This book is exactly my cup of tea! I loved it. There is so much to love about it that I almost don't know where to start.
It was one of the books recommended by a blogger when I googled Tom Robbins (see previous book review blog post of mine) and it has been the best by far. It is different to Tom Robbins in many ways but as intriguing.
I actually read nothing about the book (not even a blurb) before I started reading, and after the first chapter I was a bit confused as to what I had started. The first chapter is about an Englishman on a ship in the nineteenth century travelling the Pacific Islands/New Zealand and learning about the terrorism of the colonialists and the locals on the locals. I wondered how this book had ended up on my kindle - not my normal choice - I don't really like history novels for history's sake. The second chapter then started in the early 1900s of a composer disinherited from his family, travelling to Bruges .... I was completely lost!
So I googled the book and quickly saw that each chapter is a different 'story' but it is all connected. I quickly stopped reading the reviews (I didn't want to spoil the story) and also I saw that only in October of this year Cloud Atlas has been made into a movie! Release date in Australia is 21 February 2013. I will definitely try and see it - perhaps with a mums and bubs session!
Anyway, the book is a literary feast. The writing is wonderful and so varied for each story. It could be six different authors. I enjoyed all the stories but some I really LOVED. David Mitchell has completely mastered the literary style of each.
Each story is a completely different genre.
Sloosah's Crossin' and Ev'rything' After (this was my favourite chapter - just so wonderful - some may say difficult to read as it is written in spoken form as the heading indicates - a literary combination of 'The Last of the Mohicans' and 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Lord of the Flies' - yes, a real cracker/corker!)
Each of these stories is then returned to in reverse order to 'conclude' them and the overall novel. So it starts with Adam Ewing and ends with Adam Ewing.
I also loved the theme or raison d'etre of this book. For me, it a commentary on faith and religion and also on human nature (the good and the bad). I wonder how the film will handle what I saw as the pretty anti-religion/faith elements I saw in the book if it is to be marketable for a US audience? It ties religion in with dictatorship and brain washing and scape goating and just general less desirable human behaviour.
There are some gruesome aspects to the book which I struggled with - and even the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" elements I struggled with - being pregnant and sensitive at the best of times. But they were short lived and came to a satisfactory conclusion mostly that allowed me to go to sleep last night.
I loved the science fiction elements to some of the chapters. I loved the capturing of the era in the history chapters. I loved the pace and page-turner aspects of others. I loved the psychological analysis of the characters embedded in the story and their personal development. The characters were very real and multi-dimensional yet developed gradually and not obviously. How did Mitchell do this so well - it just seems an amazing work of a genius author to me?!
Read this book! Perhaps before the movie - in case the movie doesn't do it justice!
Five out of five stars for me.
Labels: Atheist, Reading, Religion
