Anyone read Cloud Atlas?

[Axolotl]

I've just finished it and think it was amazing, although the middle section made me want to beat myself senseless with a baseball bat. I didn't mind being made to work, but that was just torture. However, I loved most of the other sections and am blown away by how clever and well-written the book was. Some of his use of language was just extraordinary. What does anyone else think? What was your favourite section? Mine was Timothy Cavendish.

I have Cloud Atlas next to read, have finished Ghostwritten and am almost done with Number 9 dream. I'm thoroughly enjoying them all though I do spend a lot of time scratching my head.

Dh is almost finished with Black Swan Green and he keeps having to put it down because he's find it pretty emotional.

So sorry, in answer to your question I haven't read it yet but I'm really looking forward to it. Could discuss in a month or 2 !

Hi there
I'd love to know what you think once you've read it. I've got a bit lazy in my old age and don't tend to read very challenging books like this that often, but I'm really glad I did. I do wonder though, whether there is an element sometimes of people not wanting to look ignorant. I find it very bizarre that Cloud Atlas was voted as the best read of the year by the Richard and Judy club. It's a great book, but it's a hard book, and I do feel a bit suspicious of it getting this prize!

ThoughtitwaS hard work inplaces,but overall good.
I could have read a whole book about the post apocalyptic time!

I read this last summer and liked it so much I actually bought it for SIL.
Agree that it does take work, but definitely worth it. I didn't find the middle section too bad but I somehow seem to read more than the average number of novels involving phonetically-transcribed Scottish and/or Irish accents, so it didn't throw me as much as it might have.
I think I liked the Frobisher section best.

The Amazon reviews are fascinating - some readers loved it but those that didn't hated it with a passion, often, it seems, due to the nonlinear narrative.
This is so not a problem in mainstream film any more (Reservoir Dogs, Memento, Fight Club, to name the obvious ones), you'd have thought it wouldn't be a problem in mainstream literature.

oh, meant to add that reading it in one or two long sittings (on holiday as it happened) made it much easier than I imagine it must be to read in 20min chunks.
I wonder if that's where the problem with non-linear narrative in literature lies - no-one watches films in daily 20min lumps and expects to get the best out of it.

MrsB
I agree and think I probably would have found the middle section easier if I'd had one long train journey or something. Some of his descriptions just impressed me so much...like where he described an early evening sky as 'lemon yellow'. So simple but so perfect.

I confess I always hate prose written in dialect, so that was always going to be a big downer for me.
Spykid, I usually hate sci-fi, but I enjoyed the Somni bit a lot. There were little jokes in there too, which were great, like where Frobisher hates being asked about where he gets his ideas from! I know that was really Mitchell's heartfelt sentiment as a writer!