Reviews
As a novel of interconnected short stories, this seems like a book that is better as the sum of its parts. I found a lot of the parts to be rather tedious and uninteresting and not linked enough for me to care. I'm glad I didn't give up, because the second to last story, "Night Train," about a radio DJ having a conversation with a caller who may/may not be a terrorist/hacker during WWIII, ended up being one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the sweet romance of the Tokyo story, about a record store worker who falls in love with a foreign customer. This is one of the few stories with a happy ending. The others (St. Petersburg, Clear Island) weren't bad, but for some reason, Mitchell's prose never clicks completely with me and pulls me forcibly along to the point where I can't drag my eyes from the page - like great books do. At any point, I felt I could skim or put the book down and was tempted to give up entirely after some sections, but I thankfully stuck it out. I may come back to this one in the future, as I feel there are entire themes present that I can't seem to get a grasp of, but I sense would be worth the effort. I would recommend this book for patient readers who can tolerate wild shifts of style and narrative. For those up to the challenge, I'm sure this will be worth it.
Another pleasant read by Mitchell. The links between the characters felt a bit random to me at times but overall I liked it.
... мога само да подканя читателите да влязат по-смело в световете на Мичъл. Въпреки че у нас минава някак незабелязано в сянката на други негови британски и американски връстници, той е най-интересният и свободно играещ си на пясъчника на литературата сред тях. http://vsichkozaknigite.bg/review/нев...
I really liked about 90% of this book. Very well written, super engaging, brought up a lot of interesting ideas. I'm going to stop writing now and just accept that this is a vague review. K?
What an interesting book. I’ve seen people call it a “proto-Cloud Atlas” and that rings true for me as well. It’s not as refined but the idea is there, not to mention so many references to other Mitchell books it makes me dizzy. There are 9 stories (10 chapters but first and last is the same character) in this one. A more unwieldy beast, to be sure. I won’t recount all of them because there is so much that happens. But know that each is a short story that references the previous one. We globe trot, enter many different lives. A young man at a record store who falls for a girl visiting, and their situation, which wraps up in a subsequent chapter; a cult member indoctrinated into terrorist; broke womanizer who seems to be a marble tossed, hitting both good and bad luck. Different people, different locations, but the same eternal struggle for what they need, want, crave, etc. the trappings of humanity that defines them being sought. Some win, some lose. As with short stories for me, some spoke to me more so than others. The referential aspects to each story did make me engage with the ones I didn’t care about more though, so that is successful. It feels thematically not very cogent, however. Feeling more preoccupied with its structure and notions for a particular story than a really exciting unifying concept. Where Cloud Atlas benefits from the refinement of voice and the better structure, in which each novellas builds to a climax and then cascades downward to the end. Yet this is far from unsatisfying. I liked the leap frog narrative and really, really loved how it tied in with so much other stuff; most especially the meta component. I really liked it, but much prefer Mitchell’s longer form novella formats than short stories. But I also rarely enjoy short story collections, so it could easily be a subjective component that will allow some readers to enjoy it more than me. Now, be warned, I want to talk spoilers here. In the future id like to be able to remember the ties to other books so want to get the things I saw down, and then if I re read it in the future, add to it. First of all, it was soooo exciting to build anticipation with each book from Bone Clocks on to this one, as this sort of describes a bird of an atemporal being that, presumably, becomes a horologist. I wish I knew which one—and am almost certain it would have been referenced in the Bone Clocks when they speak of their past lives. That whole chapter was really, really cool. There is also the comet that passes by and that is a symbol in Cloud Atlas in birth mark form, marking a reincarnated soul. But interestingly, Luisa Rey calls into a radio program and is already a journalist, so I may just be conflating that with the movie and not the book? Perhaps in the book the characters don’t have the mark… or perhaps the mark is a reference but bares no meaning, or a different meaning I was unable to discern here with that chapter with the A.I and atemporal person, presumably the horologist from their chapter. Who knows? Also noticed, of course, Tim Cavindish, the publisher, which was neat. And Neal Brose and I THINK a man with the same last name of another kid in Black Swan Green. But nothing important there, just fun. Suhbataar, from the next book, Number9Dream plays a fairly major role, and as I documented, this takes place in Mongolia, I believe, so that does feel like the 9Dream chapter is from an atemporal person, possibly the one in this book? Who the F is it though? Dwight Silverhand, a published author here, is mentioned in Bone Clocks, but I think as a crock? And finally Mo Muntervary I’ve highlighted because it rings a bell, and is in Ireland. I imagine that’s in the Bone Clocks in some way, as that has a lot of chapters set there. Maybe she’s the one who ends up with our heroine?… can’t recall. Anyway, way more connections than most books (that I’ve noticed). Loved it. Very cool.
3.5
We all think we're in control of our own lives, but really they're pre-ghostwritten by forces around us. DNF @ page 200 something - This review sums up how I feel about this book. This novel has a similar structure to Emily St. John Mandel's works, which is not surprising since she did mention David Mitchell as one of her favourite authors. She also mentioned that The Glass Hotel was initially based on the structure of Cloud Atlas. I really enjoyed Mandel's novels, so I was surprised that I couldn't finish this book despite the similarity in technique. I think my problem is that I'm the type of reader who wants just enough of a challenge and the right amount of overt detail to piece everything together. I also need to be invested in either the characters, the story, or the setting for me to keep reading. I thought the first two chapters of Ghostwritten were great, and the next two were certainly interesting, but it was after I finished reading Mongolia that I just could not continue anymore. The story was getting way too patchy for me (I was only getting "crumbs" of connection), and the characters and the setting were getting less and less interesting. In the end, even after I had found out to a certain extent how everything is tied together, I was still not satisfied. I still think this would be a fantastic read for some people; It just wasn't for me.
You can definitely see the progress from this one to Cloud Atlas.
Written in the style of a series of short stories that share a common thread the writing style never seems forced and flows from tense set pieces to languid descriptive prose without missing a beat, and somehow manages to keep both the stories and the reader involved.
