Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

When Lucinda first proposed creating this blog I thought it would be 100 reviews each and that would be it. A few months into it I realized that some of the items (such as the Harry Potter series and Remembrance of Things Past) would require separate reviews for each volume in the series, thus putting the number of reviews at 119. Now Lucinda tells me that she wants me to post a review for EVERY book I read. Forever. So now the number of book reports I've been assigned is open ended. Sigh...

So, before we started this blog I had heard about Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and wanted to read it before the movie came out... but I got side-tracked with all of these 'classic' novels and forgot all about it until Lucinda insisted that I read a book not on the list just because she wanted to read a book not on the list also. I figured that I would like this book because the back cover compares the author to Nabakov, Haruki Murkami and Umberto Eco... all authors with books in my top 50. I also thought the structure of the novel sounded intriguing and would be something completely different. And it looked like the story would be something that tried to examine deep existential issues and would leave the reader with more questions than answers and be wide open to multiple interpretations.

It is a bit hard to quickly sum up the plot. There are six different stories with each of them being interrupted half way through and then finished in reverse order. So it goes story 1,2,3,4,5,6 and then 5,4,3,2,1. In the first half of each story (except the first one), the main character finds the first half of the story preceding it and at the end of their second half discovers the remaining half of the story that finished it. So the character in the second story finds the journal of the character in story one and in the second half of the second character's story he finds the last half of the journal of the character in the first story. The structure works for the most part and it is easier to follow than it is to explain.

The first two stories start out really well, so the first 100 pages are pretty excellent. The first story is about an accountant aboard a ship in the Pacific during the 1800's and the second story is about a musician in Europe during the early 1900's that begins helping an older composer with his work. Both start out very promising. The next two stories are just okay though. The third story is about a reporter in the 1970's trying to uncover a conspiracy about a nuclear power plant and the forth is a story set in the present about a publisher that gets stuck in an old folks home. Neither is bad, but neither is very original either. The fifth story is about a clone in a futuristic Korea which is decent sci-fi but nothing spectacular and the sixth story is about a tribe of people in a post-Apocalypse Hawaii. That story was pretty good.

I think that by the end I was just a tad disappointed since I had been anticipating reading this book for so long. I felt that the stories didn't really interconnect very well thematically and would have worked just as well individually. Except for the sixth story, none of the stories had much mysticism or anything surprising happen. Also, all of the stories resolved in a very concrete way and didn't leave much open to interpretation. I wouldn't compare it to a Murakami novel at all. I'd say that it was a bad thing that it didn't leave me scratching my head at the end (unlike every Murakami book I've read). In the end, it wasn't a weird trippy book at all. It was like expecting a David Lynch movie and getting Spielberg instead. I really shouldn't hold my expectations against the book though, and some parts were pretty good and the structure was pretty unique, so I'll give it a B.

Book # 27 - The Chronicles of Narnia (Part 1 of 7) - The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis

 A few of the 'books' on the top 100 list aren't really single books, but rather multi-volume series. I figure rather than going through an entire series all at once it would be better to break them up and read one part here and there. The first series I'm tackling is C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.  Instead of reading them in publication order, I chose to read them in chronological order, thus starting with the 6th book published The Magician's Nephew which is pretty much a prequel to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

The story is nice and very self contained and an excellent place to start... especially since it explains how the witch got to Narnia, how Aslan the lion created Narnia, and why the wardrobe functions as the portal between here and Narnia.

I don't have anything negative to say about it at all. Maybe after Atlas Shrugged any book would have seemed great. The book is perfect for all ages, it is funny and whimsical and I'd think it would appeal to children and adults. It made me want to go right into the next book in the series, but I do want to pace myself on the series. I give it an A.

Book # 83 Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Part 1

At the time that I’m writing this part of my review of Atlas Shrugged I am only about 90 pages into it. It is a big giant book, and I’m sure it’ll take some time to get through, but I just wanted to put down some thoughts about it now. First off, I picked this as the next book to read because I had heard that it was Paul Ryan’s favorite book. He isn’t the type of politician I like. Not that I normally like politicians, but I’m starting to actively dislike him. So maybe if I could understand his favorite book I could get a better understanding of how he thinks. After reading just 6% of the book, it makes total sense that this would be his favorite book. I’ll get back to that…

Before I go on about Atlas Shrugged, I have to mention that I read The Fountainhead way back in high school.  I didn’t know anything at all about it or Ayn Rand and somehow I was informed that there was some type of scholarship offered for whoever could write the best essay about The Fountainhead and her philosophy of Objectivism; so then I ended up spending the whole of my spring break of my senior year reading that long long book. I thought the book had an interesting story and was very readable, but really the main character, Howard Roark, was a complete jerk and I totally hated him. I don’t remember what I wrote in that essay, but I couldn’t really get behind the whole idea of Objectivism and couldn’t get behind the type of point of view that would actually see Roark as a hero. He’s totally selfish and that selfishness just destroys things that could easily benefit other people with no cost to himself. So until I got assigned these 100 book reports, I had no intention of ever reading Atlas Shrugged. Oh yeah, the Ayn Rand Institute never acknowledged the essay I sent them. 

So after reading 90 pages I definitely have an opinion already. The writing style is enjoyable and the plot has potential. At this point in the novel it looks like there is something going on behind the scenes that the main characters don’t realize yet and I do want to know what happens next.  Also, the two main characters (so far) are well written and are well characterized. Both characters, Dagney Taggart and Hank Rearden, are very goal oriented, no nonsense, driven types of people and make for good protagonists. However, both characters are not particularly likable and I’m not really sure I want to see them succeed. I’m sure this is not Rand’s intention. She writes about them as if they are the most noble heroic business people ever and how their greed will save everything. But that isn’t the main thing that bothers me so far. What I find fascinating is the characterization of almost every other character. Either someone is a hard working intelligent capitalist that does what need to be done to succeed (which is just a handful of characters) or the character is written (without any sympathy) as someone who is either lazy, ungrateful, afraid of change, anti-capitalism, or just a drain on successful people. And the book is not at all subtle about this either. So this brings me back to Paul Ryan. If this is really his favorite book, is that how he sees most of society? Are people who rely on the government for something just a drain on successful capitalists and are they that way because they are lazy and not selfish enough? That is sort of the way that I perceive Ryan, so it makes total sense that he’d like this book. I totally disagree with this philosophy, but at least the plot is interesting so far. Now I need to read the next 1100 pages.

Part 2

I’m still reading… Right now I’m about 450 pages in. My impression is NOT improving. I will grant that the book has an interesting premise and the characters are fascinating in a weird way. The basic story is what would happen to society if all of the best and hardest working people in science and industry start disappearing and at the same time the government started over-regulating business so that it would be impossible for anyone to succeed more than anyone else. However Ayn Rand writes with such a chip on her shoulder that it is hard to enjoy the book and to see her radical point of view. She just seems so hostile to anyone that isn’t super smart or incredibly hard working to the point that they have no life outside of making money.  A few things… so far in the book whenever a great business man disappears he makes a point in completely destroying their business the day they vanish. It really seems like they do it to spite the world. It reminds me again of The Fountainhead when Roark destroys the buildings he designed just to satisfy his own ego. It wasn’t like he owned those properties, physically labored to construct them, or was one of the people that needed the housing to live in. His selfishness trumps all of these other parties’ interests and Rand celebrates him. So basically this same scenario happens over and over in Atlas Shrugged where the head owner of a business decides to quit and physically destroys his business out of spite and without care for employees that have devoted their time to help build it.  The next thing that bothers me is the plot where the government starts over-regulating everything to a ridiculous degree. The thing is that in the real world some people actually view any government regulation to be as horrible as it is in this book and that just isn’t the case. The regulations in the book don’t help competition at all because they protect no one and don’t allow ANYONE to succeed. We don’t live in a society where people would stand for this to happen, either on the left or the right side of politics.  Maybe if the setting wasn’t in America it would make more sense in the book, because basically the story is presenting a practically communist type of government and I find it impossible to find any correlations with what is happening in our country. Maybe people that actually think President Obama is a Socialist will really have fun and enjoy this book… however I’m not one of those people. Basically Rand’s philosophy goes beyond taking care of yourself before helping out others. It seems to include the right to destroy things you originally built that have grown with the help of others  if you want to. It would be as if a movie director could magically make all copies of a movie of his disappear just to satisfy himself…. forget about all of the people would also worked on the movie or paid for its production. Society just doesn’t stand for that to happen and shouldn’t. Just look at all the fuss people raise when George Lucas doesn’t release the original version of Star Wars on Blu-Ray. He may have created it, but in a way it belongs to the people now.

One final thing bothering me… Many of the scenes are dialogues between two characters where one is defending a sort of selfish point of view versus someone who disagrees and advocates sharing or helping others… and the arguments given by the “nice” person are always so stupid that no one in real life would actually make them. The other person’s rebuttal just seems to be against some argument that no one would actually make… I think most everyone agrees that people have the right to make money, succeed, not be forced to help others and earn a profit on their ideas.

Well I still have 700 more pages to go…. sigh…

 

Part 3

Now I’m 64% through and at the point where there secret “utopia” is revealed. 

So who lives in this utopia? A bunch of super rich guys… apparently without any family or women.

What do they have to vow to live there? To live only for their own interests and for no one else. 

Why are they so happy there? Because they are free to be as greedy as they want without being judged.

 

What do they spend their time doing? Complain about how sick they were of being taken advantage of by everyone in society. 

What are their plans? To get even richer by just trading gold for services between themselves.

Who is John Galt? A really smart guy that gets frustrated when his employer puts in place a really bad compensation package and decides to quit and take out his anger by creating an international conspiracy to destroy the economic infrastructure of the whole world out of spite.

Does this sound like something a Bond villain would do? Possibly… 

Is John Galt the villain of the book? Nope, somehow he’s the hero.

Is this book long and stupid? Yes.

Am I enjoying this book? No.

 

Part 4

This book would just not end… and the amount of plot does not justify the number of pages. So much space is devoted to Rand’s philosophy and it is never at all subtle. So after over 1000 pages, the character of John Galt shows up and makes a speech. It starts on page 1009 and continues without interruption up to page 1069. Yes, a 60+ page speech.

During these 60 pages we get another rehash of Rand’s philosophy… but this time she throws in a good bit of anti-religion stuff too. This epic rant includes things like how religious leaders just want power and don’t really care about people, how when people act compassionately they aren’t really doing it out of the goodness of their heart but out of guilt, how love isn’t real and on and on…

After this speech the following things happen… Dagney murders a guard because he can’t make up his mind (and she’s the heroine?); her brother goes crazy because he realized that he never really wanted to help people at all and actually just wanted to destroy the successful people; John Galt shows how un-American he is by not helping his country at all; and as the “heroes” fly over New York and see that it has basically been destroyed and they celebrate that fact. And to top it all off Rand doesn’t tell us which guy Dagney ends up with.

 I’ve gotta say I’d never vote for someone that said that this is his favorite book. The grade is easily a big ol’ F.

Book # 91 The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Progress Book 12 of 100

I think we had to read White Fang by Jack London in school and know I saw the movie when I was little. I remember that story fondly and expected The Call of the Wild to be a short enjoyable story and it was. The Call of the Wild is about a dog named Buck who is kidnapped from his life of privilege and sold to work in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. At the beginning Buck leads a happy life on the ranch of a Judge- he is content. Then is kidnapped and for the first time beaten into submission. The new owners are strangers and completely foreign to his way of life. He is quickly shipped to the wilderness and sold to two government workers setting up the mail system. From the two men, Buck learns that his new role in life is to be a part of a dog sled team. His new owners are fair and teach him how to adjust to the new life. Buck quickly picks up on how to survive and starts to feel The Call of The Wild. His natural instincts are to be the leader and he soon becomes the leader. By the time they arrive at their destination, Buck has become the leader of the sled and has learned to survive and endure.

The sled team is then put to work delivering mail all over the wilderness. They work with many different humans and are pushed beyond their capabilities. At the end of the mail season instead of getting a rest they are sold to a family- 1 woman and 2 men in search of gold, with no idea of what they are doing. They mistreat the dogs and when he can run no longer Buck is beaten. An onlooker Mr. Thorton, saves Bucks life and a strong bond grows between them. Buck saves Mr. Thorton’s life and becomes a legend. During this time Buck’s instinct becomes even more connected to the wild and his wolf cousins. In the end Buck joins the wild wolves to fulfill his destiny.

I really enjoyed this book- it was one of my favorites so far. I will give it an A 96%

Book # 82 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Progress Book 11 of 100

After reading Daniel’s review of this novel I was a little intrigued. He has never mentioned wanting to punch someone before. Then we saw the preview for a film called Silver Linings Playbook. In this preview Bradly Cooper is outraged and breaks a window due to this book. With my sharp detective skills and Daniel making me promise not to skip ahead and glance at the end of the book (I’ve done that before) I knew something crazy must happen at the end. So once I finally finished The Sound And The Fury I knew this was the next book that I needed to read.

After reading The Sound and The Fury I really appreciated how this story is told in chronological order. The writing style is direct and to the point. He writes with very short sentences. I saw this in The Old Man and the Sea, but since that was such a short book- I didn’t notice it as much. It was definitely more apparent in this novel and was something that I enjoyed after my last book. I think I am becoming a Hemingway fan.

The novel is set in Italy in WWI and tell the story of an American who joins the Italian forces as an ambulance driver. He meets a woman, falls in love, is injured, recovers, and gets sent back to war, leaves and finds his love and that’s all I’ll reveal. It’s a classic tragic war love story. I definitely enjoyed the book and will give it an A 94%

Book # 24 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Progress book 10 of 100

 

This was the most challenging book to read so far on the list. The story is about the Compson Family, a formerly wealthy family from the south who seem to be doomed to sadness by the choices they make. It’s definitely not a happy story. There are 4 parts and an appendix, so in total about 5 sections of the book. Each of the 4 parts is told from a different character’s point of view. The writing style was very confusing and I was mostly lost during the first two parts. This book took 2-3 weeks to read. I just got distracted by other things and didn’t pick it up for a week. Since each part is told from a different point of view and starts with a different date you already have to be ready for changes, but in addition to that, Mr. Faulkner frequently goes back to the past tense and changes the story timeline without the reader knowing. He also likes to write in that stream of consciousness style that just goes on and on and on.

Part 1 was told from Benjy’s point of view. He is the youngest Compson sibling that has autism and as the author states he is 33 years old, but has the mind of a 3 year old. His point of view jumps from present to past in and out constantly. Through him we are introduced to the family- His father, mother- Mrs. Compson, sister Caddy and brothers Quentin and Jason, the family maid Dilsey and Benjy’s keeper Luster. Once I finished the complete novel, parts of this section became clearer. In it you see that Caddy really loves her brothers Quentin and Benjy. We also get to see how Mrs. Compson is constantly complaining of being sick and how the children are really brought up by their maid Dilsey. In one of the scenes, there were so many it’s hard to remember which part it took place in, Dilsey makes Benjy a birthday cake from her own earnings. As they are celebrating Mrs. Compson catches them and tells Dilsey to throw it out and stop feeding Benjy trash. It’s pretty sad and emphasizes the opposite feelings of both characters. On one side you have Dilsey, who uses her own money to buy cake mix and make Benjy a birthday cake to celebrate his birthday. On the other side of the spectrum you have the mother who is bothered by Benjy’s uncontrollable noises and emotions, yelling at Dilsey while complaining about her own helpless sick situation. The mother does nothing to gain any sympathy- more on that later.

Part 2 is told from Quentin’s point of view following him a day in his life at Harvard. This part is also really confusing- the writing style follows his mental breakdown and is not straightforward or clear. From this section I just remember that he goes on a long walk and ends up in a small town. At the bakery he befriends a little Italian girl and buys her some sweet treats. She then shadows him all day long, and he tries to get rid of her, but she won’t leave him. Subsequently her brother charges Quentin with kidnapping and he is forced to pay bail all because she wouldn’t leave him alone. I did feel sympathy towards Quentin. He was heartbroken over his sister Caddy’s situation and lost.

Part 3 is the first section that is mostly straight forward and way easier to understand. It’s told from the point of view of Jason. Jason has become the head of the family after his father passed away. He works to support his mother who is always sick, Caddy’s daughter Quentin, and his brother Benjy. Jason is not a nice person. As a reader we should feel sympathy for him since he was the odd one out in the family, never really close to his sister and brother Caddy and Quentin and not given the opportunity to go to Harvard like Quentin, but we do not. He steals the money Caddy sends for her daughter. He is always complaining of all the sacrifices he has made for his family. In a way he is really like the mother always saying poor me, the only difference is he goes to work. In one memorable scene Jason received a free pair of tickets to a show in town. All day long Luster has been looking for a quarter to go to that show (since part one of the novel.) Jason tells Luster that he will sell him a ticket for 5¢ knowing Luster doesn’t have the money. Jason then burns both tickets in the stove, one by one, right in front of Luster. This type of torment and torture are great examples of Jason’s evil character.

Part 4 is the final section and told to show Disley’s life with the Compson’s. From it you see that she basically helps the family survive. She cooks, takes care of everyone and seems to be pretty content with life. On this final day of the book she takes Benjy to church for Easter services while Jason is running after Quentin and Mrs. Compson stays sick in bed. One of the most memorable scenes that sticks out from this section involves Mrs. Compson and Dilsey. When Dilsey gets home to find Mrs. Compson still in bed and Mrs. Compson has Dilsey bring her the Bible which fell to the floor from the edge of the bed. Mrs. Compson yells at Dilsey to place the book in a different spot because it would just fall again and then she might have to get out of bed to pick it up. When Dilsey offers to open some windows to give her light she doesn’t want it. Mrs. Compson wants to have the Bible around, but doesn’t want to read it. I could not relate or understand her character except to say that she was not likable and seemed to do nothing to help her family in anyway.

The appendix summarized each character and I was happy to see how a few of them turned up, and see that Jason did get a little of what he deserved.

I read somewhere that this story was suppose to show the decline and fall of a wealthy southern family- in my opinion it does. I couldn’t relate or feel sympathy for anyone. I usually like novels with clear protagonists and people you root for. This story did not have one. I’m interested to see if anyone else has read this- what do you think?

I’ll give the book a 84% B (it is a classic)

Book # 79 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - A Second Opinion

Anne of Green Gables is one of those books where I know I'm not now, ever have been, or ever will be part of the target audience. So really my opinion doesn't matter too much here. I know my wife loved it, probably because she first read it when she was a little girl. I can say I enjoyed it somewhat and I was interested in finding out what would happen in the end, but really it is a book intended for little girls... and I guess on that level it is pretty good.

Anne is an interesting character though after a couple hundred pages of her jabbering on and on about what happended to her I just wanted it to end. I also found the style slightly distracting. The book is written in third person, but most of Anne's adventures aren't really presented that way. Each chapter starts out with a bit of set up and then instead of finding out what happens in the third person narrative the action skips to Anne getting home and then Anne telling her adopted mother what happened. Usually this results in a paragraph that is at least an entire page in which Anne just talks and talks and talks.

It won't crack my top 50, but I'll give it an A, because if I don't Lucinda will bug me about it.