"Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell: A Novel in Movie Tie-in Edition

Georgiana89: I first read this book when it came out in the early noughties, and was blown away by both the inventive structure and compelling storytelling. I recently saw the film (a great adaptation, incidentally), which inspired me to do a cover to cover reread and it lived up to my memories.

I'm a big believer in not drawing too distinct a line between "genre fiction" (fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi etc) and more high-brow, literary novels. This book is one of the best examples of the idea that it's possible to write a novel that both tells a fantastical story and does amazing things with prose, structure and narrative. The fact that it was nominated for both the Booker Prize and the X prize tells its own story.

The book is almost a collection of seven short stories. With the exception of the one in the middle, which runs straight through, each gets to a halfway point and is then interrupted by the next story, which follows a character who is reading the text the reader has just read. Halfway through the book, it then starts working it's way back through the stories, completing each of them in turn. Throughout, there are hints that all of the stories' main characters may be...

United Kingdom on Jul 18, 2014

James Brydon: I first read this novel eight or nine years ago, shortly after it was published, and was entranced by it them and re-reading it now, knowing what happens and how the novel works, I found it just as extraordinary.

It is very difficult to know where to start describing it. The book consists of six separate though related stories, arranged in a concentric structure, that leaves the reader unsure as to what is meant to be real and what was in the imagination of the characters.

The first story, recounted in chapters on and eleven, takes the form of a journal composed by Adam Ewing, an American lawyer travelling back from Polynesia to San Francisco. Ewing is a Christian and appalled at the godless behaviour of the ship's crew and officers, and has been more or less ostracised, finding relief only in the company of his friend Dr Goose. Before setting sail he goes exploring Chatham island and sees a Moriori slave being lashed by a Maori. Their eyes meet briefly, and the slave recognises pity for him and disgust at the spectacle in Ewing's eyes. After the homeward voyage begins, it transpires that the Moriori slave has escaped and stowed away in Ewing's cabin, throwing...

United Kingdom on Jan 01, 2014

BookLover59: Certain books (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, SHATTERDAY, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, etc.) and authors (Nevada Barr, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, John Irving, Ann Tyler, Neil Gaiman, George RR Martin, Jorge Luis Borges) have so impressed me that I've felt compelled to share the book with other readers and/or located everything ever written by said author. CLOUD ATLAS and David Mitchell turned out to be that sort of book, and that sort of a writer (I've purchased all of his other novels as well).

I should also begin by admitting that even for an unreserved, omnivorous reader like me, making headway into this novel as was bit tough. But ONLY because the first chapter is written in diary form, and in the 18th century style of English (at times, it reminded me quite a lot of Herman Melville's seafaring novels, so accurate was the mimicry. And after getting comfortable with that style, it was easy to finish the final chapter (the end of that narrative) when I got to it.

Mitchell's Fourth novel, CLOUD ATLAS (perhaps his masterpiece), is - like his first - a collection of the different stories which are all...

United States on May 24, 2013

Robin Magovern: CLOUD ATLAS (2004 Man Booker Prize Finalist) is complex fiction; David Mitchell joins (strings n weaves) six medium-length tales--each nearly sufficient unto itself and each passably resolved, together; notwithstanding the abrupt mid-sentence termination of Adam Ewing's journal entries at the outset (initial chapter) ah, intrigue in the offing (!) and despite how tenuously one character may suggest another--from a prior segment--Mitchell reintroduces them in a kind of second-half sequel, and so it all soon begins to work rather well.

His characters (credible?--passably; likable?--two or three; where not--revelatory of gritty humanity) reflect each other across eras: 1850s, 1930s, 1970s, 1990s, and a science-fiction-era: Year 2144--in which cloning has led to an evolved yet enslaved sentient class) so it seems Mitchell is reincarnating his creations; also, there's this 'comet' tattoo of his that keeps popping up, tail n all (ooooh, so spooooky--nah, not really: the author neglects to drill this body-ink motif sufficiently to get it through my thick skull; never did say: "Ah, I get it!" As for Twilight Zone's theme wafting o're me whenever a story-connecting etude blew in,...

United States on Oct 31, 2012

Samildanach Emrys: At first I didn't like Cloud Atlas. I had an idea of the format, so that didn't surprise me, but I find the first story - of eighteenth century legal notary Adam Ewing's Pacific crossing - dry and unengaging. The one scene that was remotely interesting, his brief exploration of a mysterious jungle crater, was quickly discarded. The mid-sentence transition to the next story was expected but jarring nonetheless.

I hoped for an improvement, but sadly the tale of Robert Frobisher's self-absorbtion and tawdry liasons didn't rise to the occasion at all. The most dislikable main character in the novel and easily the weakest story, it was a relief to move on. There was a reference to Adam Ewing's chapter, but it seemed to have been dropped in as an irrelevant aside.

To cut a long story short, this was the pattern for most of the first half of the book. The next two stories were more engaging but took a while to pick up steam and were interrupted just as they got interesting. The pattern of weak connections between stories persisted too. Each refers to the last but usually in a pointless and gratuituous way. In Luisa Rey's story, for instance, there is no reason for the...

United Kingdom on Oct 17, 2011

Mingo Bingo: This is one of those books that has been on my book shelf for a long time and I've put off reading on a number of occasions for various reasons. It's too long. It's a Booker Prize shortlist, so it's going to be weighty. I'm not sure if I like the idea of connecting stories.

Having read it now I wish I had done so earlier.

Trying to explain it in under 300 words is hard. This is a book that is the sum of a number of parts. It is made up of six short novellas. All completely different, set in different times, written in different styles, about different things.

Each story apart from the central sixth is chopped in two. It begins with "The Pacific Journey of Adam Ewing", which is cut short at 40 odd pages by "Letters from Zedelghem", which is in turn cut short by "Half Lives", that by "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish", then "An Orison of Somni-451", then we get the full tale of "Sloosha's Crossin an Ev'rything after", then it works back down through the conclusions of the tales. The structure makes you feel as if you are witnessing something spreading out and then contracting, as the stories concertina outwards and then shrink back in on themselves. A...

United Kingdom on May 16, 2010

H. Lacroix: From all the reviews on the site I can see that cloud atlas has created quite a stir with people both loving it and hating it. I must admit I bought it because of all the hype and the praise it got. Now, unlike other people I am not sorry I gave good money for it as I found the book well written and imaginative but I didn't think it deserved to be called a novel and this has lessened its impact on me. All those who have written a review warn the book is actually several stories cut in half, except for the middle one and told in chonological order- the first one which is set about 1850 starts but also finishes the novel, the second one in 1931 is also the ante penultimate we read about etc...I found most of the stories satisfying and they kept me reading on until I reached 'the ghastly ordeal of Timothy Cavendish' which honestly bored me. Then it was on to 'an orison of Sonmi 451' and I was afraid the science fiction wouldn't grip me but actually it did. At least the first part, the story of Sonmi when she worked at Papa song's was so well executed and this brave new world so well crafted that I read on at full speed then I too found it slightly difficult to get through the central...

United Kingdom on Jul 23, 2009