"I read a book one day, and my whole life was changed." - opening line of The New Life, by Orhan Pamuk

Friday, February 1, 2013

CLOUD ATLAS, by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is an amazing multi-voiced novel that spreads across several centuries and explores the mysterious connections that spread across time and space, ranging from 1840s Polynesia, to 1930s Belgium, dystopian 2045 Seoul, more remote future dystopian Hawaii, early 21st century Scotland, etc.. The novel is an unusually constructed set of six individual stories with subtle thematic links. Each story is told in a completely different style, with different narration. The book is structured so that each story is not told as a complete whole, but rather told in pieces, forcing the reader to struggle to understand the connections among them and to wait for the resolution of each story.  The effect is like an interesting verbal puzzle with growing connections and profound implications. It's a wonderfully written book and a triumph of the kind of polyphonic writing that is hard to get right but very enjoyable to read.

For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/books/history-is-a-nightmare.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm


Cloud Atlas was recently made into a film (amazing idea in itself) starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in multiple key roles. It's a very strong effort that of course takes liberties with the plots to an extent but keeps the themes intact. It's visually stunning and strongly acted, and although 3 hours long, flies along at breakneck speed.

For a review of the film by NY Times , click here: http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/movies/cloud-atlas-from-lana-and-andy-wachowski-and-tom-tykwer.html?_r=0

 

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