Finally Started Cloud Atlas

I have finally started reading again.  This time I am working my way (slowly) through Cloud Atlas, which I received as a gift this fall and had a hard time getting into.  The format of the book is very interesting, and it has been compared to nesting dolls.  It's as if Mitchell laid six stories on top of each other and then folded them into a book.  Basically, the book is comprised of six stories, and all but five are interrupted about halfway through and finished later in the book in reverse order.  The only uninterrupted story is the sixth story, which is in the middle of the book.  It is sandwiched by the two halves of the fifth story, and so on, so that the story begins and ends with the first story.

The first story is called The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing.  Adam is on a journey on a boat headed toward California and at some point he discovers someone on the boat who is not supposed to be there (I think).  To be honest, I found this section kind of dry and uninteresting, and I had a hard time following the action since there was not much of it at first.  By the time anything happened, I was so lost that I was unsure of what was going on, but not lost enough to want to reread.  I figured if I moved on maybe it would become clear later.  (I advise my students against this, and I would tell them that not knowing what is going on is a red flag and to go back and reread or choose an easier book....I guess this is an instance of "do as I say not as I do").  Actually, I thought something was wrong with my book at first, as this section cuts off mid-sentence, only to resume over 400 pages later.  I had to look it up online to see if that was indeed correct or if somehow there was a printing error.  Luckily, that section only lasted about 40 pages, but nevertheless it took me months to get through.

The next section, Letters From Zedelghem, which I am in the middle of now, is much less dry.  It's written in epistolary form, from Robert Frobisher, a broke and disowned musician, to his friend Sixsmith.  So far, Frobisher has run out of money and jumped out of a hotel window to avoid paying his bill.  He took a train to the Netherlands and borrowed a bike from a police officer to ride to the chateau of a famous composer, Vyvyan Ayres.  Ayres is going blind and slowly dying of syphilis, so Frobisher convinces him he needs someone to help him write down his musical compositions.  So far they have written a short piece that is the talk of the town.  Vyvyan and his wife Jocasta have a bitchy daughter named Eva who is amusing to read about.  She is skeptical of Frobisher, and often brings up his family and money, and wonders aloud to all present why he never receives letters or things from home.  Frobisher has Sixsmith write him a few letters just to cover up the fact that he has been disowned by his family.  Recently, Frobisher and Jocasta have started an affair, which Eva is starting to pick up on, but no one has figured out yet.  (It was mentioned that Jocasta has not slept with Ayres since he contracted syphilis, just to clear that up since I was wondering about it as well).  I have about 15 more pages of this section to go until reaching section 3, which is entitled Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery.  Hopefully that section will be good as well, but I am going to miss Frobisher.

I will leave you with some quotes that I enjoyed.  A few made me laugh out loud as I was reading.  Good thing I was home.

"A half-read book is a half-finished love affair." (p. 64)  (If that is true I have many love affairs to finish)

[Eva is mad that her father likes Frobisher so well and has offered him a better room, and sarcastically exclaims that he should be added to the will and given part of the estate.  Ayres exclaims that it's the first good idea she's had in her entire life and tells her that at least he earns his keep]
"My hosts wouldn't hear my apologies, they said Eva should be apologizing to me, that she has to lose her pre-Copernican view of a universe revolving around herself.  Music to my ears.  Also re: Eva, she and twenty classmates are bound for Switzerland v. soon to study at a sister school for a couple of months.  More music!  It'll be like having a rotten tooth fall out."  (p. 66)

"The meadow is turning yellow, the gardener is anxious about fires, farmers are worried about the harvest, but show me a placid farmer and I'll show you a sane conductor."  (p. 71)