Cloud Atlas (2004) is a nested novel: six stories by six characters with a
slight twist – for each person has the story of the previous person
through letters or journals.
The stories span a period of time from 1850 (with Adam Ewing on a ship in
the Pacific Ocean sailing to Australia), to the 1930s (in Belgium – the
protagonist has the journal of the character on the ship in the Pacific Ocean),
to 1975, and so on to Zachry, a Pacific Islander. But the first five stories
end abruptly.
The premise is that knowledge transforms over time from generation to
generation: ‘Knowledge can be forgotten as easily as, perhaps more easily than,
it can be accrued.’ This is particularly heightened due to each character
belonging to a different culture when reading the previous person’s journal or
letters. Hence, cultural differences are explored with respect to how they
perceive information.
Themes of understanding and misunderstanding are intertwined as perceptions
influence knowledge. Each character tries to understand the past by attempting
to fit the context into the present time.
There is also an interplay in the form of power – individual, corporate,
and government power – and how power changes over the course of history. With
power comes greed. With the past and the present, the future is always shaped
by the people who come before in a never-ending cycle.
Initially this is a difficult novel to read, but with persistence the six
novellas finally come together to form the readers’ understanding of the whole novel
– from Adam to Zachry (A-Z). While I was reading it, I didn’t enjoy the
experience. It was only after I had read it that I could (slightly) appreciate the
intentions of the novel. I won’t read it again – until after I have seen the 2012 movie – maybe!
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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