Cloud Atlas (Spoilers)

[Res Ipsa]

I just finished reading Cloud Atlas. It was a book I really enjoyed. I’m going to talk about what I liked about it, so SPOILERS.

I have not seen the movie, which I understand is structured differently than the book. For those who haven’t read it, the book is composed of six stories that take place at different times and locations on earth. But the stories are structured like a Russian nesting doll. The first half of each story is told in chronological order. Then the complete sixth story is told. Finally, the second halves of the other five stories are told in reverse chronological order.

The stories differ significantly from each other in time, place and style. But protagonist in each story becomes aware of the events in the previous story. And certain themes and events resonate in different stories.

For example, in the first story, we visit a missionary encampment in the South Seas, where the natives are both enslaved and taught Christianity. In the sixth, a woman from a group that has survived an apocalypse intact visits a tribe that has become more primitive after the fact. She treats their religion with complete respect, even though she knows that the God they worship was a woman who precipitated the apocalypse. When the protagonist demands to know the truth, she tells him. And he struggles over the question of whether to tell his tribe.

Two meetings between primitive and advanced civilizations. Two very different interactions and results.

The book is full of recurring and contrasting situations like this. I’m pretty sure there are many more that I didn’t notice. This is a book I’ll likely read again — maybe a couple times. This is the second book written by David Mitchell that I’ve read, and his others are going on my already too long to read list.

[MeDotOrg]

Read the book and saw the movie. The book was ambitious, but I think it suceeded. If I had a complaint, it would be that reading it once is not enough. The plot threads connect characters and cultures across time in ways I don't think I got in one reading. I admire the Wachowskis for taking on the film. It is hard to see it as a cohesive whole. It's a lot more jarring to go through the space and time jumps on the screen instead of on the page, but there are still a lot of scenes that take your breath away.

[honorentheos]

Agree with what's been said as well. I haven't seen the movie but understand it picked up on the themes of reincarnation and meta-destiny pretty well for a narrative that switched identities and genders over generations.

Of his other books, I think The Bone Clocks felt similarly ambitious and overall successfully stuck the landing.

[Moksha]

It was one of those movies where you really had to stop and think about it to make sense of what you just saw.