Cloud Atlas
Encyclopedia
Cloud Atlas is a 2004
novel, the third book by British
author David Mitchell
. It won the British Book Awards
Literary Fiction Award and the Richard & Judy
Book of the Year award, and was short-listed for the 2004 Booker Prize, Nebula Award
, Arthur C. Clarke Award
, and other awards.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
Pacific Ocean
, circa 1850. Adam Ewing, an American notary
's account of a voyage home from the remote Chatham Islands
, east of New Zealand
. The next character discovers this story as a diary on his patron's bookshelf.
Letters from Zedelghem
Zedelgem
, Belgium
, 1931. Robert Frobisher, a penniless young English musician, finds work as an amanuensis
to a composer
living in Belgium. This story is saved in the form of letters to his friend (and implied lover) Rufus Sixsmith, which the next character discovers after meeting Sixsmith.
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery.
Buenas Yerbas, California
, 1975. Luisa Rey, a journalist, investigates reports of corruption and murder at a nuclear power plant
. The next character is sent this story in the mail, in the form of a manuscript for a novel.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
United Kingdom
, early 21st century. Timothy Cavendish, a vanity press
publisher, flees the brothers of his gangster client. He gets confined against his will in a nursing home from which he cannot escape. The next character watches a movie dramatisation of this story.
An Orison of Sonmi~451
Nea So Copros (Korea
), dystopian near future. Sonmi~451, a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) server at Papa Song's diner (a proxy for McDonald's
), is interviewed before her execution after she rebels against the capitalist totalitarian society that created and exploited her kind. The next character watches Sonmi's story projected holographically in an "orison," a futuristic recording device.
Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After
Hawaii
, post-apocalyptic distant future. Zachry, a tribesman living a primitive life after most of humanity dies during "the Fall," is visited by Meronym, a member of the last remnants of technologically-advanced civilization. This story is told when the protagonist is an old man, to seemingly random strangers around a camp-fire.
Many other themes permeate the book. Movements of ascent and descent, for example, appear in each of the six stories. They are suggestive of humanity's larger moral epiphanies and failings. Adam Ewing, whilst ascending the volcano on the Chatham Islands
loses his footing and tumbles down into a hollow (p19); Robert Frobisher is forced to jump from the first floor of hotel to avoid paying his bill (p43); the car of Luisa Rey is shunted off the edge of a bridge and falls into the water around Swannekke Bridge (p144); the author whom Timothy Cavendish publishes ejects a literary critic from the 12th floor of a hotel (p151); the clone, or fabricant, called Sonmi~451 ascends from the underground shopping mall in which she works (p208), and her growing self-consciousness is also explicitly described as an "ascension". Finally, Zachary Bailey and Meronym climb and then descend the Hawaiian mountain of Mauna Kea
, Zachary confronting the temptations of the devil (named as Ol' Georgie in the book) (p282 onwards).
Moreover, many of the stories have their authenticity challenged in the narrative that succeeds them. Robert Frobisher, for instance, feels that Ewing's purported journal is too neatly structured to be genuine; "Half Lives" is implied to be a fictional adventure novel submitted to Timothy Cavendish's literary agency.
, the book's title is connected to Yoko Ono
. The book's style was inspired by Italo Calvino
's If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, which contains several incomplete interrupted narratives. Mitchell decided to add a 'mirror' in the centre of his book so that each story could be brought to a conclusion.
Apart from the central story (Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin After), which is uninterrupted, each story breaks abruptly off half-way through, to be followed by the first half of the next story. The interrupted story then appears within the next one, with the protagonist reading or watching the first half of its text; for example, in "An Orison of Sonmi~451," Sonmi~451 describes watching a film about the life of Timothy Cavendish, but she is only able to watch 50 minutes before her story is also interrupted. Each story ends with its protagonist finding the second half of this story, which is then printed after it.
Cloud Atlass six novella structure has been described as nesting in a Matryoshka doll
fashion, a description perhaps imprecise, as the plots, themes, and especially voice and setting vary greatly (not merely the size and scope). The stories do bracket and interlock one another into a whole stronger than its constituent parts, but each story could be successfully read independently of the related other five.
It can also be noted that "Cloud Atlas" is often also written using purple prose
. While Mitchell's style and narration changes with each novella, he is apt to use extremely descriptive and at times esoteric references. His choice of diction encompasses everything from "nonce" to "balderdash," and he refers to figures such as Herman Melville and Friedrich Nietzsche, among many others.
Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After,
is science fiction
reminiscent of the post-apocalyptic world of Riddley Walker
by Russell Hoban
, also contains echoes of Toni Morrison
's slave narratives and The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham
.
An Orison of Sonmi~451,
also science fiction, recalls the futuristic Orwellian dystopias of Yevgeny Zamyatin
, Aldous Huxley
, Philip K Dick and Margaret Atwood
.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
revisits a minor character from Mitchell's earlier novel Ghostwritten
in a modern comedy.
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
also uses a Ghostwritten character and is written in a style reminiscent of an airport novel
or a Hollywood film.
Letters from Zedelghem
sees Robert Frobisher compose the Cloud Atlas Sextet, which consists of six nested solos arranged in the same manner as the narratives in Cloud Atlas. Mitchell has noted that the characters Robert Frobisher and Vyvyan Ayrs were inspired by Eric Fenby
and Frederick Delius
(Fenby was an amanuensis to the great English composer). In addition, the daughter of Ayrs appears in Black Swan Green as an elderly woman befriended by the main character.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
was inspired by the works of Herman Melville
.
and the Wachowskis are directing a film adaptation of the novel. With an ensemble cast to cover the film's multiple storylines, production began in September of 2011 at Studio Babelsberg in Germany. The film is scheduled to be released in October of 2012.
2004 in literature
The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....
novel, the third book by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author David Mitchell
David Mitchell (author)
David Stephen Mitchell is an English novelist. He has written five novels, two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.- Biography :...
. It won the British Book Awards
British Book Awards
The Galaxy National Book Awards are a series of British literary awards focused on the best UK writers and their works, as selected by an academy of members from the British book publishing industry...
Literary Fiction Award and the Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy was a British magazine/chat show which was presented by married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. It originally aired on Channel 4 from 2001 to 2008 but later moved to digital channel Watch in October 2008. It featured the world's most famous stars, along with their Book Club...
Book of the Year award, and was short-listed for the 2004 Booker Prize, Nebula Award
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
, Arthur C. Clarke Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
, and other awards.
Plot summary
The novel consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or watched) by the main character in the next. All stories but the last one get interrupted at some moment, and after the sixth story concludes at the center of the book, the novel "goes back" in time, "closing" each story as the book progresses in terms of pages but regresses in terms of the historical period in which the action takes place. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the Pacific Ocean, circa 1850.The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, circa 1850. Adam Ewing, an American notary
Notary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
's account of a voyage home from the remote Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
, east of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. The next character discovers this story as a diary on his patron's bookshelf.
Letters from Zedelghem
Zedelgem
Zedelgem
Zedelgem is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the villages of Aartrijke, Loppem, Veldegem and Zedelgem proper. On January 1, 2006 Zedelgem had a total population of 21,835...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, 1931. Robert Frobisher, a penniless young English musician, finds work as an amanuensis
Amanuensis
Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...
to a composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
living in Belgium. This story is saved in the form of letters to his friend (and implied lover) Rufus Sixsmith, which the next character discovers after meeting Sixsmith.
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery.
Buenas Yerbas, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, 1975. Luisa Rey, a journalist, investigates reports of corruption and murder at a nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
. The next character is sent this story in the mail, in the form of a manuscript for a novel.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, early 21st century. Timothy Cavendish, a vanity press
Vanity press
A vanity press or vanity publisher is a term describing a publishing house that publishes books at the author's expense. Publisher Johnathon Clifford claims to have coined the term in 1959. However, the term appears in mainstream U.S...
publisher, flees the brothers of his gangster client. He gets confined against his will in a nursing home from which he cannot escape. The next character watches a movie dramatisation of this story.
An Orison of Sonmi~451
Nea So Copros (Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
), dystopian near future. Sonmi~451, a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) server at Papa Song's diner (a proxy for McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
), is interviewed before her execution after she rebels against the capitalist totalitarian society that created and exploited her kind. The next character watches Sonmi's story projected holographically in an "orison," a futuristic recording device.
Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After
Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, post-apocalyptic distant future. Zachry, a tribesman living a primitive life after most of humanity dies during "the Fall," is visited by Meronym, a member of the last remnants of technologically-advanced civilization. This story is told when the protagonist is an old man, to seemingly random strangers around a camp-fire.
Reception
F&SF reviewer Robert. K. J. Killheffer praised Mitchell's "talent and inventiveness and willingness to adopt any mode or voice that furthers his ends," but noted that "for all its pleasures, Cloud Atlas falls short of revolutionary."Linking themes
Mitchell has said of the book: "All of the [leading] characters are reincarnations of the same soul ... identified by a birthmark. ... The "cloud" refers to the ever-changing manifestations of the "atlas", which is the fixed human nature. ... The book's theme is predacity ... individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations."Many other themes permeate the book. Movements of ascent and descent, for example, appear in each of the six stories. They are suggestive of humanity's larger moral epiphanies and failings. Adam Ewing, whilst ascending the volcano on the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
loses his footing and tumbles down into a hollow (p19); Robert Frobisher is forced to jump from the first floor of hotel to avoid paying his bill (p43); the car of Luisa Rey is shunted off the edge of a bridge and falls into the water around Swannekke Bridge (p144); the author whom Timothy Cavendish publishes ejects a literary critic from the 12th floor of a hotel (p151); the clone, or fabricant, called Sonmi~451 ascends from the underground shopping mall in which she works (p208), and her growing self-consciousness is also explicitly described as an "ascension". Finally, Zachary Bailey and Meronym climb and then descend the Hawaiian mountain of Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest...
, Zachary confronting the temptations of the devil (named as Ol' Georgie in the book) (p282 onwards).
Moreover, many of the stories have their authenticity challenged in the narrative that succeeds them. Robert Frobisher, for instance, feels that Ewing's purported journal is too neatly structured to be genuine; "Half Lives" is implied to be a fictional adventure novel submitted to Timothy Cavendish's literary agency.
Structure and style
Like its predecessor Number9DreamNumber9dream
number9dream is the second novel by English author David Mitchell.Set in Japan, it narrates the search of 19-year-old Eiji Miyake for his father, whom he has never met....
, the book's title is connected to Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
. The book's style was inspired by Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
's If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, which contains several incomplete interrupted narratives. Mitchell decided to add a 'mirror' in the centre of his book so that each story could be brought to a conclusion.
Apart from the central story (Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin After), which is uninterrupted, each story breaks abruptly off half-way through, to be followed by the first half of the next story. The interrupted story then appears within the next one, with the protagonist reading or watching the first half of its text; for example, in "An Orison of Sonmi~451," Sonmi~451 describes watching a film about the life of Timothy Cavendish, but she is only able to watch 50 minutes before her story is also interrupted. Each story ends with its protagonist finding the second half of this story, which is then printed after it.
Cloud Atlass six novella structure has been described as nesting in a Matryoshka doll
Matryoshka doll
A matryoshka doll is a Russian nesting doll which is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo...
fashion, a description perhaps imprecise, as the plots, themes, and especially voice and setting vary greatly (not merely the size and scope). The stories do bracket and interlock one another into a whole stronger than its constituent parts, but each story could be successfully read independently of the related other five.
It can also be noted that "Cloud Atlas" is often also written using purple prose
Purple prose
Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context...
. While Mitchell's style and narration changes with each novella, he is apt to use extremely descriptive and at times esoteric references. His choice of diction encompasses everything from "nonce" to "balderdash," and he refers to figures such as Herman Melville and Friedrich Nietzsche, among many others.
Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After,
is science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
reminiscent of the post-apocalyptic world of Riddley Walker
Riddley Walker
Riddley Walker is a science fiction novel by Russell Hoban, first published in 1980. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel in 1982, as well as an Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award in 1983...
by Russell Hoban
Russell Hoban
Russell Conwell Hoban is an American writer, now living in England, of fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magic realism, poetry, and children's books-Biography:...
, also contains echoes of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
's slave narratives and The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids is a science fiction novel by John Wyndham, first published in 1955 by Michael Joseph. It is the least typical of Wyndham's major novels, but regarded by some people as his best...
by John Wyndham
John Wyndham
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...
.
An Orison of Sonmi~451,
also science fiction, recalls the futuristic Orwellian dystopias of Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin was a Russian author of science fiction and political satire. Despite having been a prominent Old Bolshevik, Zamyatin was deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the CPSU following the October Revolution...
, Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, Philip K Dick and Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
.
The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
revisits a minor character from Mitchell's earlier novel Ghostwritten
Ghostwritten
Ghostwritten is the first novel published by the author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around East Asia, but also moves through Russia, Britain, the USA and Ireland...
in a modern comedy.
Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
also uses a Ghostwritten character and is written in a style reminiscent of an airport novel
Airport novel
Airport novels represent a literary genre that is not so much defined by its plot or cast of stock characters, as much as it is by the social function it serves...
or a Hollywood film.
Letters from Zedelghem
sees Robert Frobisher compose the Cloud Atlas Sextet, which consists of six nested solos arranged in the same manner as the narratives in Cloud Atlas. Mitchell has noted that the characters Robert Frobisher and Vyvyan Ayrs were inspired by Eric Fenby
Eric Fenby
Eric William Fenby OBE was an English composer and teacher who is best known for being Frederick Delius's amanuensis from 1928 to 1934. He helped Delius realise a number of works that would not otherwise have been forthcoming....
and Frederick Delius
Frederick Delius
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...
(Fenby was an amanuensis to the great English composer). In addition, the daughter of Ayrs appears in Black Swan Green as an elderly woman befriended by the main character.
The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
was inspired by the works of Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
.
Film adaptation
Tom TykwerTom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run , Heaven , Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , and The International ....
and the Wachowskis are directing a film adaptation of the novel. With an ensemble cast to cover the film's multiple storylines, production began in September of 2011 at Studio Babelsberg in Germany. The film is scheduled to be released in October of 2012.
External links
- David Mitchell discusses Cloud Atlas on the BBC's World Book ClubWorld Book ClubWorld Book Club is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of his or her books, often the most well-known one, with the public...
- Summary of reviews of Cloud Atlas at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, review by Ted Gioia (Conceptual Fiction)