Hello readers!
Welcome to my blog, you've come to the right place if you want to hear a high school student’s ponderings and perspectives on Cloud Atlas, a lengthy multi-genre novel by David Mitchell. You’ll probably need an atlas (AND a dictionary) to navigate through this novel but with my help you’ll sail right through the pages. Hehe, see what I did there ;) This novel is best described as a mysterious, brilliantly told story within a story. The Atlas is told using the perfect mixture of plot and description while tackling a number of complex issues. In this post I am going to be discussing the first quarter of the novel.
Say what you want about David Mitchell and his novel... But you cannot deny he’s got style... (Harry Potter reference that probably went over your head). If you haven’t read this book before, it would be very difficult to describe without first explaining the extremely unusual style of this novel. Cloud Atlas is composed of sub-sections rather than chapters and each section has a unique and seemingly unconnected storyline with its own plot and characters (there is some overlap here). So far I have read the first two sections of the novel: “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing” and “Letters From Zedelghem.”
“The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing” is, as it’s title suggests, a journal. Each “chapter” begins with the date and goes into a DETAILED (I cannot emphasize this enough) account of the day-to-day life of Adam Ewing, a notary from San Francisco who travels to Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand on business. We are able to guess that this section of the novel takes place in 1849 or 1850 because Ewing mentions that the California Gold Rush began a little over about a year ago. Much of the language is complicated and unfamiliar because of the time period that it was “written in.” Mrs. LaClair warned me that this section might be a little slow and truer words were never spoken. It took me FOREVER to read this section of the novel because I had to look up half of the words. I am being a little dramatic but seriously it was slow, no matter how beautifully it was written. Every word is perfectly chosen and each sentence is musical to the ear. Mitchell writes in elegant descriptive language that captures all of your senses. A couple of observations that I have made about his writing are that he uses a lot of alliteration and always replaces “and” with the symbol “&.”
“Letters From Zedelghem” takes place in Belgium nearly a hundred years after the journal was written. This story is told from the viewpoint of Robert Frobisher, a bisexual composer with a gambling problem. The style of “Letters From Zedelghem” is about as different from “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing” as Robert Frobisher is from Adam Ewing (very different). The most obvious difference is that part two is made up of a series of letters rather than journal entries. Each letter is dripping sarcasm, arrogance and contempt. While this may not seem like a positive thing, it sure is hilarious to read, especially when compared to the somber tone of part one.
It is astounding to me that one man could have authored each of the vastly different stories that make up Cloud Atlas. Even more astounding is the way in which he weaves together historical journal entries, letters, political ideas, thrilling plot and philosophical ideas into a greater collective experience, linking each narrative across space and time. This novel breaks all of the rules in the best way possible. It is so compelling and unique because of the way that each story is told using a remarkably different voice and style. I have just begun reading this book and already I would recommended it. Cloud Atlas is both entertaining and highly thought-provoking, I look forward to discussing it further in my next post about characters.
*Note: In my following posts I will be formatting my thoughts according to the section about which they occur. You may notice a few random headers, “&” symbols or post addresses and this is why.
**I’m not being weird it’s a stylistic choice
A good overview of the novel so far, Maggie. Your discussion of the difference in voice and style between the first two sections is very accurate. They are such different characters and Mitchell's style clearly reflects this. It is one of the things I most appreciated about his novel. I've read his novel Bone Clocks too, but I was not as much of a fan. It is very different as well, but there's a special place in my heart for Cloud Atlas. I might have to re-read it now that you guys are reading it.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely noticed a stark contrast in both voice in style between the four different sections that i have read so far. You can tell that this contrast is very intentional and reflective of the characters themselves. What is Bone Clocks about?
DeleteHey Maggie! I felt exactly the same way, I was shocked at how the author could write as if he was in the 1800s with such eloquence. So far, I have greatly enjoyed our choice in book!
ReplyDeleteSo far, reading Cloud Atlas feels like I'm in the middle of a giant interconnected web of mystery. You can tell that Mitchell has an elaborate vision for the novel that we as readers are blind to. I can just feel that he's about to drop some giant plot twist and when this happens we will suddenly understand the connections between these distant characters and time periods. I'm definitely starting to question which stories are "real." So far it seems to me that Robert Frobisher's reality is the most authentic, while Adam Ewing is strangely distant and Luisa Rey is a little too good to be true... I'm currently forming some wild conspiracy theories based on the Matrix.
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