reincarnation to add weight to the idea of our interconnectedness - across time and space. However, this was not too overblown in the book, whereas the small core of actors playing the various roles kind of sledgehammered that reincarnation theme. Too much, IMHO.
Finally, the make-up to make Caucasian actors Asian and an Asian actress Caucasian were so bad they were actually distracting! Coming from a theatre background, I question, why bother with the make-up? Did we not think we would 'get it' , not be able to suspend our disbelief without that weird makeup?
OK, having finished that rant against the movie. I'd like to ask you all a question: What does the number 6 signify, if anything? Why 6 stories? Why sextet? Both Timothy and Sixsmith are 66 years old, Luisa's father was shot six times in the back, Zachry rolls six-n-six at dice...it goes on and on. Why 6? Why not 7 or 8 or any other number?
Good to see that I no longer have to feel bad about putting down a book. I tried. Then I tried again. Then I was 35% of the way through it and I was just frustrated. It's one, of but a handful of books, that I've put down and not finished. I think you can guess what I rated it.
Cloud Atlas also makes more sense once you have discussed it with others. The book is perfect for book discussion, some readers will love it, others hate it, but everyone will have an opinion worth sharing. The reaction by the readers is a testimony that this book is tremendous.
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