Cloud Cuckoo Land A Novel

3.5 stars

Edit: just finished the audiobook and that went better for me than the ebook had. There is some nice payoff for the meta level components and I liked what it had to say about Stories. But I still didn’t feel drawn to any particular character or their story. I was more into the arrangement of the stories, especially with the self referencing components became clear, than being interested in the resolution of any particular character. Mostly because their presence does feel engineered for their overarching purpose, making it feel like the only things that matter is the plot and not it’s beats. I did bump up my rating to 3 stars (2.5 rounded up) though. Because I do think the meta aspect works. I know already that that is the only thing I’ll remember about this book, though. The thing about this book is that I actually really like the qualities of the prose. It has wonderful diction, cadence, and specificity. But it also tends to change framing so casually and quickly that most of what I consume feels meaningless and my mind begins to skim or wander. There’s 5 points of view characters and within each, including a donkey, the point of view further shifts. Stream of consciousness Interiority to omniscient head hopping to just setting the scene before jumping next paragraph break into the head of a character again. I began to see some interesting themes coalesce but rapidly realized I didn’t actually care about anything except the curiosity of meta level questions. It is the most uprooted, groundless novel I’ve ever consumed and it is admirable sometimes, but also just not something that jibes with my mind, apparently. I just could not focus. I even took a weeks break from it to see if it would do me well and when I came back to it, well, same problem, I’m sorry to say. I usually give books i DNF 1 star but I actually do love the prose work and it does seem a case of just how my brain works. It seems most people get on with it well. I gave it more than a fair shot at 34% though, so I don’t feel too bad about moving on. Thanks to Netgalley and the author and publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair review. I expected to enjoy it quite a lot with the pitch and author, but not all books are for all people, and that’s just fine.