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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
There's a curse that comes along with having a grad degree in Lit because we smarty pants reading nerds still tend to read for pleasure with a critic's eye. When I first started reading this book I thought it was a little pretentious and formulaic but once I got past chapter three, Mitchell sucked me in and I allowed myself to be borne into the various narratives. The best part was that Mitchell seems to agree with Yeats and I that history is a "perne in a gyre" and that the thread of it repeatedly winds itself back on itself, ad infinitum.
I absolutely LOVED this book. I think it is the best novel I have read in years.
One of the back-flap reviews calls it a "series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book," which it is. The interrelated stories traverse time and space, and the author's ability to bring life to all of these different characters is simply astounding. This is an exciting, mind-blowing novel that is wildly entertaining and unbelievably well-written. Fascinating.
One of the back-flap reviews calls it a "series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book," which it is. The interrelated stories traverse time and space, and the author's ability to bring life to all of these different characters is simply astounding. This is an exciting, mind-blowing novel that is wildly entertaining and unbelievably well-written. Fascinating.
It's been a long, long time since I enjoyed a book this much. I was nearly breathless, racing through each page, each chapter, each story. I cannot explain its appeal, only that I really loved it.
This is a singular book and absolutely one of my favorites. It is pure genius. The journey is wonderfully crafted and enticing. And the meaning - beautiful and inspirational.
June 2019 update: As of today I have read 1,000 books and this is my favorite.
June 2019 update: As of today I have read 1,000 books and this is my favorite.
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!
October 14,2012
Just reread this in anticipation of the film. Really glad I did since I'd read Riddley Walker a few weeks ago. The influence of that earlier book made this 2nd reading a bit richer.
July 29, 2010
Matryoshka novel!
Just reread this in anticipation of the film. Really glad I did since I'd read Riddley Walker a few weeks ago. The influence of that earlier book made this 2nd reading a bit richer.
July 29, 2010
Matryoshka novel!
These stories are completely forgettable from one day to the next. I find it really hard to engage with the characters - I don't really care what happens to them. Each time I pick up the book, I've had to re-read whole sections just to remind myself what the story was about. Maybe the movie is better.
I read this book after my mind was blown by the movie. I quite enjoyed listening to this book, more so some character's narratives than others however. Some were slightly hard to follow in audio form. Still, regardless of that fact that was a wonderful read. Touching, funny, sad, inspiring, all rolled into one book. Having just listened to the final paragraphs, I was touched even more so by the concluding lines of Ewing's story. A fantastic book all around :)
Interesting and engaging story structure spanning centuries illustrates the old saying "plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose."