Somehow, I keep falling into these epic novels...and it's always touch and go how I fare at the other end. This one may have taken me a while, but I don't feel as exhausted as with Midnight's Children or The Count of Monte Cristo. Basically, this is the novel that I wish I had written.
You know me, I hate to give the whole plot of the book away, and I'm seriously trying not to in this review. In a nutshell, the reader hears the story of six characters, all from different eras in the past, present, and future. One small, seemingly insignificant aspect links all these people, and miraculously they are drawn to each other across the ages. A 1970s journalist reads the letters from a 1930s composer to his lover; a post-apocalyptic tribe worships a Korean cloned robot. A historical and dystopian book at the same time, I can honestly say you will have never read a book like this one. I say 'book' rather than novel; the two stories from each character within Cloud Atlas contain such incredible characterisation and complexity that they each seem like a mini novel of their own.
Cloud Atlas' structure, as well as his language, convey Mitchell's message loud and clear. Everything that we do in life has repercussions; everything that came before us has influenced the way we are. Parallels can be found throughout history, and will continue to be found as we head into the future.
I'll end this review with my favourite quotation from the novel; this is one of those 'thinkers' that you'll read, then read again, before sitting back and quoting it to those around you and saying "Isn't this true?" (or is that just me??)
"In the beginning, there is ignorance. Ignorance breeds fear. Fear engenders hatred, and hatred engenders violence. Violence breeds further violence until the only law is whatever is willed by the most powerful."
The movie that's coming out in February 2012 looks like its got a stellar cast, but please read this book before you go. So many quotations will be inevitably lost in this movie; each and every of David Mitchell's words need to be dwelled over in order to appreciate the author's message to a world that accelerates through life, with its technological and energy advances, without stopping to think of how our world will be affected through the future ages. I honestly wish I had thought of this first!
Next book: The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Fact: I am a sucker for books with a long title! Maybe its because the true fans are the only ones who will remember it...
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