April Shared Read: Cloud Atlas

Anyone else going to join? I'm starting later today.

I'll start after Varley's Titan

I loved this and keep meaning to come back to it again, but I'm already over-extended. Not going to manage it this month, that's for certain.

I'll be reading it--probably starting in another week or so :)

I've started and have read the first two sections so far. Not sure what on earth is going on yet, but I am very intrigued to find out. The first part's abrupt ending (middle of a sentence) threw me off until I realized it continues at the end of the book... So now I've figured out the structure as well. :)

ETA: Surely the title of this thread is meant to say "March Shared Read." :D

>5 -Eva-: Indeed. March shared read. Sigh. I should never post before I finish my morning pot of tea!

>6 majkia:
Happens to the best of us. :)

I'm, uhm, 45% through the audio version, and I'm still unsure what I think about this. There is certain a dearth of plot. The stories are interesting, the writing is very good, the characters are deeply drawn, but the no overall plot is unsettling.

Still plodding on though.

>8 majkia: The absence of overall plot doesn't bother me but I'm in awe of the drawing of characters. We just get a snippet of them but they are so vivid. And the prose is so distinctive! I've just read the first three parts and that makes three different kinds of prose. Amazing

>8 majkia:
Ooh, I'm not sure I could read it in audio... I think I'd be a little bit confused with how the parts are connected. I like postmodern literature and am already fond of Mitchell's style (from previous readings), so I am enjoying this a lot. I have gotten myself in a mess in that I am currently reading 6 different books, though, so my progress is slow...

I don't think I'm going to have time to start till later this week, but you guys have me excited about jumping in :)

>9 h-mb: I agree, the characters are all so distinctive. No cardboard background characters either. And yes, the parts are so very different, with different language and cadence and emphasis differing for every part.

I'm particularly fond of the Hawaii section and the reader does a fabulous job with the accents and cadence. I'm not sure how much of that you'd get with print?

>8 majkia:
Well, I just made it through the middle part and, thanks to you, I thought of the audio version and checked my library and it was available, so I listened to that part. (It's written in dialect and I had a hard time pinning down which dialect to read it in...). :)

>13 -Eva-: I'm reading that part and it's difficult for me when English isn't my first language. Too much of my attention is on the basic understanding. I do hope it's not very long or that I get used to it quickly!

>14 h-mb:
I was going to suggest leaning toward Hawaiian Pidgin, but if your first language isn't English, I doubt suggesting Pidgin is helpful... :) My first language isn't English either, but I've lived in the US for ~25 years and have Hawaiian friends, so...

It is quite long, but the story is really interesting once you get into it, so I hope it's not too painful. :)

>15 -Eva-: Let's hope I'll get used to it :)

I finished the book this morning and I like what Mitchell does with his characters, the variety of the prose and types of narration. In fact, I liked everything I read in this novel :) A discovery of a new author for me.

I've only read the first two sections, and I'm finally interested... but like others have said, I don't know how I feel about it. I LOVED Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, which it seems this is structured after, but having read that... I don't know. The piece in book 2 that clued us in to structure felt sort of awkward/derivative, with that other book already in the back of my mind. Have others read Calvino's work also?

Anyhow, I plan on reading the third part today, though I don't know that there's much chance of me finishing the book in March at this rate...

I've finished as well and I enjoyed the whole thing thoroughly. Each character's story is intriguing and the way the're linked together is interesting too. Now, I'm off to see how they managed to make a film out of it. :)