Lydia's Page

Cloud Atlas is a delightfully puzzled and richly imagined story, if perhaps a bit too overwrought. The narrative follows six characters at different points in time and space, who share one soul-- this reincarnate theme is the generally obfuscated but one of the few factors legitimately linking the characters.  

Each of five stories is interrupted mid sentence and a new story picked up until the sixth unfolds entirely and the earlier narratives are seen through to their ends. The style is clever though at times feels clever for clever's sake rather than producing a meaningful stylistic relationship to the narrative. Each story features at least one callback to another story, which again feels winking rather than contributing.

But, like my favorite Taylor Swift song, style can be plenty compelling all on its own.