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Cloud Atlas is one of those modern day books that is virtually required reading for a reading group to discuss. There's much to admire in the clever way the author delivers different interlocking stories, one inside the other like a Russian Doll, not only changing time periods but fictional genres. I couldn't help feeling that it was all too clever for its own good, however.
The reader may enjoy a historical novel or a political thriller or a futuristic sci-fi plot, but finding a reader who will enjoy all of them may be rare. The further in to the novel I got, the harder I found the reading, until the middle segment set in a post-apocalyptic future where even the language had broken down and I came to a stodgy halt, skipping forward to the conclusions of the earlier stories.
The fact that the central characers across the stories were somehow linked seemed pointless, as it didn't come to any conclusion or clarification as to why.
Overall I found it a curate's egg of a novel, inside a curate's egg of a novel, inside ...
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Firstly, the niggly negative - I found the use of the same actors with varying degrees of successful prosthetics and accents distracted from the powerful storytelling involving the central characters. There is no suggestion in the book that there is a recurrence of similarity linked to facial features, just the birth mark. This is noticeably unsuccessful when actors have been used to transcend race - an afro-american as an asian and an asian as a white british female jar completely.
What is totally successful is the editing of the different story strands. Whereas in the book you read a complete half of the story and then move on to another, the film intercuts between one and another sometimes at a rapid pace. You might think this would make it difficult to keep up, but it emphasises the interconnectedness, as the different stories overlap and the editing brings them all closer together.
In some cases you get voice over from one story phased into another, but this makes sense to both plots. You also get similar pathos in each story at the same time, so there are moments across the ages where there is action, danger, love and sorrow.
Also the meaning of the stories became much clearer to me and the resonance of "We are just a drop in the ocean, but what is the ocean but a collection of drops" had real inspiration. Not all of us are important decision makers but what we do in our short life time can have a lasting impact to someone, regardless.
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