Book 24: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

SPOILERS here for those who haven't read the book. I'd recommend skipping out after the second paragraph if you want to enjoy the book untainted.

Cloud Atlas is a novel that plays with the ideas of structure and narrative. It is six stories set in different time periods ranging from the 1800s to a postapocalyptic future. Each story begins and is interrupted halfway through by the next story until you reach the penultimate story which is told unbroken. After the finish of the last story, the others resume each after the completion of the previous story. It's rather like climbing a mountain - with each story, you progress higher until you reach the final story; then, as you come down the mountain, you pick up the end of each tale in reverse order that you started them.

The novel begins with the journal of Adam Ewing, an American notary who has sailed to the South Pacific for work and on his trip home finds himself the unlikely savior of a stowaway "savage" Maori. His journal is cutoff mid-sentence by the next story, which is a collection of letters sent from Robert Frobisher, a roguish musician in the 1930's who travels Europe and seduces a prominent composer into taking him on as an amanuensis [yeah, I had to look that up. It's basically a secretarial slave]. From Frobisher's journeys we then travel to California in the 1970s, where Luisa Rey, a journalist at a sleazy gossip rag has stumbled onto a conspiracy at a nuclear power plant. After Rey's story comes the "Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish," which tells of how Cavendish, a publisher in London, ends up trapped against his will in a retirement home. The next story, my personal favorite, is an interview with Sonmi-451, a clone from the future corpocracy of Nea So Corpos, in the former region of Korea. From Sonmi's intriguing recollections we then move even further into the future, to what is left of Hawaii, as a "freakbirthed" Valleysman watches the last of humanity fight for survival. Each story represents a different style or genre of writing (for example, Rey's tale is a crime thriller), and Mitchell does a fine job of writing each style.

One of the interesting things about the structure of the novel is that each story (with the exception of the last) is being read or watched by the next. Frobisher finds Ewing's journal and comments on it in his letters; Rey reads Frobisher's letters; Cavendish is sent Rey's story as a manuscript; Sonmi-451 watches a movie version of Cavendish's ordeal; and Zachry (the Valleysman) views Sonmi's interview through a futuristic device that projects a hologram.

There is another way the author connects his stories. He mentions a comet-shaped birthmark that is shared by main protagonists of the story (save for the last - it's not the narrator but another character who bears the mark). The obvious interpretation of the mark here is reincarnation - that it's the same soul traveling through the ages. And just like how there's a sense of progression as you head deeper into the novel (or up the mountain, as I think of it), there's a progression of the soul from one lifetime to another - it evolves. It starts out as Ewing, a very proper man who sees how horribly humans treat one another (races enslaving others, for example) and chooses not to act; to Frobisher, who is driven by his own selfish impulses but strives to create something lasting through his music; to Rey, who sees an impending catastrophe and fights to prevent it; to Cavendish, who fights for his freedom; to Sonmi, who fights for the freedom of others, namely, her fellow clone slaves; and finally, to the character of Meronym, who fights with Zachry to prevent the loss of all humanity has achieved in the face of its most primal, base nature. The soul evolves from idle witness to proactive fighter - in every time period, the same problems are presented (the struggle for power and/or dominance between men, between races, between countries) and as the stories advance, the soul reaches its apex in the unbroken sixth story, and the ramifications are felt as the other stories come to their conclusions.

The more I reflect on the book, the more I find threads between the stories. And I wish that Mitchell would turn the chapter on Sonmi into a full novel; that story in particular is a very well fleshed out world that I would love to explore. The novel has been optioned by the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame), and it's interesting to ponder how they would take such a sprawling vision and turn it into a movie. But personally, I'd rather not see it get the Hollywood chop treatment.

Book 23: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

I'm sure you've all heard of this book by now if you're a Pajiban. It's been mentioned many times on the site. It's got one hell of a title, and it lives up to it.

AHWOSG (yeah, I'm not typing the whole thing repeatedly) is Dave Eggers sprawling memoir that details his young adult life. While he is in college, both of his parents die within 6 months of each other, leaving him and his older brother Bill and older sister Beth to take care of their younger-by-10-years brother, Christopher (Topher for short). Dave ends up chosen as Topher's caretaker, so they move to CA and he attempts to balance his new found role as "parent" (of sorts) with starting a magazine (Might Magazine) with his friends.

That's a basic, nutshell description of the book. But Eggers is not one for simple, linear storytelling. His writing is full of starts and stops, of disconnected and yet overarching ideas about his life, what it means to be family, what it means to DO something with your life, what his parents' deaths meant for him and his family, and so on and so forth. The foreward, intro, Rules & Suggestions, whatever you want to call it, itself is about 30 pages long. Eggers also uses different framing devices such as an interview to tell his story.

The phrase "voice of a generation" has been bandied about in reference to Eggers, and it's not hard to see why. First of all, he talks of a vision of people forming a "lattice" of support, all connected, as "one body," and says things like, "I am bursting with the hopes of a generation, their hopes surge through me, threaten to burst my heartened heart!" and "[Oh], let me be the strong-beating heart that brings blood to everyone!" These grandiose statements about being one with others and wanting to support them, to show them that they are connected, and to show that all their pain and loss was not for naught but for a purpose... well, it's easy to relate to such thoughts. And secondly, Eggers stream of consciousness style of writing sounds like the voice in my own head. He interrupts himself repeatedly, sometimes in mid-thought, sometimes in mid-sentence, and is so sarcastic, bombastic, and honest, I identify with him. I may not have gone through the tragedy he's experienced, but I can empathize with his feelings of fear, of excitement, and of wanting to turn his life into something worthwhile.

Book 22: The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier

I am a huge fan of Brockmeier. I read his novel "A Brief History of the Dead" a few years ago, and have been hooked ever since. He's a gifted writer who draws you in with his vivid descriptions and makes you truly care about his characters. His books are the type that you find difficult to put down - you want to stay in his worlds and find out what happens next.

"The Truth About Celia" is one of the most beautiful and sorrowful novels I've ever read. It's also a book within a book - it's a collection of short stories written by a fictional author named Christopher Brooks. Christopher is a successful science fiction author who lives with his wife Janet and 7-year-old daughter Celia. One day, while he is giving a tour of their historical home, Celia, who was playing in their backyard, simply vanishes. Poof. Gone without a sound or trace.

The novel is Christopher's first work since Celia's disappearance. In the 7 years after, he has written several short stories that all revolve around that tragedy. One story recounts the events of that fateful day over and over, as if by doing so Christopher could find a new piece to the puzzle that explains what happened. Another story starts with one character and moves through the town, bouncing from person to person, showing how they have all been affected by Celia's disappearance, and ending in a ceremony being held by the townspeople to honor her memory. There are several pieces of fiction that try to give Celia a happy ending - in one, she has fallen into a different world; in another, she's grown up and is raising a son who wants to become a magician.

The novel is Christopher's way of coping with their loss. It's a horrible tragedy - I can't think of anything worse than simply losing someone. Even when you lose a loved one to death, there is a sense of finality - they've passed on and are at rest. With Celia, Christopher and Janet have no idea if she's dead or alive, if she's being tortured somewhere, if she's scared and missing her family. Christopher in particular has been unable to move on since that day, and has spent his time writing not only about that day but trying to give Celia's story an ending, in order to give himself one as well.

Like I said, the book is absolutely heartbreaking. But it is also one of the most beautifully written novels I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and so I wholly recommend it.

Book 21: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

"Stardust" is the first Gaiman book that I've read, and I enjoyed it. It's a short book, a trifle of a story about a boy searching for his destiny and finding love along the way.

Tristan Thorn is in love, and willing to do anything for the girl. When a star is spotted falling to Earth, he is tasked with the quest of finding the fallen star and bringing it back to his beloved in exchange for her love. With the help of his father, Tristan sets out into the land of Faerie in search of the star. What he does not know is, the star has plans of her own.

It's your typical fairytale journey, with various creatures that Tristan meets along the way, and it's infused with wit and humor. I've yet to see the movie version, but if it stays faithful to the story, then I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Book 20: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Imagine for a moment that your child has committed a terrible crime. Who is to blame - him, or you, as his parent? What led him to that moment - the way he was raised, or something innate that has been growing inside him over the years? Basically, is it nature or nurture that has led him to be a stone-cold murderer?

That's the question that Eva Khatchadourian has been struggling with for years, since the day her son Kevin walked into his high school gymnasium and killed 9 people, 7 kids and 2 adults. In a serious of letters to her husband, Franklin, Eva recounts not only the massacre but everything that led up to that point, beginning with when she met her husband through conceiving and raising Kevin and her younger daughter Celia.

Eva holds nothing back in her quest to understand what drove Kevin to kill. She discusses feeling ambiguous about being pregnant and even recounts a time when she let her anger take control and left toddler Kevin with a broken arm. Her unflinching introspection is at times difficult to read, but Shriver keeps the story moving. And there is a twist that I figured out after the first few chapters but is nonetheless heartbreaking.

The story doesn't have a tidy resolution - there is no black & white answer for why Kevin did what he did. If you're looking for an answer to the nature vs. nurture debate, you won't find it here. But you will find a realistic, engaging story that's bound to leave you with new questions of your own.

Newlywed!

Yesterday, May 29, 2010, we got married! Ceremony went off perfectly, it was a gorgeous day, and the reception was a blast. I'm exhausted but happy. Tomorrow, we're off to Vegas for 10 days! Look for photos (eventually) on Facebook.

Book 19: Strange Brew edited by P.N. Elrod

We're close to the halfway point on the CR, and I'm only closing in on book #20. But I'm not giving up!

Strange Brew is a collection of short stories by some of the bestselling authors of paranormal fiction. There's a story set in the world of True Blood by Charlaine Harris; a Harry Dresden story by Jim Butcher; and Cin Craven story by Jenna Maclaine. I've always been drawn to science fiction, but I haven't really dipped into fantasy/paranormal fiction, so I thought this was a good way to do so while checking out some recommended authors. Overall, the stories revolve around witches, vamps, and werewolfs, with other supernatural elements thrown in. I really enjoyed the Harry Dresden story, and plan on checking out his series.

(short review, I know, but time is short and there are books to read!)