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May. 3rd, 2005 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
decemberthirtyI am really enjoying Cloud Atlas so far. I haven't read a whole lot of it, but what I have read has been a lot of fun. I knew almost nothing about the book before I started reading it--just that it was composed of several sections that all seem very different but somehow relate to each other in the end. I've only read a section and a half, but it's enough for me to say that David Mitchell is a fantastic mimic; I love the way he's able to adopt different styles so effortlessly in his different sections. It makes me quite eager to see what he will do next.
I think it also helps that I'm finding Robert Frobisher to be such an appealing character. He reminds me a little bit of Billy Prior; he lives in roughly the same era, after all, and shares Billy's heightened awareness of class, and his slangy flippancy that conceals secret emotions, and his willingness to fuck anything that moves... And of course I love Billy, so anything that reminds me of him is always a good thing. (Sigh. Why do I always fall for the fucked up ones? Billy Prior, and Rai, and Sammy Clay, and Peter from The Centaur, and now Frobisher... Ridiculous. Fortunately I don't do this in real life!)
Anyway, Cloud Atlas. I like the way that both of the sections I've read so far have presented their narratives in an entirely one-sided way, the first section through Ewing's journal and the second through Frobisher's letters to his friend and accomplice (and lover? or former lover?) Sixsmith. You only see the characters as they choose to present themselves, which adds just enough unreliability to make things fun. I also love the fact that Ewing's journal showed up in Frobisher's section, that Frobisher found part of it on a bookshelf and read just as much of the journal as we get to read. It makes me think that perhaps the book is like one of those Russian nesting dolls, with each bit of narrative fitting inside the next in the same way. Frobisher has found and read the written record of his life that Ewing left behind, and in the next section someone will find and read Frobisher's remaining correspondence. Of course I'm not sure that the book will turn out that way, but I think it would be fascinating if it did.
I think it also helps that I'm finding Robert Frobisher to be such an appealing character. He reminds me a little bit of Billy Prior; he lives in roughly the same era, after all, and shares Billy's heightened awareness of class, and his slangy flippancy that conceals secret emotions, and his willingness to fuck anything that moves... And of course I love Billy, so anything that reminds me of him is always a good thing. (Sigh. Why do I always fall for the fucked up ones? Billy Prior, and Rai, and Sammy Clay, and Peter from The Centaur, and now Frobisher... Ridiculous. Fortunately I don't do this in real life!)
Anyway, Cloud Atlas. I like the way that both of the sections I've read so far have presented their narratives in an entirely one-sided way, the first section through Ewing's journal and the second through Frobisher's letters to his friend and accomplice (and lover? or former lover?) Sixsmith. You only see the characters as they choose to present themselves, which adds just enough unreliability to make things fun. I also love the fact that Ewing's journal showed up in Frobisher's section, that Frobisher found part of it on a bookshelf and read just as much of the journal as we get to read. It makes me think that perhaps the book is like one of those Russian nesting dolls, with each bit of narrative fitting inside the next in the same way. Frobisher has found and read the written record of his life that Ewing left behind, and in the next section someone will find and read Frobisher's remaining correspondence. Of course I'm not sure that the book will turn out that way, but I think it would be fascinating if it did.
