Cloud Atlas (Spoilers)
Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2020 3:44 am
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.
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.