The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

Our winning group read for July is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Please discuss here and remember to use spoiler tags as needed, as everyone may start at different times and read at different speeds.



A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profund as it is playful. Now in his new novel, David Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity.

Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.
As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.

I am a huge Mitchel fan. I will be around for the discussion. I am not sure about doing a reread, I think I remember enough. I hope people enjoy this as much as I did.

Renee wrote: "I am a huge Mitchel fan. I will be around for the discussion. I am not sure about doing a reread, I think I remember enough. I hope people enjoy this as much as I did."

One of my favourites too.

I want to read this, but I'm really devoted to finishing the Popsugar reading challenge this year and I can't find a prompt for this that I haven't already completed. :(

Looks like the movie is included in Netflixs July line up. Now how cool is that...

Neeraja Krishnadas wrote: "Looks like the movie is included in Netflixs July line up. Now how cool is that..."

What a great coincidence!

I'm excited that this will be my first read with this group. I read Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet in 2018 and I've been wanting to read more of his works ever since.

I will be starting this one today! I love that his group keeps closing books on my TBR :)

I'm about halfway through the 3rd Chapter, Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery and so far this is reading like a collection of short stories for me. I have caught the few connections between the different stories that have been mentioned, but I have no idea where this book is going.

I started it, but sadly just couldn't get into it. I really wanted to try out a new genre as well, but maybe this isn't the one.

Nicky wrote: "I started it, but sadly just couldn't get into it. I really wanted to try out a new genre as well, but maybe this isn't the one."

The farther into the book I got, the more I had to force myself to finish it. I was really excited about this one, because I know a lot of people that love it, but it was overall just average for me. Some of the stories I would have read a whole book on, but others weren't worth the effort, in my opinion. Don't feel back about not finishing it.

In the middle of this delightful read. Has reminisces of The Temple of My Famliar by Alice Walker. It is time to reread that work again.

Really liked this book but it was not an easy read - I think that both the story telling method and the language made it, kind of, exhausting to read - at least when English isn't your native.