Cloud Atlas in Reading 1001

Jul 06, 2012 Anita Pomerantz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books

This book earns and deserves 5 stars, but I can't quite bring myself to say I loved it. However, I enjoyed it, and I really, really admired it.
It's a tough book to read and review because it has a non-linear structure. There are six stories. Each of the first five stories is nestled inside the story that follows it. However, each story is incomplete. Then, after the sixth story, the culmination of the first five stories begins, in reverse order. So if the stories were A,B,C,D,E, and F, the seque ...more

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Dec 24, 2011 Kristel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge, audio

I listened to the audio by Scott Brick (Narrator), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator), Kim Mai Guest (Narrator), Kirby Heyborne (Narrator), John Lee (Narrator), Richard Matthews (Narrator). The narration was well done. It is a story that spans many centuries, each section going forward is interrupted and the next begins. It has been described as nesting Russian dolls. The middle story completes itself and then the reader progresses back through the years to the first story told by Adam Ewing. The the ...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Jgrace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, judithg, social-commentary, humor, read-in-2012, audio, 19th-century, contemporary-fiction, historical-fiction, jgrace

Cloud Atlas 鈥� David Mitchell
multiple narrators
5 stars

One way to describe Cloud Atlas is to say that it is a collection of seven very different short stories. It is a tour de force of genres ranging from historical fiction to contemporary humor; from hard-boiled detective thriller to dystopian science fiction. Despite the extreme differences in style the stories have some commonalities. They are all first person narratives. They pursue a common theme. Each story has its connecting reference to t ...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, audio, science-fiction, pbt100, short-stories

Like a set of matroyshka dolls, Mitchell has crafted a series of linked stories nested inside each, creating a novel unlike any other I have read. He starts with an American notary aboard a ship returning from Australlia in the 1800s. This tale ended abruptly, mid-sentence, and begin anew with the story of a disinherited English musician. This format is continued three more times before we finally get a complete story set in the distant future of a post-apocalyptic world. Following the conclusio Like a set of matroyshka dolls, Mitchell has crafted a series of linked stories nested inside each, creating a novel unlike any other I have read. He starts with an American notary aboard a ship returning from Australlia in the 1800s. This tale ended abruptly, mid-sentence, and begin anew with the story of a disinherited English musician. This format is continued three more times before we finally get a complete story set in the distant future of a post-apocalyptic world. Following the conclusion of this story we are treated, in reverse, to the end of the other five stories, so that the structure of the novel looks something like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I admit that this format comes across as pretentious. If it had been done by a writer with less skill, it never could have worked. However, Mitchell handled it adeptly, deftly moving from historical fiction, epistolary, thriller, humor, dystopia, and post-apocolyptic with both malle and female narrators. I was genuinely interested in each story, and found that despite not being an avid reader of humor or thrillers, those were the two stories I liked best, with the exception of the post-apocolyptic. Mitchell hid little Easter Eggs in each story that referenced back to the previous story. A mention of the American's journal, or a search for copies of the musician's compositions. It connected the stories in such a fashion that they didn't feel entirely like a random experiment in genre and form.

That said there were flaws. I felt that the reincarnation theme that ran throughout was gimicky and really didn't work. Especially the bit about the comet shaped birthmark they all seemed to have, including the genetically engineered clone Sonmi. Its biggest flaw however was in its treatment of women. While you could see a clear progression in the treatment of the races, from the first story where the New Zealand natives were clearly third class members of the populace to the sixth in which the most advanced members of society were dark-skinned while the whites had devolved to war-like tribes, his treatment of women was problematic. Women start their lives as chattel, and even in the most futuristic version of the world, women are still good for not much more than cooking a meal and sex. This really bothered me. If he can tackle racism so adroitly, there is no reason that sexism could not receive equal treatment

I listened to it on audio, and the audio recording was one of the best I have listened to. Each story was provided a seperate narrator, which helped me follow along with the abrupt changes. This may have been more difficult to read in print for that reason, but I imagine there are also advantages. If I were to reread, which is unlikely even though I think that this book would benefit from one, I would do so in print.

Despite its flaws, I thought this was a very good novel. It is not one I would recommend to everyone though. You have to enjoy experimental literature and short stories to get anything from this book. I am definitely looking forward to reading more by Mitchell in the future. ...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Chinook rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001, dystopia, 1-kindle, asia, korea, apocalyptic

So, this book blew my mind. That first chapter, I wasn't too impressed. It was sort of meh, and I wondered what everyone was raving about and then it ended really abruptly and I was confused. The second chapter, still kind of meh, though it interested me that there was a connection between the two. And then by part three, I was completely and utterly hooked. It's the language, the technique, the fascinating way each connects with the other and how the things that you accept as fact turn out to b ...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Dree rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-read, 2012-reads, 1000-guardian-read, 5-star-adult-fiction

Six stories taking place in the past an into the future--from the early 1800 Pacific Island British exploration an settlement to post-apocalyptic Hawaii. The stories are loosely tied together by spirit, place, individuals, and the records they leave.

An amazing achievement, with different dialects and societies. I would love to read an entire novel taking place in Sonmi-451's future Korea, a fascinating and scary dystopian society.

...more

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Jun 07, 2020 Pippin rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, 2015, paused, 2020, boxall-1001

the structure is ... interesting. not sure it was necessary to interlace things except that it reinforced the conceit that everything is connected. still, i enjoyed the different story lines as individual stories. some more than others...

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