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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Finally finished this after seven months. I hadn't read a book in quite awhile due to chronic illness making it very hard to read especially for extended periods of time. But I wanted a challenge and I got one.
What a challenging non linear but wonderfully written. Each of the six sections felt distinct and although it started slow for me, I appreciated what Mitchell was doing. Not convinced it was entirely successful but I still enjoyed my time with it. May my next book not take so long to finish.
What a challenging non linear but wonderfully written. Each of the six sections felt distinct and although it started slow for me, I appreciated what Mitchell was doing. Not convinced it was entirely successful but I still enjoyed my time with it. May my next book not take so long to finish.
I just cannot with the writing style. It is so pretentious and the story and characters aren't even fun. For bookclub I want to finish this though... So I'm going to get it as an audiobook and see if the narrations can save this for me at all.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If, like me, you hated Cloud Atlas, supposedly a ‘modern classic’, then that just means you are stupid, you didn’t ‘get’ the ‘inner message’.
Whatever ‘inner message’ Cloud Atlas had, you’re right. I didn’t get it.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing is a Defoe, Melville-esque adventure story of a British coloniser in New Zealand. Rife with racism, imperialism and anti-semitism.
Letters from Zeldeghem, written in an epistolary form from Robert Frobisher to his lover Sixsmith, was one of the two bearable novellas for me. It’s about a young man who, hard on cash, travels to Belgium to study with a renowned musician and ends up cuckolding him. It’s nothing special, but the absolute hideousness of the rest of the novellas makes this look like a masterpiece.
The First Luisa Rey Mystery is Mitchell’s attempt to delve into the crime genre. It’s a pretty mediocre novella in which Luisa Rey, a young journalist, attempts to infiltrate a nuclear plant where some pretty shady things are going on - you all know the drill.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish is just a weird, weird story about a man who gets imprisoned in a care home? Yes. I know. It also features a writer quite literally throwing a bad reviewer out of a window.
An Orison of Somni-451 was where everything started to go really, really downhill. I just hate sci-fi. It doesn’t matter how good it is, I will still hate it. Mitchell creates a futuristic world full of robots and AI - again, you know the drill.
And then comes Slooshas Crossin’ and Ev’rythin’ After.
And this is where I just lost it. It’s written in this slang dialect which took me like 10 minutes to decipher a page. If you thought the Somni story was bad… this is worse. Let’s leave it at that.
And now, all that’s left for me to do is try to block out any memory of this book!
Whatever ‘inner message’ Cloud Atlas had, you’re right. I didn’t get it.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing is a Defoe, Melville-esque adventure story of a British coloniser in New Zealand. Rife with racism, imperialism and anti-semitism.
Letters from Zeldeghem, written in an epistolary form from Robert Frobisher to his lover Sixsmith, was one of the two bearable novellas for me. It’s about a young man who, hard on cash, travels to Belgium to study with a renowned musician and ends up cuckolding him. It’s nothing special, but the absolute hideousness of the rest of the novellas makes this look like a masterpiece.
The First Luisa Rey Mystery is Mitchell’s attempt to delve into the crime genre. It’s a pretty mediocre novella in which Luisa Rey, a young journalist, attempts to infiltrate a nuclear plant where some pretty shady things are going on - you all know the drill.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish is just a weird, weird story about a man who gets imprisoned in a care home? Yes. I know. It also features a writer quite literally throwing a bad reviewer out of a window.
An Orison of Somni-451 was where everything started to go really, really downhill. I just hate sci-fi. It doesn’t matter how good it is, I will still hate it. Mitchell creates a futuristic world full of robots and AI - again, you know the drill.
And then comes Slooshas Crossin’ and Ev’rythin’ After.
And this is where I just lost it. It’s written in this slang dialect which took me like 10 minutes to decipher a page. If you thought the Somni story was bad… this is worse. Let’s leave it at that.
And now, all that’s left for me to do is try to block out any memory of this book!
It's not often that I don't finish a book, and I didn't think this would happen to Cloud Atlas, but it's just not working for me right now. I tried to push through it, but life is too short for that. Maybe I'll come back to finish it one day.
Too many contrived elements and self awareness in the writing. The stories were mildly entertaining but mostly contrived to make the point. This would have been better as short stories.
I definitely enjoyed this book. As a huge fan of "If on a winter's night a traveler" by Italo Calvino, the idea of interrupted stories is not a bad one for me. And what a perk to get to see them finished. The nested nature of the second halves was elegant and enjoyable. I wrestled with whether I would classify this book as "important" as some have said. It's themes are well expressed and its issues well defined but rarely was I shocked by them. However I was always entertained enough by the stories not to have minded. And then there was Robert Frobisher. Without spoiling anything, I can only say the end of his story moved me. And provoked new thoughts in me. And I feel, was important. And that's not to take away from the other stories which are magnificent. It's a book well worth reading.