Book 2 for 2005

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell; © 2004, 509 p., Random House Trade Paperbacks

This is a book I read for my book club (which consists of colleagues from the library), and I found it to be a very fascinating read. Finalist for the Booker Prize last year, the book consists of six stories which fit together like Russian nesting dolls. Each story has some connection to the one that came before it, making the entire novel come together like pieces of a puzzle. The stories in the book take place over a span of several hundred years, from the 1850s to the 2200s. It is a commentary on the progress of the human race and the state of our world, where we have been and where we are going. With the skillful use of language and narrative, Mitchell makes his point while also philosophizing about how we percieve reality in the past, present and future. I don't want to give anything away, but it is the first commentary on our life and times at the start of the 21st Century. I would liken it to other monumental works such as Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. There were places that were more difficult to read than others, but on the whole, this is a thought-provoking and captivating novel.