Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
I am the sort of person who wants to be spoiled. I hate not knowing what is about to happen. When I'm reading a book and I know I won't be able to finish it before bed, I pop to the end to make sure the characters will still have speaking parts. If I ever get around to reading "Game of Thrones" (I won't) I will have read the entire wikipedia article on it first. I rarely see movies (and I doubt I'll bother to watch this one) but when I do I prefer to have read the book first.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell defies this style of reading. If you want to spoil the story, you're going to need wikipedia. It's the most unusual book I ever recall reading, with six nested stories that bring you to a bad end, but then rewind you! It's like a yoyo, undoing the nasty taste left in your mouth from the bad thing at the end, which is now the middle. It reminds me a bit of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" in that it messes with the ordinary method of writing a novel in cutesy ways, but I actually really disliked the Foer book (too improbable and manipulative) and really like this one. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and it's bugging me because I need to be at work right now on some backlog things and the book is calling to me to go home, take a long lunch, maybe skip work this afternoon and read it. I'm on vacation starting Sunday, this is a BAD thing to have happen in the week before.
So I thought this is worth blogging about. I found a book that is interesting, thought-provoking and so beautifully written that I don't want to put it down. That doesn't happen a lot.
I grabbed it from the library's "popular" file, without having had it recommended to me by anyone. I have to say I was really scratching my head in the first part. It took me a while to get my head into it. Each story is in a different vernacular, about a different era, about a different life. The common thread, as far as I can tell, is that they're all surrounded by people. Stinking selfish amoral bints in a perpetual struggle between civilization and barbarians. Sort of like my town committee work. It relates to my life, and I bet it relates to your life, although quite probably none of the six stories is something that happened to anyone you know. I also want to say that the "beautifully written" thing is highlighted by how very many different stories there are. Each are crafted little gems in a different genre; a travel adventure, an epistle, a mystery, a comedy, a dystopian sci-fi story, a post-apocalyptic story. People pass over the face of the earth the way clouds pass across the sky. It's as deep as you want to make it.
Recommended... for when you have a bit of time.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell defies this style of reading. If you want to spoil the story, you're going to need wikipedia. It's the most unusual book I ever recall reading, with six nested stories that bring you to a bad end, but then rewind you! It's like a yoyo, undoing the nasty taste left in your mouth from the bad thing at the end, which is now the middle. It reminds me a bit of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" in that it messes with the ordinary method of writing a novel in cutesy ways, but I actually really disliked the Foer book (too improbable and manipulative) and really like this one. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and it's bugging me because I need to be at work right now on some backlog things and the book is calling to me to go home, take a long lunch, maybe skip work this afternoon and read it. I'm on vacation starting Sunday, this is a BAD thing to have happen in the week before.
So I thought this is worth blogging about. I found a book that is interesting, thought-provoking and so beautifully written that I don't want to put it down. That doesn't happen a lot.
I grabbed it from the library's "popular" file, without having had it recommended to me by anyone. I have to say I was really scratching my head in the first part. It took me a while to get my head into it. Each story is in a different vernacular, about a different era, about a different life. The common thread, as far as I can tell, is that they're all surrounded by people. Stinking selfish amoral bints in a perpetual struggle between civilization and barbarians. Sort of like my town committee work. It relates to my life, and I bet it relates to your life, although quite probably none of the six stories is something that happened to anyone you know. I also want to say that the "beautifully written" thing is highlighted by how very many different stories there are. Each are crafted little gems in a different genre; a travel adventure, an epistle, a mystery, a comedy, a dystopian sci-fi story, a post-apocalyptic story. People pass over the face of the earth the way clouds pass across the sky. It's as deep as you want to make it.
Recommended... for when you have a bit of time.