Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (3.5)
I had this book in my ‘to read’ list for many years. The rave reviews and comparisons to Murakami and P.K. Dick intrigued me. While it had a unique way of telling a story, in the end it did not come together in the powerful way I had hoped for. The chapters are short stories, somewhat independent from one another, moving through time from the 1800’s to the future. Once we finish the last future chapter, they repeat in descending order advancing each story with some hints of how they connect. I enjoyed three of the six storylines and found they could stand on their own. The other three were less interesting. Descriptions of the book talk of reincarnation (the movie version apparently has Tom Hanks and Halle Barry playing characters in each story), but I did not get a strong feeling (except for a birthmark mentioned on various characters) for how that was determined by the reader. The synopsis talks about a killer reincarnated as a hero – frankly I only figured out who they meant by seeing which actor played those two roles in the movie. I don’t enjoy obvious foreshadowing, but this was a bit too cryptic for me!
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