Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (ISBN:0375507256)

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		Cloud Atlas: A Novel
	
				(452 reviews)			
(6715 Readers)

			David Mitchell		
	
It's hard not to become ensnared by words beginning with the letter B, when attempting to describe Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell's third novel. It's a...more
 It's hard not to become ensnared by words beginning with the letter B, when attempting to describe Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell's third novel. It's a big book, for start, bold in scope and execution--a bravura literary performance, possibly. (Let's steer clear of breathtaking for now.) Then, of course, Mitchell was among Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and his second novel number9dreamwas shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Characters with birthmarks in the shape of comets are a motif; as are boats. Oh and one of the six narratives strands of the book--where coincidentally Robert Frobisher, a young composer, dreams up "a sextet for overlapping soloists" entitled Cloud Atlas--is set in Belgium, not far from Bruges. (See what I mean?)  Structured rather akin to a Chinese puzzle or a set of Matrioshka dolls, there are dazzling shifts in genre and voice and the stories leak into each other with incidents and people being passed on like batons in a relay race. The 19th-century journals of an American notary in the Pacific that open the novel are subsequently unearthed 80 years later on by Frobisher in the library of the ageing, syphilitic maestro he's trying to fleece. Frobisher's waspish letters to his old Cambridge crony, Rufus Sexsmith, in turn surface when Rufus, (by the 1970s a leading nuclear scientist) is murdered. A novelistic account of the journalist Luisa Rey's investigation into Rufus' death finds its way to Timothy Cavendish, a London vanity publisher with an author who has an ingenious method of silencing a snide reviewer. And in a near-dystopian Blade Runner-esque future, a genetically engineered fast food waitress sees a movie based on Cavendish's unfortunate internment in a Hull retirement home. (Cavendish himself wonders how a director called Lars might wish to tackle his plight). All this is less tricky than it sounds, only the lone "Zachary" chapter, told in Pacific Islander dialect (all "dingos'n'ravens", "brekker" and "f'llowin'"s) is an exercise in style too far. Not all the threads quite connect but nonetheless Mitchell binds them into a quite spellbinding rumination on human nature, power, oppression, race, colonialism and consumerism. --Travis Elborough   less

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
A pyramid of stories that are all vaguely connected. Mitchell writes six stories in six styles: the first, a journal done up by an American something-or-other on a ship in the South Pacific. The second, a series of letters written by a hilarious bastard of a guy back in the 30's in Europe. The third, a crime caper done Dan Brown style about a newspaper reporter uncovering an industrial...more
 A pyramid of stories that are all vaguely connected. Mitchell writes six stories in six styles: the first, a journal done up by an American something-or-other on a ship in the South Pacific. The second, a series of letters written by a hilarious bastard of a guy back in the 30's in Europe. The third, a crime caper done Dan Brown style about a newspaper reporter uncovering an industrial conspiracy. Fourth, a first person narrative composed by a ragamuffin of a publisher who somehow finds himself trapped. Fifth, an interview with a clone who's committed the crime of discovering her humanity somewhere in the future Korea. Sixth, a dark and wild adventure story set in post-apocalyptic Hawaii.  Once the sixth story is reached - really the apex of the pyramid - we rejoin each of the prior stories as they left off.  They are connected much more thematically than through intersecting plot lines, but there is a bit of that. Really, this is one of the best books I've read in years. Excellent.Awesome.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
This complex but connected series of stories gives Mitchell a chance to illustrate his message: people either learn to share or society will self destruct in the quest for more. Mitchellâ€™s imaginative concept of humankindâ€™s possible end is sandwiched between the two parts of  The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. Like Adam in the Bible, Ewing fathers a family that moves through time,...more
 This complex but connected series of stories gives Mitchell a chance to illustrate his message: people either learn to share or society will self destruct in the quest for more. Mitchellâ€™s imaginative concept of humankindâ€™s possible end is sandwiched between the two parts of  The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. Like Adam in the Bible, Ewing fathers a family that moves through time, in and out of Paradise. The tales in between are subtly connected. The thread seems to be a tattoo in the shape of a comet on the shoulder blade and a coincidental familiarity of the life of the previous character by the main character in the next story. Somehow we see a cause and effect thing going on through it all, which says that if we do bad (or good) things, consequences follow.

Unfortunately (but purposely), Ewingâ€™s tale is painful to plow through. All I can say is thank goodness it is short - or I donâ€™t think I would have gotten into the book. And that would have been my loss. It is such a stimulating read! The nested structure of the stories alone is worth the effort invested in this novel.

By the time I had  finished the book, it seemed to me Ewingâ€™s journal is the authorâ€™s mechanism for presenting his theory on the essence of human behavior, and the stories it frames are the way he shows what might  happen if the greedy elements of humanity win out. And itâ€™s not a pretty picture. Michellâ€™s hypothesis: the strong engorge themselves upon the weak. But each one of us has free will, and plenty of fine examples in his novel to follow, in choosing an altruistic lifestyle. Shaping a world we want our children to inherit is a life worth living. Such effort may only amount to a drop in the ocean. But what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
I am certain that when read twice, this book would open up a whole new method to the story lines. There are subtle but very methodic lines drawn between every single story, they are not separate as they may seem on first sight. They tell a single story, and do it in an amazing way. Let the drama flood your senses, this is a must-read.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
I really enjoyed this book for its themes of earthly integration and therefor infinite nature.  It weaves several stories across time and for each of these he also develops a wonderfully idiosyncratic dialect and style.  The how of the words holds more weight than the plain underlying message that we've all heard before.  As an example of his beautiful language and message, here is my...more
 I really enjoyed this book for its themes of earthly integration and therefor infinite nature.  It weaves several stories across time and for each of these he also develops a wonderfully idiosyncratic dialect and style.  The how of the words holds more weight than the plain underlying message that we've all heard before.  As an example of his beautiful language and message, here is my favorite passage,"After their studies are done, the children conduct their play in a beguiling babel.  Sometimes, the more daring of their number brave the nuns' displeasure by scaling the wall   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
i keep thinking of this book as a seried of parentheses.... (((((()))))).. because that's how the stories open/close around each other. er... to be precise (thomson/thompson-ness!) it's a set of six interconnected stories that each start, and are then finished off in the reverse order. 

sounds gimmicky, i know, but part of the author's genius lies in that it isn't.. at all. david mitchell...more
 i keep thinking of this book as a seried of parentheses.... (((((()))))).. because that's how the stories open/close around each other. er... to be precise (thomson/thompson-ness!) it's a set of six interconnected stories that each start, and are then finished off in the reverse order. 

sounds gimmicky, i know, but part of the author's genius lies in that it isn't.. at all. david mitchell seems to specialise in genre-jumping--it looks like he gets a high from the mix-matching; and tho i suppose that the penalty in writing six stories is that u tend to like some more than others (my favourites sonmi, and zedelghem) it stills hold together really really well. 

anyway, i hope this makes u want to read the book: i've since bought every one of his books; number9dream's the one that comes closest to cloud's brilliance, but they're all nicely written, quite absorbing books. uniformly worthwhile.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							1 week ago						
This was a weird book. It’s supposed to be a novel, but it’s actually 6 short stories, nested so that you get the first six half stories, then the second six half stories (in reverse sequence).  Interesting concept, but frankly annoying when I was expecting a novel.

 Each story is written in a different voice, which is very clever, but two of the voices were unreadable to me.  Talent is only...more
 This was a weird book. It’s supposed to be a novel, but it’s actually 6 short stories, nested so that you get the first six half stories, then the second six half stories (in reverse sequence).  Interesting concept, but frankly annoying when I was expecting a novel.

 Each story is written in a different voice, which is very clever, but two of the voices were unreadable to me.  Talent is only showing off if the reader doesn’t like it. Think Outkast.  I thought it reminded me a little of Abbey Road, when the Beatles took all the fragments of songs they had written over the years and threw them into the medley.  I actually liked the Beatles medley, but Cloud Atlas not so much. I think it is tailor made for book groups, though, with lots of topics to discuss. The one thing I noticed was the paragraph (p. 445 in the paperback) where the composer (Frobisher) is creating his “Cloud Atlas Sextet” and says “spent the fortnight reworking my year’s fragments into a ‘sextet for overlapping soloists’ – piano, clarinet, cello, flute, oboe and violin, each in its own language of scale, key and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor; in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order”. This is how the book is written. The diary written in the first story is referenced in the second. The music (cloud atlas sextet) written in the second is played in the third. The book written of the third is sold in the fourth and so on. 

I couldn’t read the two stories in the middle – the computer one and the dialect one. Maybe they’re clever, but I hated them. The other stories were OK, but I think I’d rather have had them on their own. Not sure why so many people love this guy.   hide

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							Jessica
						
							1 week ago						
Pros: brilliant writing, a set of interconnected stories with thought provoking messages

Con: each story is interrupted to tell the first half of the next, when you get back to it you've forgotten minor details that are important in understanding the novel as a whole

Cloud Atlas is a novel told through six interconnected stories. For example, the musician of the second story is reading the...more
 Pros: brilliant writing, a set of interconnected stories with thought provoking messages

Con: each story is interrupted to tell the first half of the next, when you get back to it you've forgotten minor details that are important in understanding the novel as a whole

Cloud Atlas is a novel told through six interconnected stories. For example, the musician of the second story is reading the journal written by the man in the first. And the reporter of the third story reads the letters written by the musician and listens to his music. Each protagonist also bears a comet birthmark between their collarbones and shoulder blades, giving the idea that they might be the same person, living over and over again.

The novel begins with The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing. He's a notary on his way back to America from delivering papers to a client's heir in Australia. His ship has stopped at an island to resupply, and there Adam makes the acquaintance of Doctor Henry Goose.

In the second story a disinherited English musician ingratiates himself into a ailing Belgium's home, intent on helping this man finish his musical works, and bettering his own position.

Half-Lives: The First Luisa Ray Mystery shows her meeting a scientist working on a new atomic energy plant, and discovers that this so called safe energy might not be so safe after all.

I won't detail the other stories as it's fun discovering what comes next. My favourite of the novel however, was An Orison of Sonmi-451. It's basically a science fiction story showing how commercialism has overtaken the world and had resonances of Soylent Green, 1984 and Battle Royale. In fact, this is a novel that on the whole, reads easier if you're well versed in literature. I recognized a few other references, but I'm sure I missed a lot of others.

And as the stories start completing themselves, messages of when you save the lives of others you're really saving your own and how our actions, big or small, shape the world around us - even if we don't live to see the effects, come to the fore.

Ultimately, it's a fabulous novel. If you like thinking about the books you read, I'd highly recommend picking this one up.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
I found this book confusing, with each chapter a completely different story.  Within each chapter there'd be a small, more like tiny, reference to one of the other chapters, which is what kept me reading to the end.  However, when I got to the end I looked back and didn't feel like I was any further than page 1. 

I have mixed feelings about rating this book 2.5 stars.  I was strongly...more
 I found this book confusing, with each chapter a completely different story.  Within each chapter there'd be a small, more like tiny, reference to one of the other chapters, which is what kept me reading to the end.  However, when I got to the end I looked back and didn't feel like I was any further than page 1. 

I have mixed feelings about rating this book 2.5 stars.  I was strongly recommended this book as one of the "best books ever" by a number of well read friends, however I just couldn't get anywhere's near that sort of feeling for this book.  Maybe it was the 3 months it took me to read it or, plainly, it just wasn't something that jived with me.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
In his third Novel-in-Stories, "Cloud Atlas," Mitchell proves himself to be a keen manipulator of styles and voices. He gives us six different characters from six different eras (a sea-faring notary in the late 1800s, a bisexual composer working as an amanuensis to an aging composer in Belgium during the early 30s, a hard-boiled investigative reporter from 1975, a British vanity press publisher...more
 In his third Novel-in-Stories, "Cloud Atlas," Mitchell proves himself to be a keen manipulator of styles and voices. He gives us six different characters from six different eras (a sea-faring notary in the late 1800s, a bisexual composer working as an amanuensis to an aging composer in Belgium during the early 30s, a hard-boiled investigative reporter from 1975, a British vanity press publisher trapped in a 21st century rest home, a fast food clone from a dystopian, futuristic Korea, and a tribesman scrounging out a meager life on postapocalyptic Hawaii), their voices as ingrossing as they are distinct. In some cases it takes patience and thought to decode the dialogue (the Hawaiian tale is written in an inventive, if not occasionally befuddling, dialect), but it is by all means worth the effort. 

Mitchell's gimmick here is that each story is interrupted (sometimes in mid-sentence) by the one that follows it. The only tale that exists uncut is the sixth, which runs to its natural conclusion before passing the baton to the other five endings. The stories could conceivably be read alone and make just as much sense, but there is also plenty of connective tissue that makes each plot relevant to the other. 

Mitchell's message here isn't new, and as far as themes go, he isn't blazing any trails. Each tale deals with slavery and imprisonment, racism and prejudices, worlds where the will of the weak fights the stubborn odds of the strong. Mitchell's ideology owes as much to Nietzsche as his craft owes to Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, but his multi-faceted scope, his absolute command of the language and how it is woven into six completely different tapestries, his genius for the employment of words and meanings -- this is all refreshingly new. 

If there's anything negative to be said about the book, it's that Mitchell doesn't always trust his own skill. He occasionally employs plot devices (the comet-shaped birthmark) that clunk across the page like cars with square tires. And there are a few too self-referential moments for a writer who's at home in his own narrative skin. In the second story, Robert Frobisher, the composer, is creating "a sextet for overlapping soloists" called "Cloud Atlas," a musical masterpiece that is structured in the same manner as the book. "Revolutionary or gimmicky?" wonders Frobisher in a passage that tries a little too hard to play for audience sympathy. 

Given the book's themes, no sympathy is needed. Mitchell juggles the five tales so expertly and dizzyingly that they blur into one colorfully infinite loop. And much like the loop of civilization -- as it rises and falls throughout history, borne up by breezes of bravery, defended by the status quo, brought down by choppy waves of change -- each tale has an ending that is bright but bittersweet. It's not giving anything away to say that each character finds victory in their lives, but these moments are all microcosmic. There's something distinctly fatalistic about the novel, as if the shoulders of the plot are perpetually bowed by the heavy weight of a world of lies, manipulation and oppression. But the six men and women who fight under that weight bring even still the hope of glory and change -- if not universal or lasting, then at least personal, intimate, and moving. 

"Cloud Atlas" isn't just personal, intimate, and moving. It's hilarious, dark, demanding, and dynamic. Even if Mitchell's message is as old as the Bible, his unmistakable skill lends new credence to old words. It's a book that lasts longer than its pages, like a sky that's too small for its clouds.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
This novel is in a word masterpiece.  Mitchell interweaves six stories form six time periods in six very different genres into one message about our society and how all members of our society are treated.  Each story is interrupted at its midpoint and the subsequent story started.  The centre story relates a future post apocalyptical society on the islands of Hawaii.  This society has some...more
 This novel is in a word masterpiece.  Mitchell interweaves six stories form six time periods in six very different genres into one message about our society and how all members of our society are treated.  Each story is interrupted at its midpoint and the subsequent story started.  The centre story relates a future post apocalyptical society on the islands of Hawaii.  This society has some remnant knowledge of the past but live largely a life of low level farming.  They come in contact with a group of "Prescients" a group that separated itself form the world before it ended but is now dying off.  Sonmi, the deity of his society is a fabricant or a clone form a corpocracy that develops in Korea in the near future.  The society is based on the fundamentals of  consumption that we see in our society.  Non-consumer based religion has been abolished - souls are based on money.  The fabricant is given a supplement that makes her rise about her genomed level of intelligence to become a spokesperson for the fabricants to get them to throw off their slave status - it turns our the state has sponsored her rise to rebellion all states need an enemy.  The most chilling scene is the recycling of the bodies of clones as food.  At the time of her capture Sonmi was watching a movie about Timothy Cavendish at the time of her capture and resumes it before she is put to death.  T.C. is a contemporary book publisher tricked into going to an old age home by his rival brother.  The movie tells the hilarious story of his plot to break out of what is essentially a prison.  He is in the process of reviewing a novel set in California in 1976 that documents the attempt by a reporter to uncover a report that shows a fatal flow with a nuclear project planned for just offshore.  The reporter has obtained the tip from a British scientist Sixsmith who is murdered before he can get it to her.  He does giver her some letters from his friend the composer Frobisher who commits suicide after composing a lovely piece of music that enthralls the young reporter.  Frobisher is a young man living with an aging composer and is sleeping with the wife of the composer.  In his spare time he writes the Cloud Atlas sextet which is written and described in a similar way as this novel.  It involves various instruments cutting in at key moments with very different melodies.  All the while he is drawing inspiration from a journal written by an American on vacation in the South Pacific in the mid-1800s.  He is being treated for a fictitious brain disease.  The British doctor treating him intends to fleece him of some money and deeds to property he is taking back to California.  While on their journey they stop over on an island in the Pacific that is colonized by a group of Methodist which are ruling the island as a theocracy.  Methodism is often thought of as one of the types of Christianity the most social and benevolent but even here we see an attempt to make the native population of the island into "good upstanding people" by making them dependent on the material goods of the society.  The doctor who will eventually fleece the narrator gives fair warning that the strong invariably abuse the weak as he will do himself.  The narrator vows to go back and use his wealth and social standing to work for a good society.  Some parts to come away with are the parallels between oppression in each society - fabricants, recent immigrants (sewing), the old, the natives, the servants and the idea that individuals are always the exception as the "Prescient" woman tells Zachary in the post apocalyptical story - civilization varies from person to person decision by decision.  Even the prescient die off in the end.   hide

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