I've read this book about a million times, but it was on the list and I needed something to comfort me on a thirteen hour plane ride to New Zealand, so this seemed the obvious choice. This book is definitely in my top three - I can't pinpoint the exact ranking, it's way too hard. This novel is just transcendent. David Mitchell must have made a deal with the devil or something, because no one should be this good. I love all his other books almost as much, but this was my first introduction to him, and in my opinion, it's still his masterpiece.
Cloud Atlas is a novel told by six different people in in six different places, spanning from the 1700's to a post-apocalyptic wasteland. If this sounds like a cheap plot trick to you, it is most definitely not. Every single character he writes is unique and interesting and deserves their own freaking novel, but it's enough just to get the taste. The stylistic differences between sections are so pronounced that the story might suffer from disconnect if it was in the hands of a lesser author, but Mitchell ties them all together masterfully. Each novella deals with the themes of human cruelty and human freedom, and way history repeats itself endlessly through the centuries. The scope of this book aims really high, but luckily, Mitchell hits the mark. Some of the parts are hard to read (Timothy Cavendish, jesus, I felt like I was trying to read egyptian at some points), and some seem to drag on (Zachry, for example) but in the end you will put down this book and feel like you've pulled aside the veil of history and gotten a glimpse of a staggering pattern that stretches across the centuries. It really is a beautiful book, and I can't speak more highly of it. My biggest complaint is that I want entire novels - series of novels, even - about Robert Frobisher and Somni, but alas, this book will have to do.
One last thing about the book: This is one of those books that is so varied and rich that you can't help but notice new things with every re-reading, or be struck by different passages. This time, the passage where Robert is trying to find his brother's grave and thinking about the young soldiers under the earth hit me like a punch to the gut. "Another war is always coming, Robert."
In other news, apparently they are making a movie of this book?! I am cautiously optimistic...I just don't see how they can do all six stories justice in under two hours, but I'll reserve judgement until I see it. My opinions are split on books-to-movies...Lord of the Rings improved the books, I think (but of course, I'm only talking about the extended editions) but I was forever saddened to see the mess they made of the Golden Compass. Tom Hanks is already in it, so that's promising! I can't wait to see how this goes.
In Summary: "'He who must do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!'
Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?"
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