Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Time after time

Of all the books I read in 2005, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell may have been my favorite. The structure of the book is peculiar. The book is divided into six substories that take place in the recent past, today, the future and the far future. They are connections between each story, but this is not clear at first. Unravelling this puzzle is one of the best parts of the books. The stories are written in different styles, one is a 70s era political thriller, one is a dystopian sci-fi thriller and so on. This one is a must for book clubs.

Mitchell has a new book coming out in April. It sounds much more conventional, as it is a coming of age story. Given how good Cloud Atlas is, I expect this one to be a great read as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed on the quality of Cloud Atlas -- excellent book. We read it for book club and it was a hit, and a particularly good discussion as well. Which of the stories was your favorite? I was partial to the Cavendish "escape from the nursing home" one.

Tripp said...

Yes, that one was quite funny and I rather enjoyed it. In terms of favorite, I am not sure, maybe that one or maybe the artist one.