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A review by caitlin_89
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
3.0
I wanted to give up on this. It was hard to get through. I read it because Station Eleven, The Sea of Tranquility, and Cloud Cuckoo Land have all been compared to it, and I loved those novels. I did not love Cloud Atlas.
Here's why:
-Each story on its own was kinda hard to get into.
-As soon as I began to care about a storyline, it dropped off. This happens SIX TIMES with little to no link between stories in the first 2/3 of the book to help keep the intrigue flowing.
-The nesting-doll story setup was kind of ruined for me by the fact that some of the stories-within-stories were presented (within the fictional novel) as nonfiction nested within fiction nested within nonfiction ... the logical discontinuity of that presentation irritates me. Also the fact that the 2 characters I actually liked in this novel were the ones that were the fictional heroes of a "real" character's manuscript.
-The one clue that tied together the first stories was the main characters' shared birthmark, which i assume indicates reincarnation, which again MAKES NO SENSE if half of the characters are FICTIONAL as per the reality of the other characters in the book!!!
Things I like:
Some parts were funny.
The whole "human greed destroys civilizations" bit was a trifle on-the-nose but still resonant.
It was certainly a very creative exercise.
I'll continue to read books in the flavor of Cloud Atlas but will not be rereading or recommendimg Cloud Atlas itself.
Here's why:
-Each story on its own was kinda hard to get into.
-As soon as I began to care about a storyline, it dropped off. This happens SIX TIMES with little to no link between stories in the first 2/3 of the book to help keep the intrigue flowing.
-The nesting-doll story setup was kind of ruined for me by the fact that some of the stories-within-stories were presented (within the fictional novel) as nonfiction nested within fiction nested within nonfiction ... the logical discontinuity of that presentation irritates me. Also the fact that the 2 characters I actually liked in this novel were the ones that were the fictional heroes of a "real" character's manuscript.
-The one clue that tied together the first stories was the main characters' shared birthmark, which i assume indicates reincarnation, which again MAKES NO SENSE if half of the characters are FICTIONAL as per the reality of the other characters in the book!!!
Things I like:
Some parts were funny.
The whole "human greed destroys civilizations" bit was a trifle on-the-nose but still resonant.
It was certainly a very creative exercise.
I'll continue to read books in the flavor of Cloud Atlas but will not be rereading or recommendimg Cloud Atlas itself.