Book report: Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
Book report: Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell My son James recommended this novel to me, and I’m glad he did. It’s certainly one of the strangest novels I’ve ever read. I’m going to do my best to describe it without giving away too many of the surprises. First off, it is actually six different stories, with different main characters, different times and places, and, most impressively, different styles. After reading this book, I have no idea what David Mitchell’s writing style is, and I mean that as a compliment. The book opens with a journal being kept by Adam Ewing, an American legal clerk in the 1830s returning from an assignment in the South Pacific to his home in San Francisco. This section reminded me of the “Master and Commander” books in their descriptions of shipboard life. This section was the toughest sledding for me, with descriptions of cannibalism and inter-tribe atrocities that made me queasy. But definitely press on, because the next section is an absolute de