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A review by thereadingmum
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
"Home is our utopia; the Earth we're living on right now, that's our cloud cuckoo land."
The first few chapters of the book put me in mind of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, not just because of the name, but that it involves multiple characters and storylines from different periods in time, with historical, contemporary and science fiction. I didn't really get into Cloud Atlas and found it a little too out there. However, as I read more of each story in Cloud Cuckoo Land, particularly Anna and Omeir in 15th century Greece, and Zeno and Seymour from current day Idaho, I got more invested in their stories. The recurring themes of trees, owls, libraries and the ancient Greek story of the same name by Antoine Diogenes, become more like the threads in the tapestry of the book as it goes along.
Interestingly, Antoine Diogenes is a real Greek writer from the 2nd century CE. The name Cloud Cuckoo Land came from a play by Aristophanes, another Greek playwright, who wrote a play entitled The Birds in 414BC. According to Wikipedia: "Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. Someone who is said to "live in cloud cuckoo land" is a person who thinks that things that are completely impossible might happen, rather than understanding how things really are. It also hints that the person referred to is naive, unaware of realities or deranged in holding such an optimistic belief."
This is true of each of the main characters in Doerr's novel to some extent and like the shepherd in the fictional Greek story in the novel, they are all trapped in some way whether mentally, socially or physically and are each seeking their utopia or "Cloud Cuckoo Land".
I absolutely loved All the Light We Cannot See and it is one of my favourite WWII stories. Similarly with Cloud Cuckoo Land, each protagonist rises out of their predicaments through strength of character and an inherent sense of hope despite how hopeless their situations may be. This is a large part of why I love both books. Hope, in today's desensitised, over-informed age, can seem like a naive disposition. However, hope can be the very best motivation to accomplish the impossible. As an evil villain in a movie I recently watched said, hope is much more powerful than fear.
Someone in the readalong group said that she wasn't comfortable with a "neurodivergent" person, as Seymour seems to be, being portrayed as the only person threatening others. This is not strictly true as there is a sacking of a city by a sultan and lots of people hurting each other there. The way the earth is devastated can also be said to be a violation of human rights by other humans. Also, Seymour didn't set out with the intention to hurt anyone. His plan was to destroy property only. What happened was a result of him panicking to his plans going awry, which anyone is capable of. I feel that Seymour's story rings true because he is passionate about something and was a highly susceptible teenager at the time he was manipulated to do something he would not have done if his circumstances were different. This is something that can and does happen to a lot of teenagers and adults regardless of neurological state. Anyone is capable of good and bad. The fact that he comes out of it a better person and reconciles with the children he "threatened" unknowingly, is a great testament to any human making up for their mistakes.
Perhaps because of this and because Doerr has put so much love and effort into this work, I have rated it higher than if I just read it blind. However, like any piece of art, we do have to take the background work and intentions of the artist into account.
The first few chapters of the book put me in mind of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, not just because of the name, but that it involves multiple characters and storylines from different periods in time, with historical, contemporary and science fiction. I didn't really get into Cloud Atlas and found it a little too out there. However, as I read more of each story in Cloud Cuckoo Land, particularly Anna and Omeir in 15th century Greece, and Zeno and Seymour from current day Idaho, I got more invested in their stories. The recurring themes of trees, owls, libraries and the ancient Greek story of the same name by Antoine Diogenes, become more like the threads in the tapestry of the book as it goes along.
Interestingly, Antoine Diogenes is a real Greek writer from the 2nd century CE. The name Cloud Cuckoo Land came from a play by Aristophanes, another Greek playwright, who wrote a play entitled The Birds in 414BC. According to Wikipedia: "Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. Someone who is said to "live in cloud cuckoo land" is a person who thinks that things that are completely impossible might happen, rather than understanding how things really are. It also hints that the person referred to is naive, unaware of realities or deranged in holding such an optimistic belief."
This is true of each of the main characters in Doerr's novel to some extent and like the shepherd in the fictional Greek story in the novel, they are all trapped in some way whether mentally, socially or physically and are each seeking their utopia or "Cloud Cuckoo Land".
I absolutely loved All the Light We Cannot See and it is one of my favourite WWII stories. Similarly with Cloud Cuckoo Land, each protagonist rises out of their predicaments through strength of character and an inherent sense of hope despite how hopeless their situations may be. This is a large part of why I love both books. Hope, in today's desensitised, over-informed age, can seem like a naive disposition. However, hope can be the very best motivation to accomplish the impossible. As an evil villain in a movie I recently watched said, hope is much more powerful than fear.
Someone in the readalong group said that she wasn't comfortable with a "neurodivergent" person, as Seymour seems to be, being portrayed as the only person threatening others. This is not strictly true as there is a sacking of a city by a sultan and lots of people hurting each other there. The way the earth is devastated can also be said to be a violation of human rights by other humans. Also, Seymour didn't set out with the intention to hurt anyone. His plan was to destroy property only. What happened was a result of him panicking to his plans going awry, which anyone is capable of. I feel that Seymour's story rings true because he is passionate about something and was a highly susceptible teenager at the time he was manipulated to do something he would not have done if his circumstances were different. This is something that can and does happen to a lot of teenagers and adults regardless of neurological state. Anyone is capable of good and bad. The fact that he comes out of it a better person and reconciles with the children he "threatened" unknowingly, is a great testament to any human making up for their mistakes.
Perhaps because of this and because Doerr has put so much love and effort into this work, I have rated it higher than if I just read it blind. However, like any piece of art, we do have to take the background work and intentions of the artist into account.