Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

 

"Repository....you know this word? A resting place. A text---a book---is a resting place for the memories of people who have lived before. A way for the memory to stay fixed after the soul has traveled on."

       -Licinius to Anna, from the novel

If I were not going to be the leader of the discussion of this book, I likely would not have finished it. In fact, I probably wouldn't have lasted through the first several sections. It is amazing to me that it has a 4.3/5 rating on Good Reads and close to the same on Amazon and was on the NYT Bestseller List for 20 weeks. 

First of all, I had just labored through a 600+ page novel only to find this one was about the same length. I really prefer 450 or under. I couldn't even tell you what genre it is---it's like a mashup of mythology, sci-fi, historical fiction and fantasy. (At least two of those are my least favorites.) I stayed pretty confused through the first half, at least. Finally, I got to know the main characters, but it was the final 100 pages or so where I saw how the settings and characters intertwined and I liked it a bit better.

This novel starts with Konstance aboard the interstellar ship Argos in the future. Then alternating through the book, the reader learns separately of Omeir and Anna in 15th century Constantinople and Zeno and Seymour at a library in present day Idaho. Interspersed one finds excerpts of the almost indecipherable text of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonios Diogenes of ancient Greece. Maybe my favorite parts were the ones in libraries and having to do with the importance of books. I loved the sign on the Lakeport Public Library: "'OWL' YOU NEED ARE BOOKS!" (The book drop box is painted to resemble an owl.)

Good Reads calls Cloud Cuckoo Land "historically speculative and wildly inventive." I just think it's rather cuckoo! I really liked All the Light We Cannot See by Doerr so I haven't given up on him, but my rating for this novel is 2.

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The Page Turners met this week to discuss this book. Thirteen were in attendance. There were 5 ratings of 1 or 2, a rare occurrence. A few members DID like the book and the average was 2.8, lowest of the year. We could agree that the author is adept with words but many of us were confused with the multiple settings, both time and place. And some of us found the characters hard to like. One person said she read it twice and would likely read it again. A couple of members had NOT read the book and, after listening to the discussion. admitted they would NOT be reading it!