I’m about 3/4 done with Cloud Atlas and am starting to see the design of it. And it’s really great. At first I thought that the first three, maybe even four narratives had no relevance to the final two, where the action and interest really kicked off. But now, as I begin to see how they relate to each other, I’m thinking in the bigger picture they may make sense together after all.
I’m wondering how the heck this was ever made into a movie, and losing interest in seeing whatever hatchet job they undoubtedly made of it with every chapter I read.
Movies are becoming a storytelling device of the past, I think. They are short stories, flash fiction. Long-form television is the only way to properly tell a story with the depth of a decent novel–and is definitely needed for something with the narrative creativity of Cloud Atlas.
If you do check it out, have patience! Each part is more interesting than the last…
Jonas David 