What do you think of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas?

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I read the novel a couple of months ago and I'm left with mixed feelings about it. First of all, it doesn't really sound like a novel, more like a collection of six short stories. I know, I know, there is a thin red line connecting every one of them (this takes the form of characters bumping into the memoirs/artifacts of previous characters) and SUPPOSEDLY this was meant to convey the idea that there is only one character who reincarnates over and over again in time. Anyway, the "fil rouge" is to thin to be anything but a clever narrative device.
And what about the central story? it's written in an awful dialect, full of elisions that render the whole text simply unreadable... On the other hand, most of the tales are quite gripping and the prose is beautiful.... Hence, the mixed feelings! Let's make sense of this anti-novel.

― Simone O., Tuesday, 1 March 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

Firstly, let me disclose that I was a big Mitchell fan before I read Cloud Atlas, and though I struggled with loving it while I read it, I love it now, and it's so grand that I can't fault it. My interpretation of the book as a whole was that it's a story about storytelling, fiction versus history (see below), the different forms stories can take, and how in the end, after society has destroyed itself, all that's left is the story. I think the suggestion of reincarnation was more a suggestion that the story carries on in each of them, a physical reminder of a mental connection from story to story, how we're all left with the mark of a particular book we've read, a book that's truly affected us. (This is all completely debatable, but it's the way I like to think of it.)

I have to personally disagree with you about the central story: this was by far my favorite part of the book, and still haunts me whenever I think about it. I'm fascinated by language, and the development of language throughout the book is completely plausible (unlike Atwood's future speak in Oryx & Crake, which felt false and forced). What I loved most was the direct line between the "outermost" story and the "innermost" story, how a great amount of time separated them, but not a lot was different.

A few things that might help make sense of this book:
Mitchell's piece in the Guardian about rereading Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1221892,00.html

Mitchell on the seeds of ideas that grew into Cloud Atlas: http://www.readysteadybook.com/dmcloudseeds.html

An excerpt:

"So my Chatham Island notebook contains mostly questions – but some struck me as having a contemporary resonance. Is non-violence a viable defence if your enemy doesn’t share your conscience? Are all civilizations condemned to extinction by their strengths? What are the modern tribes? Nations? Corporations? Demographic strata? Can Globalism be considered a civilization? Will it, fueled by consumption, one day consume itself? How will its remnants be “Moriorized”? Is history a fiction? Is the future a fiction based on the present?

These questions are the seeds that grew into Cloud Atlas."

― zan, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

i think the problem is that i am already so tired of fictions about fictions about fictions. I read this with increasing enthusiasm up til just past the halfway point while I thought Mitchell was going to keep all those plates spinning til the last few sections; in fact, they all just collapsed and seemed to have no resonance outside their own personal worlds. Even if he did make some attempts at connecting the narratives. I thought these just felt forced.

I know we know fiction is fictional (!) but it becomes problematic when a character you have invested time and interest in (Timothy Cavendish) turns out to be the main player in a movie and that the other section, concerning Luisa Rey, is not only a character in a crime novel but a fictional character in a crime novel which plays a bit part in a fictional movie about a fictional book publisher. After a while the whole thing - rather than building some significance from this accumulation of fictions - just crumbles away. I Know it's not real, i know it's a novel and i've read many books which make you question the "reality" of what you have in front of you but with this one everything just dissipates and you're left feeling like you have just wasted your time.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 20:44 (twenty years ago)

p.s. i was a fan before too.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

I *admired* rather than liked "Cloud Atlas". I could see what Mitchell was going for - but at the end of the day I think the novel was too strained to really work. The third act was showing its cracks far too much for my liking. Still, I'm glad that I have read it and I hope that Mitchell goes on to write a novel which manages to marry his ambition of challenging the novelistic form and his desire to tell an involving story. I was not convinced by CA.

― Ms Bookish, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

Jed: I don't think the story within the story is problematic unless you were expecting something more profound to connect them. But I can completely understand your feeling that the plates were dropped; I agree that the latter half of each story was not as memorable (apart from the hilarious "jail break" scene).

I think it's a very personal preference. I don't think I would've liked the book as a whole if I didn't latch on to certain small moments in each story, such as the image of Zach'ry telling the central story (an homage to the oral origins of storytelling, and slightly reminiscent of Heart of Darkness), Frobisher's descriptions of Zedelghem, and Adam's encounter with the volcano people (forgive the vague details: it's been a year since I read it). I think this is why I get so defensive of this book: those scenes resounded with me so much that they have become a part of my world.

Also, the fact that I have a huge crush on David Mitchell (Ghostwritten intrigued me, his good looks and speech impediment won me over) doesn't hurt his case. I often wonder if I hadn't been a fan already what I would've made of him after reading this book. Though I'm inclined to think I would still want more...

― zan, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 21:28 (twenty years ago)

Oh yes, I think he's a huge talent. I still think "Ghostwritten" is his best but i have no doubt that he will write an even better book.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

one quick note: if you like the stories-within-stories scheme you should definitely check Robert Irwin's "The Arabian Nightmare".

― Simone O., Tuesday, 1 March 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

Mitchell is an excellent story teller, and this in itself should draw a reader in. Add to that his ability to effectively speak in a variety of voices without each of them seeming contrived, and his ability to tie his narratives together, no matter how loosely, and one gets a delightful, challenging and lively read. Quirky narrative forms and 'anti-novels' aren't for everyone, but good story-telling should be. Make it to the third story on the way in and you'll be hooked.

― Docpacey (docpacey), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

Good God, I loved this book!

I took the plunge after loving the first two pages and I continued to love it. I'll admit that for much of the book I felt he was more techincally dazzling than heartfelt, but by the end I was so moved, just profoundly so. More than any other book I've read recently, I keep coming back to the book in my mind...

I loved the outer two stories and the inner two stories. The sheer variety of the book amazes, of course.

I'm intrigued by zan's post, but I have to say I didn't see it as being about storytelling. The main idea for me: What hope is there for humanity, given the way we treat each other? (Answer: a little.) As a cyclical vision of human history, it's awesome.

― Patronus (patronus), Friday, 4 March 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

I think I was trying to explain the purpose of the novel's format... the so-called "gimmicks," or "thin red line" he used to tie the stories together. As far as theme goes, it certainly was more about whether or not there's hope for humanity. (Sometimes I get ahead of myself.)

― zan, Friday, 4 March 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

Just read this. I think it was a bit overhyped to me, so I ended up slightly disappointed. The writing was really good but yeah, the gimmick was kinda fumbled, I hoped things would tie together more than they did. I found Number9Dream used, so I'm reading that next.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

I had a spell about a third of the way into this book where I really thought it would match the hype (although to be honest I was only dimly aware of said hype). I'm not the most voracious of readers and one problem was that by the time I got to the 2nd half of some of the stories I couldn't recall as much of the detail of the first half as I felt I needed to. Rereading would solve that problem but nowadays I'm not big on re-reading 500 page novels.

I thought the book was beautifully structured, despite the gimmicky bits - much more than a loosely connected set of individual tales. An unexpected treat, and I will definitely be reading more of Mitchell. Which is great because No 9 Dream didn't appeal to me in the least when it came out (the covers made it sound trendy, pseudish and possibly wilfully obscure). I will certainly read it now.

― frankiemachine, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Number9Dream is WAY better. At least, I thought so.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

Cloud Atlas is more ambitious, but I think it ultimately fails at meeting those ambitions.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

both his previous books are better imo.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

I just bought this and am really looking forward to it, despite you naysayers! I'd never have heard of it if it weren't for this thread title.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 4 April 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

you go, kyle. i loved the thing.

― dja, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 01:21 (twenty years ago)

Having just by chance read Ghostwritten and If on a winter's night a traveler almost back to back, the Guardian piece linked at the top of this thread is very interesting. It's no surprise he was influenced by Calvino. And some of his mild reservations about winter's night are fair. But even though I liked Ghostwritten, and close to loved a few of its segments, he is no way the writer that Calvino was. At least not yet.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

[spamnoying]

― dumbest spam yet, Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:23 (nineteen years ago)

[spam]

― order dSPAM, Sunday, 14 May 2006 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

Black Swan Green is great... I'm particularly fond of the first and fourth chapters. Anybody else reading this yet?

― remy (x Jeremy), Sunday, 14 May 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

it is? it is the first DM novel i had no interest in reading but maybe i will. report back.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 14 May 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

My particular fascination with BSG regards its (unqualifiably great) atmosphere, which I think DM accomplishes and maintains with not insignificant deftness. BSG isn't as pyrotechnic or far-reaching as CA or No9D (I've not yet read Ghostwritten), but I think it's an exceptionally beautiful book. The way the prose doubles back on itself (e.g. the repeated / altered phrasing describing the picture frame in Mme. Crommelynk's place); the use of Unborn Twin, Maggot and Hangman, as splintery and rebellious ego-chunks of Jace; the limited cast of friends and foes and their reuse/transformation cf. 'Dawn Madden'; the magic-realist turns; the section-ending declarative sentences (these especially!); the darkness and coldness of BSG/Kingfisher Estates; the complex rendering of some B-line characters (Julia, Dean, Tom Yew, the knife-sharpener), the movement between extremely poetic description scenes and talky-talky, and the absolute trueness of the psychological torture Jace's schoolmates inflict on him... these strike me as masterful as all fuck.

Jace's perpetual sense of danger, semi-lucid understanding of the world, neurotic cogitations, sex preoccupation, topography of 'popularity', career aspirations, etc., all of these seem impressively appropriate to me, precise and well-considered for a 13-year old growing up in an isolated backwater. I'm aware of how unliterary it is to claim a novel's 'realness' is its quality -- especially a very poetic novel -- but there's something admirably sincere to me in the character of Jace. What I mean is: I was a lot like him, and I appreciate the care with which he was drawn.

― remy (x Jeremy), Monday, 15 May 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

ok, that's enough for me. it's on my list.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 15 May 2006 21:00 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

So Cloud Atlas was a really enjoyable read for me, just on the face of it, and I can't say I have much problem with the way his main themes run from one section to the next -- the big mirrors between the Moriori story in the beginning and the central Hawaii bit were certainly satisfying, and his lay-it-all-out ending seems to justify most of it.

My weird nagging issues on this are totally mechanical, though -- he does so much to toy with the idea that there's a mechanical in-the-book connection between all these characters, but he doesn't have one! For some reason this bugged all hell out of me: why keep hinting that you've got a concrete, non-thematic explanation for the form when you really, really don't? The many airy allusions to reincarnation are blown apart by (among other things) Luisa Ray: Cavendish would have been born around the point Frobisher died, so why is there a character from a thriller shoehorned between them? This wouldn't normally be a problem, but there's something about the form that leads you to believe the second halves of the story will give you a change to figure something out about the connections -- not something thematic, but something physical -- and yet with a lot of those second halves he seems to be writing purely for plot, just enjoying wrapping up the tales themselves, as if most of his content was on the page by the middle section, and everything thereafter is just tidying up.

So beyond the center section, I was mostly just chopping through to get the thing done, pushing through a lot of pages looking for some connections that didn't seem likely to crop up.

The one connective gesture that's really interesting me is the recurrence of the cars/bridges/escape thing. (Ha, especially since Black Swan Green says the Dhonts died in a car accident.) Dhont runs over the pheasant, or whatever, and from there on Luisa's rammed off a bridge escaping the island, Cavendish rams through the nursing-home gate and escapes, there's a car crash in Sonmi's escape from the university, and there's the bridge collapse in Zachry's and Metonym's escape from the island in the center bit. My fear, though, is once again that Mitchell's hinting at connection here without having anything very specific in mind, nothing beyond "and they will all have some sort of crisis/escape moment involving cars and/or bridges."

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 29 September 2006 19:04 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, and similarly, and as an example: when Frobisher lists the six instruments of his "Cloud Atlas Sextet," didn't you kind of want them to match perfectly with the six segments of the novel? And like why didn't they? (Maybe Mitchell just has a very different notion than I do of which instrument would go with which bit.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 29 September 2006 19:21 (eighteen years ago)

It's interesting that you wanted the sections to click more than they did. As I remember, I enjoyed the writing and the stories when I read it, but I didn't read it looking too hard for connections between the characters. Not to be too contrarian, but I do enjoy the idea of having expectations for a book to do certain things, and then having the author not meet those expectations. Would you have really enjoyed the book more if the sections had synced up better?

― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Friday, 29 September 2006 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

The unfulfilled expectations were what kept me up til 4 am reading this, but what I'm saying now -- in retrospect -- is actually that I'd feel better if he hadn't feigned that some overarching mechanical connections might come together. I mean, if you don't have them, then just admit it.

(I'm also amazed that a guy who's certainly not embarrassed about genre-fiction cliches and lame revelations didn't offer some sci-fi style linkup -- what, suddenly he's above that kind of thing?)

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 29 September 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

I enjoyed the sci-fi style linkup in Ghostwritten!

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 29 September 2006 19:51 (eighteen years ago)

But what was it? "They all have a similar birthmark ... blah blah reincarnation blah blah ... wait, I mixed up the dates, that can't be right ... okay, I'll say Ayrs was fascinated by something called 'eternal recurrence' ... okay, bridges, cars ... I think I've fooled 'em."

My point's that there's a total thematic connection, which is all I necessarily need. But since he's certainly not afraid of sci-fi revelations (or too self-consciously "literary" for them), and since he's dropping hints about birthmarks and reincarnation, I'm wondering what stops him from putting a concrete link in -- you know, the kind of corny mechanical stuff a sci-fi writer would do, where some bit of puzzle explains the recurrence.

On a different note, the Frobisher parts seem the most interesting -- possibly the most independent in Mitchell's mind from the notion of the book as whole, which might explain why it finds its way into Black Swan Green. Most of the sections of Cloud Atlas deal with power vs weakness and exploitation in a very grand and direct way -- colonialism, corpocracy, etc. It took me a while to decide that the power dynamic he was working with in the Frobisher bits weren't related to the WWI stuff, but the rigidity of, like, polite society, which was kind of fascinating to me. Frobisher's bits seem like they're the most lacking in an enemy, or any grand displays of force or power or oppression: it's interesting for him to take up the drawing room as one (smaller) arena for the same stuff.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 29 September 2006 21:20 (eighteen years ago)

actually that I'd feel better if he hadn't feigned that some overarching mechanical connections might come together. I mean, if you don't have them, then just admit it.

this is totally OTM. i'm reading Black Swan Green now. stop giving the game away, nabisco.

...although part of me wonders where the frobishers (if i remember right) can come into anything since that section was a movie within a book (and the Louisa Rey [sp?] thing was a thriller within the movie withing the book). all superficially very clever but actually not very tight. strange though, because i think Mitchell IS very clever but the devices he uses make him appear wanting in some way.

so far BSG is decent. written like a boys own story & with that pace. the 70's cultural references are so forcefully shoehorned, though, that most stick out like a sore thumb and a few have made me groan.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 02:05 (eighteen years ago)

although, the frobishers are not who i remember them being so forget that bit.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 30 September 2006 02:07 (eighteen years ago)

I was with it largely up to the middle, I rather felt that Sonmi and Sloosha's Crossin were forced on proceedings. The bridging does feel forced, though this doesn't detract from the Zedelghem and Luisa Rey sections being utterly brilliant. Cavendish also. Oh sod it. I loved it. But I loved it most when it wasn't massively apparent that there was an overarching structure

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 30 September 2006 04:11 (eighteen years ago)

the kind of corny mechanical stuff a sci-fi writer would do,

Maybe he wanted to get close to the corny mechanical stuff but not pull the trigger? Because you're right, he's obviously aware of that sort of thing. Maybe he was afraid of falling off the cliff into the Valley of Corniness? Anyway.

― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Saturday, 30 September 2006 13:54 (eighteen years ago)

although part of me wonders where the frobishers (if i remember right) can come into anything since that section was a movie within a book (and the Louisa Rey [sp?] thing was a thriller within the movie withing the book)

Wait, this is the second time this has gotten confused: the only one that seemed to be honestly fictional was the Luisa Rey one! Cavendish was "real" -- he appears in a film for Somni, but that's theoretically because he says, at the end of his segment, that he's publishing his story and optioning the movie rights.

Which of course creates one of many loose threads, which is that Rufus Sixsmith and Frobisher's letters appear in the Luisa Rey "fiction," so ... who knows. I guess we should presume the author drew those things from reality? Or, hell, that Luisa's story is more of a "true crime" tale? Ha, once again, my word to Mitchell: if you don't have the connections worked out, don't just toss them in there and pretend we'll enjoy puzzling over them!

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 30 September 2006 18:50 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

after a fairly weak start i thought "Black Swan Green" was superb. it really takes off after the Frobisher section and Jason, who i thought was weak and frustrating, suddenly started to interest me. the last 20 pages or so were incredibly moving. in fact i'm welling up just thinking about them now (no joke). there's a beautiful moment when jason meets the man at the "house in the woods" at the end *SLIGHT SPOILER* and jason says he thought the house was miles from anywhere and the man replies that the wood is "no more than the size of three or four football pitches, it's hardly sherwood forest." it's an amazing moment because it's so familiar yet so unexpected; a small moment that subtly changes your impression of the entire book.

i can't believe this book hasn't been marketed in a major way to teenagers. if i was a parent or teacher i would be urging kids to read it.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:43 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

I think that if I were to re-read 'Cloud Atlas' I would have to read from the middle story "Sloosha's Crossin'" outward, ie., backwards in time, although I thought the Timothy Cavendish, Luisa Rey and Zedelghem stories were bunk. "Sloosha's Crossin'" and "Orison of Sonmi-451" were, however, brilliant. Jest Memr'yn'n'Writin' on 'em's got me thinkin'o how great they were.

― Chelvis, Friday, 6 June 2008 12:33 (sixteen years ago)

he seems a bit neil gaiman

― thomp, Friday, 6 June 2008 13:42 (sixteen years ago)

except he can write circles around him!

― Jordan, Friday, 6 June 2008 14:16 (sixteen years ago)

he's the neil gaiman of writing

― thomp, Sunday, 8 June 2008 00:29 (sixteen years ago)

nine months pass...

I'm reading CA now, at last. It's awesome - literally, what this novelist can do with his genre is a little awe-inspiring. Then again, I felt that with Ghostwritten first time out, and it seemed to creak a bit more on second reading.

Maybe, though, that more jaded doubt is to underestimate his ability with small things. What really struck me with GW was not just the structure and diversity, but the level of detail, of style, voice, observation. DM's capacity to see, remember and place things is part of what can be awesome about him - the London section of GW, for instance, has so much scattered truth about London in it; the Tokyo section is so full of little beauties. And I think his style - brisk, lyrical, droll - is still switched on a lot of the time in CA.

Anyway I'm only 3 chapters in! So not gonna read thread for spoilers.

But Black Swan Green by the way - a eloquent defence of it upthread, but I found it remarkably disappointing, regularly misjudged and redundant; odd from an author whose instinct so often seems so good. Maybe the links between CA and BSG will slightly redeem the latter for me.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 8 March 2009 14:25 (sixteen years ago)

ten months pass...

wish i hadn't read BSG before reading CA, because i missed the significance of the frobisher/eva references in BSG. still, i love both, although nabisco is otm™ about the mechanical vs thematic connections. the thematic stuff was way stronger, and the mechanical stuff was a little frustrating. i kept thinking that the birthmark stuff was weak and was waiting for some kind of payoff. it seems like mitchell agrees, at least judging from the winky part about the structure of 'cloud atlas sextet' where he writes something like "revolutionary or gimmick? i won't know until it's finished." ghostwritten did almost the exact same thing to much better effect imo, although cloud atlas is way more entertaining and probably better written (it's been so long since i've read ghostwritten, i don't remember the prose very well).

looking forward to his new one: http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Autumns-Jacob-Zoet-Novel/dp/1400065453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265140939&sr=8-1

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Tuesday, 2 February 2010 20:04 (fifteen years ago)

three months pass...

Just finished "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet".

He's done away with the clever forms, and just allowed his narrative sleight-of-hand to exist on a chapter by chapter basis. The prose style is, when dealing with the European characters, a gorgeous Melville pastiche, like the first part of Cloud Atlas. It's denser than his previous books and very rewarding. I preferred Black Swan Green to Mitchell's previous books; when he keeps his social commentary bubbling underneath a more urbane coming-of-age story--or in Jacob de Zoet's case, a romance--it has more resonance. Mitchell is one of my favourite authors and "de Zoet" is his best book.

― ◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝ (Ówen P.), Sunday, 2 May 2010 09:33 (fifteen years ago)

Sounds great! Think this is going to be a good summer book for me. Cheers, Ówen.

― Remember me, but o! forget my feet (GamalielRatsey), Sunday, 2 May 2010 09:36 (fifteen years ago)

I have to warn you, though, that this is another one of those one-sitting reads. I read Cloud Atlas in a feverish three days and this one in two. Don't start it when you have work to do.

― ◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝ (Ówen P.), Sunday, 2 May 2010 09:43 (fifteen years ago)

Hmm, yes, thanks for that as well. Do love those books, and the experience of one-sitting reads, where they briefly take over your life, but it's nice to have a clear run at 'em.

― Remember me, but o! forget my feet (GamalielRatsey), Sunday, 2 May 2010 09:45 (fifteen years ago)

oh shit, I didn't realize this was out.

― congratulations (n/a), Sunday, 2 May 2010 12:54 (fifteen years ago)

it's not. looking forward to it though.

― jed_, Monday, 3 May 2010 11:54 (fifteen years ago)

it's out in two weeks here and in two months where you are.

― jed_, Monday, 3 May 2010 11:56 (fifteen years ago)

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omg you're the only one, pinefox! besides me! who doesn't like if on a winter's night! <3!

― horseshoe, Saturday, 12 November 2011 21:02 (thirteen years ago)

Crazy talk!

― ice cr?m, Saturday, 12 November 2011 21:02 (thirteen years ago)

i like his novels a lot but am also biased cuz ive interviewed a couple of times and he was just super intelligent and engaged and fun to talk to and once took like an extra hour just to chat w/ me abt like japanese music and nabakov, and was really encouraging and kind abt my own writing

'ghostwritten' is his best book, i think, although there are stretches of 'cloud atlas' that are incredible i think some of the sections really lag, also hes better at beginning than ending mb

hes kindof a storyteller at heart tho, i think, like he cares abt his characters and what happens to them, it makes his more fractured stories less inventive/clever but also nicer to read cuz theyre not just chess pieces or w/e. when i talked to him abt 'black swan green' he talked a lot abt 'realism' and caring abt truth which is kinda in opposition to calvino, sort of

― we were cool once (Lamp), Saturday, 12 November 2011 21:15 (thirteen years ago)

My favorite part of Jacob de Zoet was the final section: the sea captain's ruminations.

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 November 2011 21:16 (thirteen years ago)

eight months pass...

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2012/07/24/fl-cloud-atlas_510x383.jpg

― max, Thursday, 26 July 2012 11:31 (twelve years ago)

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― max, Thursday, 26 July 2012 11:31 (twelve years ago)

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― max, Thursday, 26 July 2012 11:31 (twelve years ago)

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― max, Thursday, 26 July 2012 11:31 (twelve years ago)

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― max, Thursday, 26 July 2012 11:31 (twelve years ago)

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