Dominic Piacentini
The best thing to do over winter break is to sit down in front of a warm fire with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. My book of choice for this winter was “Cloud Atlas.” This book was incredible and different from anything I’ve read before. The novel, by David Mitchell, is structured like a Matroyshka doll. “Cloud Atlas” begins with a 19th century lawyer travelling across the Pacific, but mid-narrative the perspective transitions to a young musician searching for a job in the early 1930s. The reader continues to open up the next doll to find a new narrator hiding inside. The narrative moves to a 1970s journalist, a present-day publisher, a genetically engineered waitress far in the future and a boy living in post-apocalyptic Hawaii. Meanwhile, Mitchell travels the reader through the Pacific Islands, Belgium, California, Britain, Korea and back to the Pacific. Mid-way through the book, Mitchell begins putting the doll back together, moving from the future back through the present and into the past.
Mitchell emphasizes that our actions today affect those in our future, and the world we live in is built upon the choices of those who came before us. Each section of narration covers a different literary format, (a journal, letters, a novel, a film, a trial “orison” and traditional storytelling) and each character reads (or watches) the literature of the preceding character. Mitchell does this to further stress a sense of connection between all human beings and all times.
The structure made the book a fun read, but it is Mitchell’s chameleon style that is most impressive. Each section of the novel is very different in genre, and he adapts his writing for that specific genre. This one book is an adventure, a love story, a detective novel, a comedy, a dystopian political allegory and a post-apocalyptic self-realization. Each story feels totally different in style and tone; however, through these contrasting narratives, Mitchell weaves in the same themes and symbols. Even though the book keeps changing characters and times, the reader gets the sense that it is all one story.
In the fall, “Cloud Atlas” was adapted for the big screen. The film stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon and Jim Sturgess. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but unfortunately my sister had and kept asking me “Have you gotten to this part? Has so-and-so died yet?” I have, however, watched the trailer 20 times by now. The movie builds upon the theme of connection by having the same actors portray different characters through all the narratives. As time goes by and the dolls open up, these same-actor-characters redeem themselves, find love they had lost and face the consequences of their actions as though they are the same spirit. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves playing with narrative structure. I have never read anything like it, and I’m not sure I ever will again. It was the perfect “on break” book. I can’t wait until I finally see the movie, but I’ll save that for our next break.