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theshapeshiftingcrone 's review for:
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell
There was an interesting conversation a while back with two of my friends. One friend had read the book, but not seen the movie; I had seen the movie but but read the book; and the other friend had both seen the movie and read the book. Some switches made during the adaption were extremely jarring to the friend who had not seen the movie, and she vowed never to see it. However, after finally reading it myself, I was pleasantly surprised to how true it stayed, at least to a good percentage.
As someone who teaches writing and is also an author, I was impressed by the structure of Cloud Atlas. The level of detail in how these individual stories reflected upon each other swept me up in the moment, and I was thoroughly immersed in these worlds. It's cleverly composed, and while some voices stood out more strongly than the others, overall, I greatly enjoyed the experience of reading this novel. Cavendish's voice comes right off the page: the turns of phrase are brilliant throughout. I felt less connected to Zachary's story, as I'm sure many did, as the dialect was a challenge to get into--it took a re-read to fully "get" it, and it does add some interesting depth to the story. Sonmi's tale was also intriguing in showing how philosophy can be shaped over time. Very engaging, and I'd definitely go back and read it again in time.
As someone who teaches writing and is also an author, I was impressed by the structure of Cloud Atlas. The level of detail in how these individual stories reflected upon each other swept me up in the moment, and I was thoroughly immersed in these worlds. It's cleverly composed, and while some voices stood out more strongly than the others, overall, I greatly enjoyed the experience of reading this novel. Cavendish's voice comes right off the page: the turns of phrase are brilliant throughout. I felt less connected to Zachary's story, as I'm sure many did, as the dialect was a challenge to get into--it took a re-read to fully "get" it, and it does add some interesting depth to the story. Sonmi's tale was also intriguing in showing how philosophy can be shaped over time. Very engaging, and I'd definitely go back and read it again in time.