Thursday, April 14, 2005

Book 23: Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell

Probably the greatest compliment I can give this book is that immediately upon finishing it, I wanted to start over and read the whole thing again. All 509 pages of it.

I'm linking a series of Guardian articles below by John Mullan about the book, which appear to be ongoing at this point. Frankly, Cloud Atlas is so overwhelming and sweeping that I couldn't possibly do it justice by providing a quick outline of the plot. The thing is, there are six plots, set up with the device that they are essentially nesting inside each other (the fact that Mitchell uses the nesting doll metaphor throughout the book is obviously significant, but he also makes the comparison to architecture and even musical movements). The book is made up of six interconnecting narratives, each completely unique and potentially self-standing, but also sharing themes, ideas and connectors.

It's one of the most thoughtful books I've read in years, and despite the fact that I haven't immediately started reading it again, I'm considering reading a few pages each day to find more clarity and catch things that I'm certain I missed the first time around. I can't possibly recommend it strongly enough.

Oral narrative (Week One)

The multi-genre novel (Week Two)

Antique Prose (Week Three)

Narrative Structure (Week Four)

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