Review: Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a difficult book for me. I decided to listen to it after a few times opening the book in the past reading a few sentences and saying I wasn't in the mood over the last few years. I decided it was time to give it a real go and so I got the audiobook. I did not care for the the first part of it at all. If I'm honest, I really only liked parts of the book. I did enjoy the second half more than the first half, but I still didn't love any of the characters.
The book opens with Adam Ewing's journal. I found him to be irritating, and I have to agree that his journal doesn't seem like any journal I've every read. Also, for all of his philosophizing and analyzing he was blind to the people around him. If I had not known that the book was going to switch narrators and soon I might have given up again.
Second, we have Robert Frobisher writing letters to his friend Rufus Sixsmith. Robert came across as needy and whiny. I again contemplated putting the book aside and saying it just wasn't a book for me.
Third is Luisa Ray, a journalist. Her story was the first that actually held my attention and didn't have me wondering when it was going to end and we were going to get to the next narrator. I think part of this is that it was told as more of a novel. It flowed and I felt like I got to know the setting and characters a little better.
Fourth is Timothy Cavendish an older man in publishing. Again, I found him needy and whiny, and I started hoping for his narration to end and be over with quickly.
Fifth we have a future setting with Sonmi-451. She was by far the most interesting of the narrators and her story was one I would have been happy to listen to for longer.
Last, and the only narrative that is not interrupted is a far future setting with Zachry narrating and Meronym as an outsider staying with his tribe. I didn't for the most part like this narration. I wasn't waiting for it to end like I did with the others, but I also didn't really care.
Then of course the book goes backwards through the characters again. I did enjoy them slightly more the second time around, but I still can't say that I really enjoyed all of the book. As a whole it was ambitious and I like the idea behind the work. It at times worked, but there were a lot of points when it just didn't work for me. I can say with certainty that if I had been reading the text I would never have made it all the way through the book. I probably would have stopped somewhere shortly after reading the first 100 pages. That being said I didn't dislike, I even liked parts of it, but over all I wanted something this book was missing. Because of that I wouldn't recommend it.

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