Review 4 Book 2

Cloud Atlas

    My first impressions with the book were that it was long, confusing, and had multiple stories but what I came to find in the first couple chapters or stories was that its really not that bad. At first, I admit, I had no clue what was going on or what time period it was or what was happening. If you keep reading though things start to make more sense and things start piecing together. The different settings are a ship crossing the Pacific in 1849; the home of an elderly composer in 1936 Edinburgh; San Francisco and a nearby nuclear power plant in 1973; London and an Edinburgh nursing home in 2012; Neo-Soul, the capital of a half-ruined Korea in 2144; a valley and a mountain on a post-apocalyptic Hawaii in 2321. It's a lot, I know. So far I have only gotten to Edinburgh in 1936 following an elderly composer. I think half way through the ship story it started to make sense, but maybe outside sources helped me understand better. I found this really great quote summing up the book in its own way, if it could be summed up. "The film explores the idea of an eternal soul that reincarnate through time and space in different parts of the world - no matter of race, gender, religion - but based on the past actions, reborn and rejoin with lost loves, and remedy wrongs from the past. Everything is connected - in one way or another." Also you can watch the trailer here. From what I think I know and understand about this book, its one of the best book I'm going to read and after I finish it I plan on seeing the movie, maybe I'll do that for the project but, I digress. The book doesn't explain but explains things enough so that you can make your own connections and projections about it and find deeper meaning in things. From what I have read, it really is a work of art.