| By Lauren Harr |
This was a dangerous review to write because David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s complicated and, at times, confusing, but also brilliant and unforgettable. So, as I sat thinking about the six nested storylines contained between the covers, I started to thumb through the book to remind myself of its language and settings. Soon, I was back in the tractor beam of the book and spent more hours rereading than writing.
The real kicker about this novel is that its author was able to write six different stories, each in a different time period and style, with vastly different characters, language, and tone, but connect them in subtle ways. An 1800s-era lawyer, a 1930s-era composer, a 1970s-era journalist, a modern publisher, a near-future clone, and a far future goat herder grapple with enemies human, corporate, technological, and self-imposed. There are the themes of human transgression, freedom and enslavement, betrayal, connection, the triumph of the spirit, and love that run through each as well as a peculiar birthmark shared by many characters.
Mitchell uses these similarities like the chorus of a piece of music. Just as the storyline soars, the familiar chords swell again and the reader is returned to the refrain. As the souls skitter across time and distance, their meeting is always familiar. In addition to being built like musical piece itself, Cloud Atlas contains the most entrancing piece of fictional music I’ve ever encountered.
In the second story strand, a young, slightly unhinged, and wildly talented composer works with an older idol to create a piece of music. This piece, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, becomes the soundtrack for the novel, even though it’s only in the reader’s mind. To the character, Robert Frobisher, it is unlike anything else and a work of genius, though he is in many ways an unreliable narrator and that creates a dilemma. Is this piece really all that Frobisher claims, or is it tainted by his self-centered view of the world?
That dilemma was certainly contemplated by the people tasked with creating the Cloud Atlas Sextet for the movie (which is worth watching, if you haven’t, but can’t be compared to the brilliance of the book). Hearing the music they composed for the movie is interesting. Though beautiful, it can’t compare to the music I heard while reading. In the end, the imagined Cloud Atlas Sextet is something as unforgettable and unclassifiable as the book. They are uniquely intertwined.
One of Mitchell’s great gifts to his readers is that he leaves much to their imagination. There are probably as many different variations of the Cloud Atlas Sextet as there are readers of the book and nearly as many interpretations of what the book means. Though not a light read, it’s a worthwhile one. For me, I felt changed when I finished it. Different. As if the universe had opened up and let me peer at parts of it that are usually obscured by clouds.
Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe’s Lauren Harr lives in Asheville, where she is constantly in danger of being smothered by the pile of books next to her bed. She can be reached at [email protected].
