book 91

david mitchell's cloud atlas
wow. wow, wow, wow. this book definitely deserves the booker prize. first, let me comment on its brilliant structure--stories sandwiched within stories, like nesting dolls--or as mitchell himself writes, regarding a score being composed by one of the characters, "in the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. revolutionary or gimmicky? shan't know until it's finished, and by then it will be too late . . . " (445). trust me when i say it doesn't come off as gimmicky--all the stories are tied together, and each one revolves around an entirely different world than the one before. they interrupt each other at moments of high tension, which at first annoys ("but i want to know what happens to that character!") but then i was too wrapped up in the new story to care about the one before. don't worry, it all cycles back through to a lovely conclusion.

let me just reiterate here: wow. an amazing book.