I picked up this book because I enjoyed Black Swan Green so much, and because I enjoyed the movie adaptation. It’s terribly clever and engaging, even if you read it as a simple adventure story (or perhaps, 6 simple adventure stories). There is a good deal more to think about than that, but I particularly enjoyed all of the different takes on repetition - in music and in history, especially; and I appreciated the way in which the structure of Robert Frobisher’s Cloud Atlas Sextet mirrors that of the book, in much the same way that each character’s story reflects upon and extends the story of a previous character. I’m not nearly so pessimistic as Mitchell is about the arc of history, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait around to see how that turns out. In any case, any book that needs \2 is one well worth reading.