What to write about Cloud Atlas? I almost put it down, to begin with. Mitchell jumps from one story to the next, not ending any of them, and the further we spiralled from past to future the more annoyed I became. I began to enjoy the novel in the section entitled ‘An Orison of Somni-451’, a story of the near future (though this section terrified me too, because I can almost see we are heading in this direction, and I desperately don’t want Mitchell’s future to be the one I live through in my old age), and I fell in love with it during ‘Sloosh’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After’. I love Mitchell’s language in this section, his imaginings of how English might evolve after civilisation as we know it has fallen:
“Valleysmen only had one god an’ her name it was Sonmi… She lived ‘mongst us, minderin’ the Nine Folded Valleys. Most times we cudn’t see her, times she was seen, an old crone with a stick, tho’ I sumtimes seen her as a shimm’rin’ girl. Sonmi helped sick’uns, fixed busted luck, an’ when a truesome’n’civ’lized Valleysman died she’d take his soul an’ lead it back into a womb somewhere in the Valleys. Time was we mem’ried our gone lifes, times was we cudn’t, times was Sonmi telled Abbess who was who in a dreamin’, times she din’t… but we knew we’d always be reborned as Valleysmen, an’ so death weren’t so scarysome for us, nay.”
David Mitchell takes us on a journey through the past, to a future that seems scarily inevitable. Each story is linked, through lives that intertwine from the past to the future, and when Mitchell returns to finish each of the stories the result is absolutely brilliant.
Heather Ewings 
Such a wonderful book. Mitchell is a genius. Thanks for sharing!
If you’re ever interested in some other great book reviews and musings, be sure to follow! Thanks!
It is a brilliant book, and Mitchell certainly is a genius. So glad I persevered with it! Will head on over and check out your blog, too.
Isn’t he infuriating but brilliant, Heather? I found myself thinking about Cloud Atlas for weeks afterwards, and rabbiting on to anyone who would listen.
He certainly is Aislinn! I loved it so much that when I found out there was a movie so I borrowed it from the library – it’s good – though not as good as the book (of course – I think it would have to be made in to a tv series to even have the chance of giving the book any justice), though the DVD stopped working in the last 15 minutes, so I don’t know how the movie version ended. But like you, i am still thinking about it, how clever it was, and how he managed to write so many different styles into the one book, and that idea of being reincarnated into different lives… I could go on and on!