Book Reco # 7: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Six interwoven stories that tells us about the never-changing landscape of humanity
Hello Dear Reader,
This week’s book recommendation is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. You might have heard about this book already because of the confusing movie adaption but I assure you the source novel is not confusing at all!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 stars
Why is it that us humans destroy our own kind? Why do we oppress, plunder, and destroy another for one's own gain? Which will, in the end, become our own destruction. As one of the main characters in Cloud Atlas, Adam Ewing said, "One fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction."
Cloud Atlas are six connected stories, each with a distinct writing style and voice. Each of these stories on their own is a typical good vs evil, beginning vs destruction, love vs tragedy story. But together, it's a story about how our moral choices affect others. Maybe not now, but it another time or place.
Each of the stories is interrupted mid-way by the next story. Only to be continued again after all first parts of the stories are presented. Then, it continues in reverse chronological order. To put it simply, the order goes as:
Story 1: The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 1)
Story 2: Letters from Zedelghem (Part 1)
Story 3: Half-lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 1)
Story 4: The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 1)
Story 5: An Orison of Sonmi-451 (Part 1)
Story 6: Sloosha's Crossin' An' Everythin' After (Part 1)
Story 5: An Orison of Sonmi-451 (Part 2)
Story 4: The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 2)
Story 3: Half-lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 2)
Story 2: Letters from Zedelghem (Part 2)
Story 1: The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 2)
I found Story 1 and 6 a little hard to follow because they're written differently, albeit in English. Story 3 is written in a cheesy, John Grisham-like thriller. It's so cheesy it's almost comical. I remember my early childhood reading days about Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys though so all good. However, I want you to just trust the story even if it isn't enticing at times. It will be beautiful in the end, I promise.
You can read it as book about moral choices but you can also not be bothered by the morality of it all and just let yourself become fascinated by the connections of all six stories.
It's mostly about humanity's inevitable tragic end but it left me hopeful at the end of the last story. Kindness begets kindness, truly.
Now, I'm off to watch the movie.