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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
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.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
had a bit of trouble reading this one the first go around - was it the shiny tablet and the wonky file that rendered all punctuation as little squares? probably.
maybe our library will one day let us check out e-readers with e-ink screens, it'd be interesting to see if i actually enjoy reading a book in that format.
in any case, reading the book version a second time? much better!
the layout of the stories rise and fall like a bell curve; towards the end of the last story i got antsy, but it pulled together nicely. this would have been a good book for my original book club to read, as we would usually dig into a book pretty well (assuming most of us had read the thing, of course). no one, including myself, had finished in my 2nd bk club - alas.
also v. intrigued to see how tom hanks will be in the movie version. i'm still scared to see extremely loud and incredibly close.
maybe our library will one day let us check out e-readers with e-ink screens, it'd be interesting to see if i actually enjoy reading a book in that format.
in any case, reading the book version a second time? much better!
the layout of the stories rise and fall like a bell curve; towards the end of the last story i got antsy, but it pulled together nicely. this would have been a good book for my original book club to read, as we would usually dig into a book pretty well (assuming most of us had read the thing, of course). no one, including myself, had finished in my 2nd bk club - alas.
also v. intrigued to see how tom hanks will be in the movie version. i'm still scared to see extremely loud and incredibly close.
Could not get over sloosha’s chapter. Kinda hated reading this.