I really don't know where to start when trying to give a really honest review of a novel that tries so hard to break with traditional novel structure. A novel that combines historical with Sci-Fi , crime thriller with modern urban black humour. For this and this alone David Mitchell's Booker short listed novel is to be applauded - we may see more new novelists attempting to break the mould and force novel writing into new directions. Cloud Atlas is in four parts it starts in late 17th century south pacific islands still being colonised - it inhabitants suffering as a result of misguided missionaries and greedy early colonialists, then to Belgium soon after WW1 onto 70's California and a nuclear power conspiracy, the extreme future in a post atomic holocaust island society to the distant future in a genetically altered world of rampant consumerism.
Sounds great, the threads of each part of the novel, without giving too much away link all together. We are taken into each characters world and this is where, for me, the problem starts. Each part of the novel is written in a different style, for me the sci - fi areas worked really well; real page turning stuff, thought provoking with a really different view of the future that is really relevant to today's world. The 70's part of the novel read like a Hollywood thriller which is the whole point, however it is written in a style that jars and I found it hard to empathise with the characters given that we really never get the whole picture as the story is a "novelette" within the main story. There is a lot of padding out in many areas of the narrative that add little to the overall story - the reader is drawn in but left really quite unfulfilled; not just in the 70's part of the novel but in the Belgium setting too.
As a reader the coincidences that are meant to bind this strange novel together just don't really work, in fact as the narrative progresses they appear to be thrown in and add little or nothing to the overall effect. At the beginning of the novel I was really quite engrossed looking for links and subtle meanings hidden in the narrative. For me this lasted till the end of the Sci - Fi part of the novel, after that just by judging the length of pages left I realised there would be little dénouement to the many threads given to us by the narrative. I realise even with my own limited knowledge of literature that the different parts of the novel bear homage to great authors styles - Ray Bradbury and Martin Amis spring to my limited knowledge. This said, is a novel an achievement by how it is written or what it is written about? As a reader I was left feeling cheated by the poor final chapters of the book after a superb middle part, though be in no doubt it is superbly written on every level. Going from feeling the book was superb in the middle to being quite disappointing at the end is really quite unusual - not so much a bad ending as a realisation that the best bits are over and there are a few chapters left that are not going to get better. So all in all a book worth a look for a change from usual formats and in places not just good but astonishingly good, the "in places" being the qualifier, there is too much within the narrative that just doesn't live up to the rest and the threads running through the narrative are just not worth the wait. Wait for the paperback or get it from the library.
Sounds great, the threads of each part of the novel, without giving too much away link all together. We are taken into each characters world and this is where, for me, the problem starts. Each part of the novel is written in a different style, for me the sci - fi areas worked really well; real page turning stuff, thought provoking with a really different view of the future that is really relevant to today's world. The 70's part of the novel read like a Hollywood thriller which is the whole point, however it is written in a style that jars and I found it hard to empathise with the characters given that we really never get the whole picture as the story is a "novelette" within the main story. There is a lot of padding out in many areas of the narrative that add little to the overall story - the reader is drawn in but left really quite unfulfilled; not just in the 70's part of the novel but in the Belgium setting too.
As a reader the coincidences that are meant to bind this strange novel together just don't really work, in fact as the narrative progresses they appear to be thrown in and add little or nothing to the overall effect. At the beginning of the novel I was really quite engrossed looking for links and subtle meanings hidden in the narrative. For me this lasted till the end of the Sci - Fi part of the novel, after that just by judging the length of pages left I realised there would be little dénouement to the many threads given to us by the narrative. I realise even with my own limited knowledge of literature that the different parts of the novel bear homage to great authors styles - Ray Bradbury and Martin Amis spring to my limited knowledge. This said, is a novel an achievement by how it is written or what it is written about? As a reader I was left feeling cheated by the poor final chapters of the book after a superb middle part, though be in no doubt it is superbly written on every level. Going from feeling the book was superb in the middle to being quite disappointing at the end is really quite unusual - not so much a bad ending as a realisation that the best bits are over and there are a few chapters left that are not going to get better. So all in all a book worth a look for a change from usual formats and in places not just good but astonishingly good, the "in places" being the qualifier, there is too much within the narrative that just doesn't live up to the rest and the threads running through the narrative are just not worth the wait. Wait for the paperback or get it from the library.
