Cloud Atlas: what exactly does that mean? If you read this book, you will be pulled into a stream of consciousness that drifts from one era of human history to another. Upon doing so, the story takes the reader across six different stories, with six different protagonists who all share a common spiritual connection. Each story is presented in a nested fashion: the first story starts, then the second, then the third, all the way to the sixth, which takes up the middle of the book. Then, it goes back to the fifth story and closes it off, then to the fourth, all the way back to where it started; the effect is like opening and closing one of those Russian dolls with smaller dolls inside.
Reading Cloud Atlas is a pretty mixed experience. David Mitchell wrote this novel with extreme precision, going so far as to making each story represent its respective era and genre with its text. Thus, the very first story, The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, is written in a rather old-fashioned voice, and I found it rather dry to read. This story covered the journey of a man in the 1800s on a ship to Hawaii, to find a cure for a parasite; the entire thing is written as journal entries. Afterwards, the gears shift to the Letters from Zedelghem, which follows a young composer hanging out with a distinguished musician to try and make a name for himself; this section was easier to read, but still a bit dry, since it's presented as a collection of actual letters. The pacing really picks up with Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery, which follows a reporter investigating a death connected to a conspiracy behind a super-duper power reactor. This section plays out like a thriller novel, and it makes for really quick and thrilling reading. Next up is The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, written as a novel with a certain level of cheeky sarcasm, making it quite witty and fun. This story is all about a publisher on the run, who winds up wrongfully incarcerated at a retirement home. The next story gets really far-out; An Orison of Sonmi-451 portrays a dystopian future where the human race constitutes a class of people, "the consumers," and a series of clones are produced to service them. As one "fabricant" breaks free and rebels, her account is recorded as a transcript in the book; it gets a bit weird reading this, because it is in an interview format, and it uses a whole bunch of phrases, terms, and futuristic spelling that can be very overwhelming. After a while, however, I got used to it, and the pages rolled by pretty swiftly. Lastly, there is Sloosha's Crossin' An' Everythin' After, which takes place long after an apocalyptic event called "The Fall;" the story covers the encounter between advance space-faring "Prescients," and natives still living and dying on Earth. From there, the subsequent stories are revisited and finished off in reverse order.
As you can surmise, each story is so radically different, they offer a little bit of everything. I was certainly more interested in certain stories than others. Making it through all six is a rewarding experience though; not only is this a unique collection of assorted plots and characters, but there is thematic richness in every story, which connects into larger themes concerning humanity. I've found that each story centers around the brutal struggle between the strong and the weak, often times drawing parallels to cannibalism. A lot of the stories also dig up conflicts between different races, cultures, and classes, to reinforce the notion of the strong vs the weak. At the same time, the book offers a counterpoint, suggesting that such behavior will destroy the human race, while compassion and selflessness could save it. With each story connected through the passing of souls from one era to the next, the book reinforces the notion that everything is connected.
Even though I found parts of this book dry and long, I can't deny that its prose is ingenious. David Mitchell wields the text masterfully, to create these letters, journals, orisons, and mini-novels with genuine texture and appropriate ethos. He is even able to wield the characters' voices, complete with their accents and lingo, to make the stories all the more authentic. All these stories seem well-researched and well-developed. The writing is quite elegant throughout.
There are parts of Cloud Atlas I enjoyed and others I didn't, but there is a little bit of everything here for everybody. It is an excellent and insightful novel that's very well-written, and it is worthwhile reading at least once.
4/5 (Entertainment: Average | Stories: Very Good | Book: Perfect)
Note that a film adaptation was made in 2012; it follows the novel pretty closely, and is very well-made. The only problem is, it is presented in a random mosaic-style order, rather than having the stories nested. As it is, I love the film and would prefer to watch it over and over again, rather than re-reading the novel.
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